The Hillz (2004)

Touches You

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I was SO bored on a Sunday afternoon. That is my only excuse for watching this horrid movie. I am not the type of person that would pick it up in Blockbuster, I swear. But it was on, and nothing else was so I watched The Hillz.The acting was terrible, which was particularly sad considering the script seemed SO bad a 4th grader could have memorized it. However, one would hope a 4th grader would not *say* that much profanity. It is hard to give this waste of time even 1 star out of 10, but there is no zero option. I suppose the 1 is given for participation. Camera guy, you get a star for putting film in the camera! (Wish you hadn't, though.) Paris and other actors (using the term *loosely* here), way to go! You showed up for filming! *sigh*I was bored on a Sunday afternoon. I watched the Hillz. Now I am *more* bored. I think I may watch one of my little brother's high school plays my dad recorded on the family camcorder. Better acting, filming, etc.

I rented this film (a move I will forever regret) and watched the director's commentary (a memory I will try to suppress), which gave me the opportunity of getting to know the director of this sh!tstorm: the talentless, pompous Saran Barnun, who has the gall to compare "tHe HiLlzzz" to Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange". Saran grew up in the Hollywood Hills, and no doubt has a long list of affluent connections from mommy and daddy willing to cough up doe for his little project (this also explains how Paris Hilton got attached.) Listening to the commentary, it becomes evident that Bardun is a spoiled Hollywood brat, a Neanderthal, oblivious to what a good film is and the dedication and TALENT required to make one. I strongly believe that the international film making community should do everything in its power to stop this hack from ever again producing, directing, or writing a film.

Great for an indie. Raw. None of the special effects of todays films. Refreshing! Too many remakes out there now. Not enough authentic scripts being passed around these days. Jason Shaw is quite good in this film; making the transition form modeling smooth. Paris...,well, what can I say, she's Paris. Lots of great actors in the film. Nice edge and hopefully another one will come our way again. I hope this director keeps them coming!Great for an indie. Raw. None of the special effects of todays films. Refreshing! Too many remakes out there now. Not enough authentic scripts being passed around these days. Jason Shaw is quite good in this film; making the transition form modeling smooth. Paris...,well, what can I say, she's Paris. Lots of great actors in the film. Nice edge and hopefully another one will come our way again. I hope this director keeps them coming!Great for an indie. Raw. None of the special effects of todays films. Refreshing! Too many remakes out there now. Not enough authentic scripts being passed around these days. Jason Shaw is quite good in this film; making the transition form modeling smooth. Paris...,well, what can I say, she's Paris. Lots of great actors in the film. Nice edge and hopefully another one will come our way again. I hope this director keeps them coming!

To gain the title of 'Bad Film' a film is normally below average on 1 or 2 levels. Maybe it has a bad script or bad acting, maybe the music is of poor quality or the direction or film techniques are amateurish. However, very rarely will one see a film that is, not just below average but DRAMATICALLY below average on EVERY SINGLE LEVEL. 'The Hillz' seems to have achieved this.Firstly, the script. Let's put it this way - I have watched the film and I don't have a clue what it is about. The back of the DVD led me to believe this was going to be a kind of Hard Core OC-esquire style movie with Paris Hilton in there to look 'good'. In reality it was a script so filled with random characters (not to mention random shooting) that I didn't know what was going on from beginning to end. Even the clichéd narration failed to let me know what the point to this film was. There was no character development, no tension, no realistic emotions, nothing nothing nothing. Instead the script gave me shallow apparently rich kids (although apart from driving a BMW there was no evidence of them being particularly wealthy) who seemed to have nothing better to do then steal stuff, take drugs and shoot people for God only knows what reason. Next the acting. If you watched and marveled at Paris Hilton's bad acting in 'House of Wax' you will be gob smacked at the acting in 'The Hillz'. My personal favourite is when Paris's character Heather hears her boyfriend has been killed; she is so bland you would think she was monotoned. As for the other actors, well Jesse Woodrow and Rene Heger do 'ok' with the script they have been given but I swear they grabbed everyone else of the street randomly. I have seen grade 9 drama performances with better acting then this. Wooden, Hollow, Bad. Music. Did they use garage band for this film? No really, did they? They would have been better off finding some high school band and getting them to play a few songs for $100. In the sentimental bits you have bad violins and pianos and in the hyped up killing scenes you have some bad impression of 1980's sci-fi music. And then sometimes you have a little music just because they felt like putting it there. The sound of the general film is also lacking in any form of quality AT ALL. Voices echo of pool sides, feet can be heard louder then voices as people walk along tiles and 50% of the actors mumble (especially Paris Hilton).Finally, Direction and Film Techniques. Now I have nothing against filming on a Handy-Cam, there have been some great films done on them. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM. The picture quality is grainy, the shots are either blurry or terribly over-exposed and every now and again you get a camera man trying to be 'experimental' and instead succeeding in getting the main actor half out of the shot and an extra's shoulder in instead. And the random flashbacks of scenes that happened only 2 seconds ago? I know you are meant to assume the audience is stupid but really, WE ARE NOT GOLDFISH!In conclusion, whoever financed this film should have taken the money and donated to charity and then all the poor poor sods who watched this film could have that precious hour and a half of their lives back.