Snapshot (2014) Poster

(II) (2014)

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5/10
A Silly Photograph of the First Lady could destroy the Presidency!
Sylviastel23 August 2018
If you like Joyce DeWitt, she played a First Lady who gets caught in a silly scandal pose. Her photograph could threaten the presidency. Joyce DeWitt was simply marvelous as the First Lady of the United States. The film has some other actors like Robert Loggia and Martin Kove too. The younger cast members seem to take more acting courses. The film was shot on location in New Jersey which surprised me. I was expecting Hollywood. How ironic that a First Lady's pose could threaten her husband's presidency? Oh those were the times when they seemed more innocent than today. That picture wouldn't even make front page news.
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5/10
It's a mixed bag...
planktonrules14 May 2015
Snapshot is a low budget film that has a few surprises. Despite being low budgeted, it does feature a few surprising supporting actors-- such as Ralph Loggia and Joyce DeWitt. It also has a plot that seems silly and inconsequential, but if you stick with the film to the end, it WILL make sense and offer an amazing twist. So, on balance, it's worth seeing despite its flaws.

The story is about a down and out photographer, Thomas (Zach McGowan). He has some issues with his father (Loggia) and is also struggling to get his life together and is living in someone's basement! He also has a bratty daughter from a previous relationship...and she's a bit of a mess. All in all, his life prospects look awful and by all accounts he's a bit of a loser. However, his big break comes when he happens to be in the right place at the right time...and he just happens to have his camera along with him. What sort of photo does he get? Well, let's just say that the First Lady forgot to wear underwear that day...and the photo could be VERY embarrassing if it gets published. Soon, huge offers start pouring in and Thomas is torn. After all, it sure would help him out of his financial mess...but it also would be a real jerky move! While the notion of folks threatening Thomas over the photo didn't make much sense when it was introduced, just sit tight...it does make sense at the very end. That is fortunate because I sure was confused and thought it was just a case of bad writing...which it wasn't.

Despite some nice acting and a story that kept my interest, the film is clearly far from perfect. There are a few dangling plot elements that seem to have been forgotten (such as the trashy daughter's even trashier boyfriend) and some of the acting and writing are a bit suspect (the over-the-top gay guy was about as subtle as a stripper showing up at a Baptist barbecue). But I can look past these shortcomings. After all, these are folks who are relatively new to their craft in many cases and I look at the film as a training ground. And, there's enough promise to make me want to see more of their work in the future.
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1/10
The Free Ticket Still Wasn't Worth The Time Or Subway Fare
bensgoodwin4 November 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I originally wrote this review and clearly the filmmakers didn't like that I was honest about their film and had it deleted. I notice they changed the release date too and now all the user ratings which were very low are gone. This film came out in 2012 when I saw it in a theater. Being sneaky is not going to make this junk any better. Fact is it was very bad movie and that is my opinion which is what these reviews are for. I never write these things but I found a flyer from this film I attended last year in the back of a drawer and thought wow that's something I didn't need to be reminded of maybe I should spare others. My employer was one of the sponsors to this festival event and I wound up with free tickets so what the hell right? Wrong. I should have known anything premiering at a mall in Jersey City, NJ by the Footlocker would be an infuriating waste of time. But Robert Loggia the guy that danced on a piano with Tom Hanks and was once nominated for an Oscar is in it how bad could it be right? Wrong. What he is doing in this film is confusing at best.

At best it can be summed up as this. That naked guy from Shameless Zach McGowan is a photographer that if you didn't watch the trailer yet where they tell you this fun fact wait for it ********* gets an "upskirt" shot of the other roommate from Three's Company 40 years ago who plays the ditsy first lady. That would be the first lady of the United States. I was thinking exactly what you are right now. There's also that guy from Baywatch and that guy from The Karate Kid. You see where I'm going with this? It is mostly a bunch of that guy from that show or you know that movie with the kid and he did this? Come on man you know who I'm talking about. That guy.

The acting is stale by all. The lead Zach gets this photo accidentally and has to decide what to do with it. How hard could it be for a 30 year old man to decide you ask? Hard it seems. His acting is not that bad but the lines he is forced to say are. He spends much of his time trying to figure out whether to sell the photo and fix all his financial problems or not and arguing with his cougar girlfriend played by the sure to stay unknown actress Angela Gots that as my colleague said looks like an ape. Her voice is deep and grating, quite unsightly and homely looking, and her acting is plain bad. I wouldn't want her yelling at me. It is like nails on a chalkboard but instead of high pitch it's deep and masculine. Maybe that is what they were going for. When the lead is not trying to hold on to his relationship or dealing with family problems he is being physically beaten and threatened in the most dramatic ways. Michael Pare plays the President and he's actually a pretty good actor in a bad film. The rest of the actors are horrible and unbelievable. There's also two blonde porn star looking girls thrown in the mix to make you really see this as a believable story. No offense I just can't come up with a better way to describe their appearance in a visual. The one pretty girl has a small part as a doctor but her acting was no better and they put too much makeup on her. When was the last time you went to a hospital and saw a doctor with long flowing blonde hair and a face full of heavy makeup? I quickly checked my iPhone after this and noticed it was directed by none other than the Witchblade guy Eric Etebari that went off the air like 10 years ago. Since then he has been that guy in 2 Fast 2 Furious, that guy in Cellular, and that guy in Lincoln Lawyer. You know the guy with the yellow hair on the witness stand. That guy. If this was a go at making a serious and meaningful soul searching drama after a string of studio action entertainment films to be taken seriously it didn't work. Ironically he is the only one who looks like he should be on screen out of the whole cast but only had a small part.

