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Shimmer Lake

Shimmer Lake (2017)

June. 09,2017
|
6.3
| Drama Thriller Crime Mystery

Shot in reverse day-by-day through a week—a local sheriff embarks on a quest to unlock the mystery of three small-town criminals and a bank heist gone wrong.

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Reviews

IslandGuru
2017/06/09

Who payed the critics

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Beanbioca
2017/06/10

As Good As It Gets

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Humaira Grant
2017/06/11

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

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Zlatica
2017/06/12

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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aquascape
2017/06/13

Once in a while a film jumps out that doesn't follow the conventional ways of storytelling and that certainly leads to a peak of interest. "Shimmer Lake" tells a murder mystery in reverse, in the ways Nolan brilliantly told his "Memento" decades ago, however nowhere near as gripping as that."Shimmer Lake" centers on an investigation lead by small-town sheriff Zeke Sikes, played by Benjamin Walker. The clever gimmick of the script is that the narrative is presented backwards, day by day within the time span of a week. While the way it informs the viewers on how the events came to be is interesting in its premise, the screenplay seems muddled and rushed, missing out tiny details or not explaining everything that leads up to the plot.The cast did a great job with an impressive performance by Rainn Wilson in particular. However, I felt like I couldn't connect with any of the characters and didn't find myself wanting them to either succeed or fail in the film. The film's running time doesn't even pass 90 minutes, this I believe, leading to a hasty narrative, overlooking backstory details."Shimmer Lake" sells itself as an interesting take on a crime mystery film, but ultimately it just isn't that interesting as it was supposed to be.

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Doug Burr
2017/06/14

The structure is somewhat novel. All the scenes are in reverse order. It was okay, but, I have no intention of watching it again. I have two main criticisms. It is not as clever as it thinks it is, and I didn't like any of the character, except maybe the lazy FBI agents. The reverse structure is actually quite tedious at the beginning. It takes quite a while to get into and it is definitely not funny enough to be considered a comedy. Overall, I respect that they tried something unusual, but, it did not manage to win me over. Skip it. P.S. I hate that Mexican woman.

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slundy-19788
2017/06/15

Maybe unfair to compare Shimmer Lake to the greatness of Memento, but I could not help feeling that this was the inspiring film, so the contrasts become clear.Whereas Memento's backward reveals at each stage were deeply thought-provoking, the reveals of Shimmer Lake were mostly a case of "so what?".Only an idiot could miss the fact that the death of a child was the core theme. The inclusion of all the characters involved in that death and resulting injustice made clear that revenge was the clear motive (not the money). The self-professed oh-so-clean sheriff in a dirty town was a further obvious hook. The final reveal was, accordingly, pretty obvious and disappointing.As a final damning comparison, Memento DVD's had an option to play the movie in chronological sequence, which gave an even darker view of the manipulations and machinations. Watching Shimmer Lake in its correct time sequence would rank it way below an episode of Columbo (famed for telling you the killer from the beginning).Watchable, But Poor.

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jtindahouse
2017/06/16

There are two reasons you might make a film with a non-linear time line. The first is that you have a twist in your film, however the twist doesn't come at the end of your story so you need to make it happen at the end of your story (much like 'Memento' did). The second, and inferior, reason is that your film simply isn't unique enough on its own. 'Shimmer Lake' is a combination of both of these reasons I suspect. There's a twist of sorts which would have come at the beginning of the film and now comes at the end. But what they won't tell you is that by doing this it is also hiding the fact that this is a very run-of-the-mill story line told a thousand times over. I'm sorry, but it really is. There is nothing fresh here in that regard. I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities in this script as well. It should have been more fun. There should have been more reveals (or at least more important ones). As each day goes by backwards, it feels more like things are simply being confirmed for us, rather than taking us by surprise. There's also a quite bizarre tone to the film. There are a few actors in the cast known primarily for their comedic talents. When they're on screen the whole film feels more like a comedy than anything else. Then when they're not on screen the film decides to take itself very seriously. In that respect the film is an absolute mess that looks like it has been dissected a hundred times over in the editing room. There was an idea here that could have been good, but that was as far as things got. Sadly this is a misfire.

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