For most of its length it coasts by with above-average charm and a solid grasp of messy adolescent emotions.
Comment
10/16/03
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The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003)
23
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:5
Rotten:17
Average Rating:4.5/10
Consensus: LaBeouf is appealing, but The Battle of Shaker Heights feels too watered down and disjointed.
Theatrical Release:Aug 22, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $214,176
Synopsis: With a team of strong actors, a hilarious script by Erica Beeney, and an evocative soundtrack, directing duo Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin have hit the nail on the head with THE BATTLE OF SHAKER... [More]
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Kathleen Quinlan, Amy Smart, William Sadler
Director: Efram Potelle, Kyle Rankin
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Reviews for The Battle of Shaker Heights
Top CriticThe film is well-acted and looks good, but it's so inconsequential and bland that you wonder what was it about the script that made anyone think it would make an interesting movie.
10/03/03
Top CriticCinematic mush.
10/03/03
Top CriticIt's too much going on, but I think that as was the case with Stolen Summer, the actors rise above the material and make it worth seeing.
09/02/03
Top CriticAn inoffensive, if somewhat bedraggled, little movie.
08/29/03
Top CriticIt's simply an indie-film aping of Hollywood teen-mongering at its ultimate worst.
08/29/03
Top CriticIt's an insufferable piffle.
08/29/03
Top CriticThe movie is bad in a boring way: tepidly paced, disjointed and lacking any emotional hook.
08/29/03
Top CriticYou get the sense of too much input, too many bright ideas, too many scenes that don't belong in the same movie.
08/29/03
Top CriticIt's a very minor Catcher in the Rye, featuring clever but overcooked dialogue, two-dimensional supporting roles, and a disarming generosity toward its characters.
08/29/03
Top CriticAs putatively quirky coming-of-age movies go, this one feels factory-tooled -- and fake.
08/28/03
Top CriticIt's a nice little movie, amateurish in some expected first-time-filmmaker ways but usually competent and never a disaster.
08/28/03
Top CriticWithout any of the dramatic transitions, we're left with a pileup of scenes, none of them very funny, and a thin, linear plot.
08/28/03
Top CriticThe filmmakers ended up with a teen flick of Tinkertoy sensitivity in which the assorted story arcs ... are all setup and no follow-through.
08/27/03
Top CriticThe characters talk like smart, unpredictable people, and Kelly Ernswiler is one of a kind.
08/26/03
Top CriticSurprisingly sweet and smart.
08/22/03
Top CriticThe half an idea in Erica Beeney's script is reduced by another half through the disjointed directing of Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin.
08/22/03
Top CriticDirectors Potelle and Rankin lack the skill to integrate the sometimes drastic shifts between comedy and drama -- and the serious portions ultimately get short shrift, apparently at the behest of Miramax's marketing executives.
08/21/03
Top CriticIt makes one wonder if the creators of Project Greenlight are deliberately trying to create bad films in order to make for better television.
08/21/03
Top CriticThe drab comic melodrama The Battle of Shaker Heights may lead to a new axiom: success has many fathers, but failure has Project Greenlight.
08/21/03
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