Live!

Eva Mendes (The Spirit, Hitch), Jay Hernandez (World Trade Center), and Eric Lively (American Pie) star in a scathing mockumentary about an ambitious TV network executive.

Struggling to find a major hit, TV executive Katy (Mendes) comes up with a revolutionary concept for a reality show: Live!, a program where contestants play Russian Roulette-with a loaded gun. While developing the show, a documentary filmmaker Rex records every step of Katy’s struggle to get it on the air.

As the airdate approaches, Katy’s attempt at “reinventing the wheel” of television invites controversy, political debate and, she hopes, the most audacious television event ever.

 

 

Live! makes for quite interesting viewing, especially as we are in an age where a new reality TV show seems to be aired every week (latest one I just saw was Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling).  The concept of the show seems a little far fetched although you can imagine someone trying this out, as long as the facts behind the laws are correct.

Filmed through the eyes of a documentary crew, Live! takes you on the production journey of the show, from concept to completion and is fairly entertaining for most of the way.  The film stalls slightly midway but once the TV show actually starts, and the contestants line up to pull the trigger I found myself on the edge of my seat.

The first applicants for the show are those who are either terminally ill, or suicidal, it gets interesting when they decide to up the reward and entice those that don’t want to die but are willing to take the risk.  The six final contestants all seem fairly believable in their cause especially as one is mainly doing it to become famous which is another interesting piece of social commentary.

Although the way in which the film is shot is not really that original (had a few of these POV films recently, Coverfield, Diary of the Dead, Quarantine etc), the documentary format works and makes Live! a worthwhile watch.  My only gripe is the ending which I found fell a little flat.  Without giving anything away, I felt that they could have made a more poignant statement on todays society but end up just doing something for the sake of trying to squeeze in a ‘twist’.

DVD Extras

-Interviews with Cast & Crew

-The Director’s Vision documentary

 

If you want to be in with a chance of winning a copy of Live! on DVD head over to our COMPETITION page now.

~ Review by Lee

 

 

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