Review of The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003) by Rich B — 08 Feb 2004

The Battle of Shaker Heights is the latest movie poduct of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's Project Greenlight. The movie is about a mixed up teenager, Kelley, who's hobby is battle field reenactments. Presumably he is involved in this activity as an act of rebellion against his parents (one of which is a recovering drug addict). Kelley meets a rich kid, Lance, at one of the reecnactments, they become friends and Kelley ultimately falls for Lance's engaged sister. The movie starts out promisingly enough: looking like it could be thoughful teen movie. Sometime after the 30 minute mark the movie speeds up and the film begins to lose depth. It was if the filmakers lost their budget so they had to speed things to conclusion. None of the characters have much depth, but that can be expected with a movie that is only 80 minutes long.

Overall, not great but not offensive. It started out good but in the end you are left with the feeling that it was a missed opportunity.