Closing Escrow (2007)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B–     Extras: C     Film: D

 

 

Imitating a Christopher Guest film does not make your film as funny as one of his, but everyone keeps trying as if they will have a hit that will make them the next big name on comedy.  The Armen Kaprelian/Kent Llewellyn comedy Closing Escrow (2007) tries to show how funny and banal people in California buying homes is, but the three fictional families here are never believable and the big mistake in their screenplay is that they are quirky of quirky or quirky to the point that you just don’t care or take them seriously enough to laugh.

 

Instead, you get a 94-minute one-joke flick so many generations down from an original idea that it just goes on and on and on and on and on.  All in all, skip it.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is shot in HD and you can tell but image hazing and other flaws in this tradedown.  Color is consistent enough and the set up is not bad overall.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is really stretching out the original sound out thin.  You can hear the jokes and dialogue, then wish you had not.  The only extras include deleted scenes, behind the scenes and a separate making of featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo