'THE UPPER FOOTAGE' is the first film experience of its kind. The film is an edited version of 393 minutes of recovered footage documenting a young girl's tragic overdose death and subsequent cover up by a group of affluent socialites. What started as a blackmail plot played out over YouTube, became Hollywood's biggest drug scandal, turned into a heavily controversial film property that was rumored to be held by some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Now, after playing itself out in the media for 3 years it is finally making its way to the public.
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It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Summary: The Upper Footage is extremely boring at times, but its impressive final act compensates for it flaws. 60/100 (C+)If you are not a fan of the found-footage sub-genre, you will be disappointed with this flick. The Upper Footage is strictly for hardcore found-footage movie fans. It was quite boring and requires lots of patience. It relies on realism and it did a good job because everything looked very real, even though it was obviously fake. The dialog was repetitive at times, also the profanity was constant and annoying at a certain point. But the film boasts enough intense moments and drama to mildly succeed, most of it was in its third act. I watched the first half of the movie with my sister, she was bored, extremely bored. I was a bit disappointed with the first half of the film because nothing happens. However, the second half is impressive and the tension begins, although it is still somewhat slow.The first half was a total bore, the second half was a little bit more entertaining but quite slow too. Another problem is that the characters were not interesting enough to keep us entertained. There was not enough entertainment here, 60% of the film is people saying the F word like a thousand times... literally. I was like "meh" during the first 40 minutes, and some other parts in the second half. The entire movie was filled with people arguing about things that I did not care. It was just dull, but then I was shocked. The last 20-30 minutes were very impressive, the final act was very similar to The Blair Witch Project. It was shocking to me because I am a huge fan of that movie and this film was very close to it, in terms of realism.Surprisingly, most of the characters in the final act became kind of likable, especially that blonde girl and the dude that was recording, they were quite smart and believable, the other guys were good too. I also loved a line near the end of the movie from the blonde girl: "I can smell her". If you have seen the movie you know what I mean. The payoff was good enough to me. There was a scene involving a chilling scream near the very end, it was pretty neat, well-done and brilliantly directed. In conclusion, the last act was a decent payoff. While most of the film is a total bore, the final act was impressive, refreshing and looked very realistic. Director Justin Cole has a new fan, I am looking forward to his new projects. (C+)
"The Upper Footage"It wasn't just bad, it was annoying.Had it been made prior to "The Blair Witch Project" and just a short film made by a group of friends with a good camera, it would be OK.I want to state all kinds of negative one-liners but that's not being objective and will get ignored. s in the Found Footage genre were was, "The Blair Witch Project." Quite a few of my co-workers thought that Blair Witch was real. That was due in part to the multimedia campaign elements such as the website.The Spanish film, ".REC" was great. It was engaging from beginning to end. Not that a real budget necessarily matters but it had about $1.8 million and the money was widely spent.I found V/H/S to be better than this and that movie received poor reviews. It was crudely filmed but then so was The Blair Witch project but it wasn't dishonest.I was misled by the list of positive reviews by Internet critics on the Vimeo site as well as the user reviews.I'll stop short of accusing the film makers of using their own people as shills. For all of the dishonesty, lack of creativity and lack of entertainment value, I'm giving this a 4.Only because the male anti-hero actors were good. Not being sexist. The females were just one dimensional.If "The Upper Footage" entertains you then great. I can't stand Ranch dressing, avocados or curry but don't criticize others who do.If you enjoy found footage films and never watched ".REC" have a look at both the Spanish original and the American version with Dexter's sister, Jennifer Carpenter. The American remake did justice to the original.If you watched this on Vimeo, the Joss Whedon film, "In Your Eyes" is a better choice for your first Vimeo rental. A nice romance, low key, great acting with characters you liked.Roger Ebert was the last of the educated and credentialed, objective professional critics. The rest have zero credibility whose one-liner reviews are from a copy/paste cheat sheet.
While the Found Footage Horror sub-genre has had its bouts with both failure and outright amazing hits and select cult followings, nothing quite like 'Upper' has been done before. Sure we have had Horror films deal with snuff and the hardcore limits that surround it (such as in 'A Serbian Film' or 'the Poughkeepsie (sp?) Tapes', but not like 'Upper'. The realism behind the camera is almost *too* real, and while we don't get much in the form of character movement or insanely huge plot twists we do get ferocious paranoia and an insane lack for personal disregard.The film starts off with a couple sentences surrounding the background of the case and how this all supposedly got started (I say supposedly because as of this time it has not been confirmed whether or not this is in fact a real death or a well-played Blair Witch Project hype-up). From there it goes into a quick montage of images and voice overs until we get to the footage itself. Slowly but surely things get started as two of the main characters go in search of drugs. From there it all goes downhill as the partying turns from a fun relaxing night into a careening downfall of regret, fear, and paranoia. Even the closest of friends and the tightest of circles can be broken down sometimes, and all it can take is one brief misunderstood moment in time to set things in motion. 'the Upper Footage' is definitely THE movie to see for those enthralled with the Found-Footage sub-genre, however if you don't like constant shouting and shaky cam then sit this one out because no one wants to hear you bitch in a review about how you couldn't stand it. You should know that by now, figure out what you like! :)
Blake, Taylor, Devin, and Vlogger Will drive around New York City looking for cocaine and women. Devin finds a young woman, Jackie and all five of them go back to Blake's apartment and an accident happens.I know this is a very brief overview on the film, because I think it is far better to know as little as possible going in and then after the film look on the internet at the marketing and recent issues. If you wish to know more a quick Google search should give you a wealth of information.I first saw an article about Upper on Bloody-Disgusting almost two years ago and was intrigued. The marketing campaign was top notch and left me wanting more. I finally have got to see the movie and I was really not sure what to expect. The first half of the movie is a little on slowish side, plus I knew what ultimately was going to happen because of the marketing, but it does a fine job in establishing the young adults for what they are, rich and only worried about drugs, hooking up and themselves. After watching the movie the next day I talked about it with co-workers and wanted to talk even more but I did not want to give anything away so I just encouraged them to view it. It has been two days since I saw the film and I am still thinking about it, which as far as I am concerned is the definition of a good film, to make you think and keep thinking after the film is over. Upper is not an easy movie to watch nor is it an easy movie to review. The best bet is to watch it and decide for yourself. The ending of the film left me angry over what had transpired because these rich spoiled young adults had not taken responsibility for their actions. The film is a commentary on the socialite/"Upper" society and media. It might be a love it or hate it film, but love it or hate it the film should spark some great discussions.