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The Movie:  There will always be music - obviously. Yet, the music industry is probably facing its toughest times, with new product often achieving dissapointing sales and serious controversy over copy protection. Teen-pop, in particular, seems to be hitting the skids, with sales of said genre not being what they once were. Most of these artists realize that their target audience isn't going to be that age forever and have flocked to the acting biz, to mixed results. "On The Line", starring two members of N'Sync, was originally expected to be a major release last Fall, but only appeared on a less-than-impressive 700 screens, while the marketing campaign was minor. The film dissapeared a couple of weeks later. Were all these factors justified? After watching the picture, a film with a few bright spots and a lot of emptiness, I can say yes. The film stars 'Syncer Lance Bass as Kevin Gibbons, a lowly worker in an advertising firm. As the film opens, we are shown a flashback to several years prior, when Kevin was the lead singer of rock band Granite. With an embarassing line to lead off the sequence ("we were all about the rock", he actually states with mild seriousness), we see him fail to make the move to impress the girl he likes. Seven years later, Gibbons once again falls flat on Chicago's "L" train. He meets Abbey (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and the two have a very nice little conversation where it becomes apparent that the two could go further. Kevin fails to make the final approach and lets the girl slip out of his hands. Of course, this is one of those movies where one of the convincing elements of the characters that they could like each other is that they can recite the presidents in order. Who has this kind of a conversation when you first meet someone? Kevin realizes his error and starts posting signs around Chicago, attracting not the attention of the right girl, but the press, instead. The journalist assigned to the story just happens to be Kevin's former rival. We meet the roommates: Joey Fatone (also of N'Sync) as Rod, a singer who is willing to make himself look like a complete idiot on stage while singing old 80's rock tunes. There's also Eric (the comedian GQ) and Randy (James Bulliard). As with several teen films (see also "Loser"), we are presented with a lot of filler and a lot of irritating dialogue between the roommates instead of getting to the point of the picture. There was a point somewhere around the midway where I didn't care if the two got together again, I just wanted the film, which seemed endless at this point, to be over. The film does not realize the gem that it includes. Chriqui, a beauty that has appeared in "Snow Day" and the little-seen, but good "100 Girls", is a charming young actress who has a terrific smile and lights up the screen. She deserves better and, at least in this film, I'd rather see more of her character than the movie shows. The film at least has the intelligence to surround the pair of non-actors with a few solid supporting actors, such as Dave Foley, who plays Kevin's boss. There's one particularly good sequence where Foley's character tells Kevin, "Why don't you offer a reward, like a lost puppy?" Not that funny a line, but it's the way that Foley sells that one and a few others that makes it work. It's the only real laugh that I got in the film. Oh wait, one of the annoying roommates is hit by a foul ball at Wrigley Field. That was funny, too. The film steps further into irritation by introducing a plot device where the roommates start handling some of the girls that are responding to Kevin's ad. I won't say anymore than that as it's not really worth it. "On The Line" certainly could have been a pleasant romantic comedy, but instead, it's a journey through a swamp of idiotic plot points. Bass produced this film under his Happy Place company - if he wants to actually make the jump from singing to films, he certainly needs to choose better screenplays. It would be nice if studios could produce comedys, dramas, anything that appreciates the intelligence of the teen target audience - "On The Line" isn't it. The DVD  VIDEO: Miramax presents "On The Line" in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The studio has become more consistent with their presentations over the past couple of years, but occasionally they come up with a less-than-impressive effort. "On The Line"'s presentation does not give a good first impression. The picture shows some slight, but noticable pixelation and an early sequence showed several specks on the print. Things improve after that; some traces of pixelation and edge enhancement appear infrequently throughout the flick, but the print clears up. Sharpness and detail were pleasing, as the picture appeared well-defined and crisp throughout. Colors also looked nice; the film does present Chicago locations fairly well and the natural vivid color palette of the city looks quite good. Overall, this is an average-looking presentation that wasn't extremely dissapointing, but wasn't too good, either.  SOUND: "On The Line" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The audio is uninspired; this is another in a long line of films that present people walking around in big cities that remain quiet with the exception of their occasional dialogue. Some additional ambience would have been appreciated, but the music (and certainly, this film is about selling the teen-pop soundtrack) isn't really even reinforced well by the surrounds, as the rear speakers are almost never used. Audio quality was satisfactory, but there's really not much presence to the music. Dialogue remained clear throughout. MENUS: A hyperactive animated montage of images from the movie serves as the main menu. EXTRAS: Commentary: This is a commentary from director Eric Bross and actress Emmanuelle Chriqui. The track is a pleasant enough affair, as Bross offers a fair amount of information about the crew's role in the production as well as some amusing stories from the set. Chriqui is funny and enjoyable, talking about some stories from the set and commenting on the on-screen events. There's a bit of narration of what's going on on-screen and pauses of silence, but this turned out to be an okay commentary as I browsed through it. Outtakes: A few minutes of crack-ups and forgotten lines. Deleted Scenes: 5 deleted scenes are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen, complete with commentary by director Bross. 4 of the scenes are unnecessary, but there's one sequence that's ridiculously dumb that involves a couple of the characters playing tic-tac-toe against a chicken. Also: An 8 1/2 minute featurette and storyboard-to-final split-screen comparisons for three scenes.  Final Thoughts: "On The Line" is a mess of aimless characters doing ridiculous things instead of a nice, straightforward romantic comedy. It's difficult for an 85 minute movie to feel like forever, but this film accomplishes that. Miramax's DVD presents the film with decent audio/video quality and a fair amount of supplements. I'm sure that the N'Sync fans will pick up this DVD regardless, but I'm certainly not recommending it. 
Film Grade The Film * DVD Grades Video 85/B Audio: 85/B Extras: 80/B- Menus: 80/B- |