Ten Inch Hero (2007)

Simply A Masterpiece

best movie i've ever seen.

Admirable film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

OK, let's be honest. I've seen (the start of) a hundred of these sorts of movies --- low-budget indie flick about a quirky group of friends, billed as a comedy but not really many laugh-out-loud moments. Most of them are utterly dreadful, and I can tell within ten minutes that I hate these people and/or have utterly no interest in their lives. But every so often you get lucky and the whole thing works. From the first minutes you're intrigued by something, you soon care about every one of the characters, and by the end you're as in love with them as they all are with each other. Watch it with someone you love; you'll be happy you did so!

Piper (Elisabeth Harnois) is an art student new to Santa Cruz. She had a baby at 15 and gave her up for adoption. The new mother kept in contact for 2 years but has gone missing for the last 6 years. She believes that she has found her child in 8 year old Julia Miller. She gets a job in a sandwich shop. Trucker is the owner who is secretly in love with Zo who owns the crystal shop. Jen (Clea DuVall) is the computer nerd who has an internet relationship. Tish (Danneel Ackles) loves to manipulate man. Priestly (Jensen Ackles) is the punk cook who is secretly in love with Tish. Piper befriends Julia and her father Noah (Sean Patrick Flanery) but lies to them about her identity.These are very photogenic young actors. The comedy is pretty lame. The two guys in the grocery store are silly without being funny. To be fair, none of these actors have great comedic skills. The other problem is that the sandwich shop seems so fake. They don't have many customers which puts into question why Trucker needs 4 young people working for him. On the plus side, the characters' personal dramas are compelling and I do root for them.

If you want an accurate picture of how bad this movie is as just a movie, read the most negative reviews on here as they are pretty damming and accurate. From a Christian viewpoint this poorly made,poorly scripted and poorly acted movie is a scary snapshot of the future of the West - an amoral, wiccan, secular, humanist atheistic world view that is now becoming the norm in the Western World. The movie contains explicit sex scenes, and conversations, promotes permissive anything goes sexual activity - despite also revealing the utter devastation it causes and it mocks anyone who even dares to consider sex as being only for marriage or even only for a committed relationship. It actively promotes masturbation as a healthy activity to be encouraged and has explicit scenes to go with it. The scary part is that this is all dressed up and presented as the norm and right way to view these things. Christians in the West will be disgusted by it knowing the harvest of damage such a view-point is reaping all around us.

I caught this on cable a few nights ago and, based on the synopsis ("Four friends search for love and happiness while working at a California sandwich shop"), I figured it would fall into the "so bad, it's good" category. Well, it's pretty straightforward bad. Don't get me wrong, there are many an unintentionally hilarious moment. Actually, it's chock-full of unintentionally hilarious moments (i.e. the back-alley beat-down and the cheesy paint-by- numbers mural at the end) which is why the 10 star reviews on here are highly questionable. Charming? Incredible? A tasty treat? Betsy Morris, is that you? The plot centers around three young women who sort out their love lives and personal issues while working a minimum wage job in food service. Does that sound vaguely familiar? Yeah, "Ten Inch Hero" is basically the the less attractive little sister to "Mystic Pizza." In place of Mystic Pizza's endearing characters, we have a group of one-dimensional, stereotyped duds whose personal woes aren't all that interesting when you get right down to it. In fact, I can't even remember any of the character's motives. Was there a plot?I wouldn't recommend this movie unless you've had a rough day and, rather than taking out your frustrations on those closest to you, you need a trite, direct-to-video movie as your sh**-talking outlet. If you're looking for the charming, incredible, feel good rom com some of the "reviewers" on here have mentioned, keep looking.