Such a frustrating disappointment

Boring

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Cheap is a good low budget exploitation film focusing on snuff movies and the people who make them. Brought to us by Brad Jones, the man behind The Cinema Snob, it does a lot with what is obviously very little resources, becoming an effective entry in the film noir genre.Cheap follows the exploits of a washed up porn director who decides to revitalize his career by directing a series of underground snuff movies. He distributes his movies through the offices of a sleazy porn producer, who is unaware of the true nature of the films. When the producer takes liberties with one of the director's stars, all hell breaks loose.The film succeeds on a number of levels. It combines a reasonably good plot with decent acting and surprisingly good special effects given the shoestring budget. Brad Jones gives his character the charisma he brings to The Cinema Snob, while the other actors do well with their roles. Furthermore, although there is not much gore in the film, the gore that is there is effective. One scene in particular will have even serious gorehounds' stomachs turning.The main flaw is that the pacing, particularly in the film's first half, is rather slow. Too much time is spent establishing the sleaziness of the porn producer. (Isn't calling a porn producer sleazy basically redundant?) Still, the film becomes much more interesting in the second half, establishing a great film noir atmosphere.

NOTE: This movie is only available on thecinemasnob.comWatching Brad Jones' CHEAP made me consider on either giving this zero points or the current points I have it now. This is a violent, vulgar, depraving, and ugly film but at the exact same time that is what is meant to be. Brad knows what movie he wants it to be and he goes all the way with his vision and that is sort of understanding that word "vision".Nevertheless, I sort of enjoyed it, it's not offensive and tries not to moralize its story like most movies in this genre do. Not a single character in this movie has any redeeming values. One is a rapist and drug user, two are killers and enjoy it, one is the director conducting all this gruesome murders, and their cameraman is a child pornographer. That is a smart move on Brad's part not to go that route of morality and making characters redeemable. In the sick world we live in today, who knows what would happen. I honestly believe that something like this could happen.So, three points will have to do with this movie. PLOT: Movie begins with a two killers beating a woman to death while its being recorded on camera. Don't all good movies do? It then cuts to days before when a porn actress asking money from her manager Max Force (David Gobble) for her drug need. He rapes her in turn for the money. Subtle. Then we meet Jack Stone (Jones) after having sex with the woman that was beaten to death in the opening he has an idea to make films that have never been done before. He hires two women (Carrie Jo Stucki and Jessica Stone) and his cameraman Manny (Nick Foster) to create a film. Of course, they are creating snuff films of the girls in mask murdering their victims in gruesome ways that I will not describe to you. That woman they beat to death in the movie has got it easy I'll give you only that. They sell it to Force and it becomes popular online. However, Force's drug use starts going out of control and he ends up raping one of the girls. Stone and their girls then exact revenge on him. Overall, CHEAP is what it wants and needs to be. There is a craft in the making of this movie despite being one of those shot on crappy video quality. I am aware of they have a term for it but I think IMDb will allowed me to say it so I'll keep at that.The performance are not all strong but they do their best with the material they have. Jones and Gobble are the best in the movie which is not a surprise to me. And the soundtrack is a nice touch considering the subject material. In ways it reminded me of Dennis Hopper's EASY RIDER. Have no idea why but...it happens sometimes.

The camera-work in scenes like the at the beginning when the opening credits role is quite good and effective and let's you know exactly what it is your getting into, a really messed up movie. There are also many parts when the characters in the movie are filming something and the way the camera is angled and positioned keeps it from looking obviously fake, even though it clearly is especially in one film in particular that they make. Acting in a Brad Jones movie usually isn't the best in the world and most of the actors in this one in particular don't really seem like there giving it all they got, but with the exception of David Gobble as Max Force and Nick Foster as Manny who both give these characters a lot more personality and likability than two people as terrible as them actually need. Everyone else is either just okay or just totally let down by the movie's biggest weakness, the script.It seems as though Brad Jones is trying to be like other talented writers in a way, Tarantino especially. The dialog instead of sounding like actual dialog sounds more like the kind that you would hear from someone who you can tell is a big movie buff and is trying to make his movie's script sound more fictitious and original, when really you can tell that he is just trying a little too hard. It's hard to explain and other people who have seen it probably don't feel the same way, but for me personally it was very distracting and just got me thinking about other movies with dialog similar to this one.A pretty decent film overall that has it's highs and lows much like most movies out there. It's worth a watch, I've seen it twice already and I may need to see it again because every time a watch it I feel differently about it.

It's rare to find a true work of art in the horror genre; typically the films in this category are all about content and not really about polish, deep feasible plots, and presentation but rather focus more on how they can just "shock" you and illicit reactions of of the audience.Brad Jones' film CHEAP is tastefully distasteful. It not only has substance and gets its point across, but it also keeps your attention, and can make you feel things for characters that you don't wish to have empathy for; not an easy task. In addition it still provides all the moral shredding that a horror movie can dish out without simply presenting a total "gross out gore fest" If wanton slaughter could be done tastefully, then this film is as close to that as you can get. Not to mention that for a film including the porn industry as part of its content and even having a scene of sexual content, there is no flagrant or needless nudity. This movie is about the story line and believe me it truly delivers. 10/10.