I love this movie so much

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I'm wary of indie cinema in general and anything set in Cleveland in particular (A Christmas Story a noteworthy exception), but I had heard good things about this film and decided to give it a try.Battle follows the story of one Kelly Ernsweiler (Shia LaBeouf), a smart-aleck from just over the border from Shaker Heights, one of the wealthier communities in the Cleveland area. Kelly takes part in WWII re-enactment battles, but has trouble following the scripts; he steals German uniforms and changes the outcome of the skirmish. In school, he lips off to his history teacher about his glib coverage of the Civil War; and even to his parents, he's kind of sharp and short. Kelly is a young man making his own mess with his quick brain and quicker mouth, but at one battle he meets what might be a kindred spirit, wealthy Bart Bowland (Elden Henson), who shares most of the same interests, he just happens to live in a mansion in Shaker Heights. The two boys get along well, Bart trying to sand down some of Kelly's rougher edges, when trouble between then starts to crop up in the form of Bart's older sister, Tabby (Amy Smart). Kelly falls for the pretty, older woman, and Bart starts to sour on him.LaBeouf is highly engaging as the wise-ass Kelly. It's impossible (well, it's impossible for me) not to like him, because while he is mouthy, he's also usually right. Kelly knows he's meant for something more, and LaBeouf portrays very sharply his edgy energy in trying to figure out exactly what that is. For a while he's convinced it's Tabby, unlikely though that may be.The problem with the film, as engrossing as the first two-thirds are, is that it doubles back on itself. Suddenly Kelly's wit is a liability, not an asset; his rejection of authority morphs into a rejection of reality, and all of his character flaws that make him so interesting are now suddenly regarded as mere selfishness. Kelly himself never changes, it's just that how we are meant to look at him does; and in the end he achieves 'redemption' by dulling his acerbic wit and acting more normal (though he's given a consolation prize in Shiri Appleby, so it's not all bad).I'm a little surprised this film was the winner of the Affleck/Damon driven Project Greenlight project; while it displays some sharp humor and strong acting (and a nice supporting cast including one of my favorites, William Sadler), ultimately the movie betrays not only its own roots but the unspoken indie creed of be yourself and you will find happiness. Indeed, the message of Battle is subvert your intelligence and be part of the crowd and you'll be okay. Which, okay, is probably more honest than the first one, but it's a hell of a lot less satisfying to watch.

This is an independent movie? No, it is what a studio gets when they force Hollywood ideology on an independent production. For starters, I am sick to think that this script was the best out of over 15,000 scripts that were submitted in the Project Greenlight competition. Second, the direction in the movie is far from anything gritty or original. A generic style of anything basic, Shaker Heights is more of a student film with Hollywood production value than anything gritty or truly independent. Third, the casting of this film was hit and miss. Half of the actors were excellent while the other half simply read their lines from the script and nothing else. A simple rule in movie making that this production failed to follow was the relationship of the leading role with the movie. Your leading man . woman must identify with some percentage of the audience. If nobody understand what the character is going through, they don't care. Not only does the leading character fail to progress or change as a person by the end of the movie, but the characters motivation is pointless and the audience loses interest with him before we reach the half way point. If this was a low budget and a true independent film, I could see not being so negative. But I can't. If you spend over 1 million dollars and you have professional cast and crew members working for you, it is your job to produce a good film. Shaker Heights is not a good film. My two cents.

I don't know who is really to blame for this totally uninteresting, formulaic, unmoving film.By watching the Project Greenlight series, you can see that nobody knew exactly what type of movie they were making. From Erica Beeney, to Kyle and Efram, Chris Moore, none of the Mirimax studio executives. There does not seem to even be the potential of a good story in this movie. At least nothing that hasn't been seen over and over again.This is what happens when too many people get involved in the development of a script. This is just a mess.I wish I could say that the acting made this film better, but it doesn't. A waste of one million dollars. 3 out of 10

Shia can act. William Sadler can act. Kathleen Quinlan can act. Amy smart can act. Actors do what directors tell them to do, they must trust the vision of the director(s). That is where this picture went terribly wrong.I saw the 7:45 show at Denver's Chez Artist Theater. This was the last day of the run and the second to last show. There were three other people in the audience. At $8.50 a ticket that's a whopping $34 for that screening. (hardly the $20K Rick Schwartz wanted).I had read the original script and the changes made to the script. Frankly I wasn't incredibly inpressed. I watched Project Greenlight and made 2 noteworthy observations. The directors wer very petty and unprofessional. Project Greenlight seemed to be more concerned with creating drama for their reality show than they were in creating a quality film.In comparison I did watch the first season of Project Greenlight and Stolen Summer. Stolen Summer, as a finished product, was a much better movie than I expected. Shaker Heights wasn't.In the battle of Shaker Heights the character of Kelly wasn't likeable. He was a disrespectful smart ass in school. He treated his dad like a leper. The attractive girl in the supermarket that liked him he threw canned goods at. Why did she like him? Most reactions looked over acted. Characters didn't act in believeable ways. I was never pulled into the story.The opinions of the final film expressed by the producers in the final make me wonder if they have made a career of winging confidently talking out of their butts.