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ON THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

By Felix Vasquez Jr. | January 7, 2006

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In spite of some of its misgivings, “On the Cutting Room Floor” is an often fascinating and sometimes dead on satire of the Hollywood business that’s every so often too apt in terms of what many would consider routine in show business. Director Garewal starts the film off with a very cheesy introduction from an entertainment show that’s too accurate to find amusement in. After a prominent and moneymaking screenwriter, Nick Schiltz, passes on, his mysterious script, now considered the Holy Grail for many studios, has become a hot property that they’re anxious to grab a hold of. In one interesting sequence, there’s a large room of studio execs at a round table bidding for the script. “On the Cutting Room Floor” takes that concept and twists it when we discover the script that was kept a secret because it sucks.

And now the studio begins damage control looking for ways to alter it without re-writing it. And there are even some ghosts, and terrorists involved. The film focuses on both the upper film industry and the wannabe filmmakers, both of which end up in jams and intertwine. The caveat of this production being that for a film about the film industry, this really lacks any energy or fast pace. The character chemistry half the time is hardly involving, and the story meanders off to different topics and sub-plots, but it’s in the end an inspired piece of Hollywood satire. It’s funny to think that the executives would be so desperate to alter this crappy script they’d resort to old time Jewish legends to get a film done. Not to mention there’s a cameo from a pretty big Hollywood film star (which the press kit describes as “a pricey cameo”) you should look out for. Garewal strives to set this satire apart from the others, and he succeeds in an original and off-beat approach.

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