In truth, is there a person alive who hasn’t received a spam email?
Honestly, I get hundreds of them a week. Though I’ve gone to some lengths to cultivate an online presence, there’s nothing I can do to eliminate the vast mountain of junk in any number of my inboxes over time. Occasionally out of curiosity I do read one or two more closely, spelling errors and all. In some ways, it’s much like being a motorist driving slowly past a recent automobile accident: sometimes, you just can’t help but gawk. It’s interesting to see what scam artists think will convince you that their efforts are authentic (as opposed to the thousands of other messages that went worldwide that day). Naturally, I (like you) have heard the horror stories – the urban legends – of folks (usually the elderly) who’ve been duped into acting on one or more of these cyberspace messages. Thankfully, no one near me has suffered, but I keep my eye open on behalf of mankind because it’s the least I could do.
2012’s Horror/Thriller 419 tried to put a contemporary spin on the phenomenon. While I’m guessing a great many folks never even knew the film existed, I snug a copy during the flick’s original home video tour; and I offer up my thoughts below for those of you who might appreciate what a smaller cautionary tale might tell us all.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last three paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“When a struggling New York actor loses everything in a scam based in South Africa, his two best friends take him to Cape Town to find the scammer with the help of a smooth-talking local. The search begins well, but soon takes a dark turn.”
Mike (curiously played by a man named Mike Ivers) is an out-of-work New York actor who met a charming South African “businessman” in a bar and wired him money in hopes of seeing a monumental return on his investment. As you guessed it (why didn’t Mike?), the entire affair was a scam, and the young man lost over $30,000 in the process. Ned (filmmaker Ned Thorne) and Scott (Scott Kerns – I’m seeing a pattern here) are his best friends, and, as such, they decide to help him get his life back on track … by agreeing to take him to South Africa in pursuit of the scam artist.
Uh … really?
Pardon me for sounding more than a touch cynical (I’m good at it, I’m told), but what kinds of friends would want to take a ‘bestie’ halfway around the world to South Africa (of all places) in hopes of righting an internet wrong? I’ll admit that I find the premise behind the clever fake documentary 419 less than ‘realistic.’ Still, the word of mouth on this one from the film festival circuit was quite good, so I thought it would be worth a spin. I figured at 84 minutes it couldn’t be all that bad or, if it was, at least it wouldn’t last long.
To my surprise, I was mildly captivated by the tale of three grown men still trying to find themselves by setting out on a curiously well-intentioned but still misguided ‘vision quest.’ Despite promising up “twists and turns up to the very end” in its product packaging, most of 419 is pretty benign if not even a little banal: think three male pals coming together for mankind’s worst road trip E-V-E-R (without any comical escapades), and you get the gist. Thankfully, it isn’t hard to see Ivers, Thorne, and Kerns as buddies, and – despite some reservations with the basic premise – the strung together plot works mostly because there is no intellectual weight attached to most of this. It is what it is. You’ve got three guys. You’ve got three cameras. You put it together with a neo-noir-infused crime plot, and you’re modestly entertained as a consequence.
As anyone would’ve (or should’ve) expected, things don’t quite go as planned once the men arrive in South Africa, but that’s the stuff of good drama. And, to be perfectly clear, there is drama in here. It’s available in small doses, but it’s there. And it’s surprisingly well played by the talent.
Also to provide some clarification, I have read elsewhere on the web that 419 is being billed as one of those semi-popular “found footage films,” and I’d like to correct that misinformation: it isn’t. 419 is a faux documentary. Yes, it’s assembled from footage that – in some part – has been “found.” But to call it a “found footage film” is a disservice to “found footage films” as well as 419: this is a character drama – entirely fictional – put together in such a way as to tweak the narrative. It’s a fine line distinction, but a distinction that should be make.
419 [2012] is produced by 120bB Films and Indalo Productions. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been handled by MVD Visual, a division of MVD Entertainment Group. As for the technical specifications … well, bear in mind that Thorne wants to make you believe this is all a documentary culled together from his available camera work, so one should expect the usual shaky-cam action consistently from start to finish, along with some of the usual unframed shot, loss of focus, and questionable angles. (Relax, folks, because it’s all intended as part of the charm.) The sound was mostly solid, though there were a few sequences that came across a bit muddled. As for special features, the only thing I saw on the menu was deleted scenes, and, at that point, I really wasn’t all that interested in what didn’t make the finished product.
Recommended, but …
Seriously, there’s nothing groundbreaking here. Essentially, all 419 really does effectively is provide audiences with yet one more reminder about what everyone says could happen to you if you’re roped into an internet scam, but it’s theatrically escalated to the Nth degree for the purpose of having a more complex story to tell. Performances are fine; cinematography wasn’t all that inspiring but is tolerable (though the herky-jerky documentary style does get old in the final third); and the story is – well – a bit predictable. (Don’t believe everything the box art tells you otherwise.)
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at MVD Entertainment Group provided me with a DVD copy of 419 by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Honestly, I get hundreds of them a week. Though I’ve gone to some lengths to cultivate an online presence, there’s nothing I can do to eliminate the vast mountain of junk in any number of my inboxes over time. Occasionally out of curiosity I do read one or two more closely, spelling errors and all. In some ways, it’s much like being a motorist driving slowly past a recent automobile accident: sometimes, you just can’t help but gawk. It’s interesting to see what scam artists think will convince you that their efforts are authentic (as opposed to the thousands of other messages that went worldwide that day). Naturally, I (like you) have heard the horror stories – the urban legends – of folks (usually the elderly) who’ve been duped into acting on one or more of these cyberspace messages. Thankfully, no one near me has suffered, but I keep my eye open on behalf of mankind because it’s the least I could do.
2012’s Horror/Thriller 419 tried to put a contemporary spin on the phenomenon. While I’m guessing a great many folks never even knew the film existed, I snug a copy during the flick’s original home video tour; and I offer up my thoughts below for those of you who might appreciate what a smaller cautionary tale might tell us all.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last three paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“When a struggling New York actor loses everything in a scam based in South Africa, his two best friends take him to Cape Town to find the scammer with the help of a smooth-talking local. The search begins well, but soon takes a dark turn.”
Mike (curiously played by a man named Mike Ivers) is an out-of-work New York actor who met a charming South African “businessman” in a bar and wired him money in hopes of seeing a monumental return on his investment. As you guessed it (why didn’t Mike?), the entire affair was a scam, and the young man lost over $30,000 in the process. Ned (filmmaker Ned Thorne) and Scott (Scott Kerns – I’m seeing a pattern here) are his best friends, and, as such, they decide to help him get his life back on track … by agreeing to take him to South Africa in pursuit of the scam artist.
Uh … really?
Pardon me for sounding more than a touch cynical (I’m good at it, I’m told), but what kinds of friends would want to take a ‘bestie’ halfway around the world to South Africa (of all places) in hopes of righting an internet wrong? I’ll admit that I find the premise behind the clever fake documentary 419 less than ‘realistic.’ Still, the word of mouth on this one from the film festival circuit was quite good, so I thought it would be worth a spin. I figured at 84 minutes it couldn’t be all that bad or, if it was, at least it wouldn’t last long.
To my surprise, I was mildly captivated by the tale of three grown men still trying to find themselves by setting out on a curiously well-intentioned but still misguided ‘vision quest.’ Despite promising up “twists and turns up to the very end” in its product packaging, most of 419 is pretty benign if not even a little banal: think three male pals coming together for mankind’s worst road trip E-V-E-R (without any comical escapades), and you get the gist. Thankfully, it isn’t hard to see Ivers, Thorne, and Kerns as buddies, and – despite some reservations with the basic premise – the strung together plot works mostly because there is no intellectual weight attached to most of this. It is what it is. You’ve got three guys. You’ve got three cameras. You put it together with a neo-noir-infused crime plot, and you’re modestly entertained as a consequence.
As anyone would’ve (or should’ve) expected, things don’t quite go as planned once the men arrive in South Africa, but that’s the stuff of good drama. And, to be perfectly clear, there is drama in here. It’s available in small doses, but it’s there. And it’s surprisingly well played by the talent.
Also to provide some clarification, I have read elsewhere on the web that 419 is being billed as one of those semi-popular “found footage films,” and I’d like to correct that misinformation: it isn’t. 419 is a faux documentary. Yes, it’s assembled from footage that – in some part – has been “found.” But to call it a “found footage film” is a disservice to “found footage films” as well as 419: this is a character drama – entirely fictional – put together in such a way as to tweak the narrative. It’s a fine line distinction, but a distinction that should be make.
419 [2012] is produced by 120bB Films and Indalo Productions. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been handled by MVD Visual, a division of MVD Entertainment Group. As for the technical specifications … well, bear in mind that Thorne wants to make you believe this is all a documentary culled together from his available camera work, so one should expect the usual shaky-cam action consistently from start to finish, along with some of the usual unframed shot, loss of focus, and questionable angles. (Relax, folks, because it’s all intended as part of the charm.) The sound was mostly solid, though there were a few sequences that came across a bit muddled. As for special features, the only thing I saw on the menu was deleted scenes, and, at that point, I really wasn’t all that interested in what didn’t make the finished product.
Recommended, but …
Seriously, there’s nothing groundbreaking here. Essentially, all 419 really does effectively is provide audiences with yet one more reminder about what everyone says could happen to you if you’re roped into an internet scam, but it’s theatrically escalated to the Nth degree for the purpose of having a more complex story to tell. Performances are fine; cinematography wasn’t all that inspiring but is tolerable (though the herky-jerky documentary style does get old in the final third); and the story is – well – a bit predictable. (Don’t believe everything the box art tells you otherwise.)
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at MVD Entertainment Group provided me with a DVD copy of 419 by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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