Imagine trying to juggle one ball. Even if you can't juggle, you can speculate that it's probably not that hard to do. Now add another ball. It's probably still pretty easy, right? Now, imagine someone that has never picked up a ball trying to juggle 5 balls at once. That's what Justin Lo attempted to do with "The Conrad Boys." The five balls I was referring to are writing, acting, directing, editing and producing. Even though it's a small low budget production, I can't help but feel that Justin Lo wrote himself into the lead role just so he could make out with whoever was going to fill the role as the attractive drifter. The story was so dull and the acting so dry and 1 dimensional that I couldn't watch this movie all the way through without taking breaks. Justin Lo, who was 23 at the time, and played a 19 year old in the movie wrote a script with dialog that read like a high school play. So try to imagine a few much older middle aged characters trying to deliver lines that sound like they were written by a 14 year old.
The directing and camera work was bland and the only thing that kept this movie from being a complete flop was the involvement of Nick Bartzen who filled the role of that attractive drifter. Nick was the real star of this movie. He was able to emulate real emotions not only by his realistic delivery of dialogue, but also by utilizing his body language and facial expressions. So while I didn't really care about this story, his acting in it makes me interested to see what other projects he'll be seen in.
The Conrad Boys was a nice try for first timer Justin Lo with good intentions, but I can't really imagine what kind of group this movie was even targeted to appeal to.
The directing and camera work was bland and the only thing that kept this movie from being a complete flop was the involvement of Nick Bartzen who filled the role of that attractive drifter. Nick was the real star of this movie. He was able to emulate real emotions not only by his realistic delivery of dialogue, but also by utilizing his body language and facial expressions. So while I didn't really care about this story, his acting in it makes me interested to see what other projects he'll be seen in.
The Conrad Boys was a nice try for first timer Justin Lo with good intentions, but I can't really imagine what kind of group this movie was even targeted to appeal to.