The writing is bad and cheesy. If you are looking for a sample of this watch the trailer or read the storyline written on here. Don't you have to be a professional writer to write a film? It seemed like a kid wrote this and someone actually gave them money to make it.

The most interesting part for me was the after party reception in the lobby of the theater. A bunch of people roaming around trying to look important. It's a mall not the Ziegfeld. The cast stood around looking hopeful anyone would talk to them or taking photos while I recall the director seemed to be drinking beers looking annoyed like he was running away from someone all night. Probably the women who seem to follow him everywhere he went especially one actress he ducked and dodged all night. This was all far more interesting than the film itself so that should tell you everything you need to know about this film. I can report I got free cold beer which is a win to any warm blooded male before I hopped back on the train to Williamsburg. My vote is to skip it. If it wasn't free tickets the brew would not help. It was a strange experience. Hollywood did not come to Jersey City.
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8/10
Actually if u watch the film to the last scene
dawndm-573433 July 2022
If you make it to the end, u can do it lol the picture could absolutely boost or ruin a presidential career this day in age. I just seen it and it's 2022 so 8 years later at 2 am on a restless night what could have been a hallmark "gag" mosh movie or I thought a murder flick possibly,ended up actually being good for thought, with the word as it is now. It takes a long time to reach the "actual point" most movies do not throw me off, this did so that was great! And I had no clue it was Joyce Dewitt and as a young 50 rocker single mom type pro a lot of "changes" it was great to see as child hood sitcom childhood memory's of a strong actress playing such a valid role "then and now" in society. Lower budget yes I like that as it's raw,a little eh acting was mixed with greats and some who I can't fathom got the parts as they def are still not ready or ever will be ? But over all the story, the point, and texture, and the stronger actors in it pulled it through. It is a great concept as I've done a few underground Sundance films on these topics and this was well thought out for that it was a 8.

D. Miller NY ✌🏼💜
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Boring waste of 90 minutes. Bad acting and amateur writing
marlamar9 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Well I saw this at the screening in NYC. It was totally awkward because I felt like I was one of the only people there that didn't work on the film. I've never heard of this festival and I grew up a few minutes away in Manhattan but it seemed pretty lame and back alley. They seem like a bunch of attention seekers living in a biased completely unrealistic fantasy world but whatev.

I was most interested in seeing Zach McGowan, he's kind of a butterface but if you watch Black Sails at all you know his abs are swoonworthy and I don't think I would be looking at his face while I wash my laundry on his 16 pack. I know there's no such thing as a 16 pack but if there was, he'd have it. He wasn't there unfortunately and it's no Shameless or Black Sails. Neither are that great but entertaining at least. He's not the best actor and probably shouldn't star in any film but he wasn't terrible. I just got my bubble burst because it didn't look like he was packing his Black Sails abs under that shirt. I guess it's just for the show. He's a photographer in this and to demonstrate how ridiculous it is the shutter effects are so loud and cartoon like. He gets this up the skirt shot of the first lady - of the United States LOL. He has to either sell it or destroy it because no one has morals according to these people. It's basically a bunch of dumb sub plots he used to be a paparazzi and his life is being threatened and the president wants his wife's photo destroyed and he wants to be re-elected and some weird looking goon is sent to take care of it for him. That would be Martin Kove otherwise known as Kreese. I'm really surprised he has like a million credits on his page. He wasn't very good in this but to be fair the story and what was written for him was horrible. It was obviously not written by a professional writer or even polished off by a pro.

The first lady is Joyce DeWitt. You know come and knock on my door? Her. No, just no. I guess this answers why she hasn't been seen since? Pay attention to the hilarious face she makes when badly pretending to slip and fall and the obvious cut to the stunt double. Funny. Then I had to ask myself what the hell Robert Loggia , the 10 million for my life guy from Scarface was doing there. Not that I recognized him at first. Guess it shows how fickle the movie business is if he is desperate enough to do this stuff. He plays Thomas'/ Zach McGowan's father that is urges him to make the right choice. Thomas is like the black sheep of the family and his brother is David Chokachi from Baywatch. Random? He's the good brother and a fireman and that is how he is seen in his family.

There's these other weird characters at the camera shop and here and there just small little shop of horrors types. Tons of bad acting and stupid, boring writing. I almost forgot there's also Angela Gots she's Thomas' girlfiend. She thinks they should maybe sell this dumb photo. She must be someone's daughter or blackmail wife or whatev. No one would cast someone with absolutely no acting ability and one of the most homely looking women I've ever watched on screen as a lead no less when there's a city full of gorgeous babes and seriously trained thespians. Definitely not believable she's sooooooo bad. She stuck out in a bad way and she has schitzo eyes.

I couldn't wait for it to end and the ending itself well I don't want to ruin the badness for you but I would suggest you run far from this one. It's a waste of time. I've seen better student films. :\

Back to Black Sails for me.
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A Bad Film With Bad Acting and Shady People?
beitstevemcgee2 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
In short, it sucked. Looking up Robert Borneman to see what he's written, his facebook came up and find he posted a "review". A shady circa 1999 looking blog with no followers and only 57 twitter followers, clearly an inside job with a glowing raving over the top review of a terrible movie. No one unattached to this film would claim it's great or even good. It's bad. Very bad. I look up the website domain and it's owned by Keith Collins an actor in Snapshot and other films with the same people. He and his company KCM/Uninhibited Marketing Group owns the site and writes reviews for films he's involved in. Don't believe me? Look up dailyfilmforum.com on whois.net. I get marketing your product but that's underhanded and cheating don't you think? So as someone with no stake in the film I'm writing my own real review.

Thomas (Zach McGowan),a photographer thats a paparazzo we see forced to leave for going too far invading privacy and getting the brutal end for it. Right then you see where it's going unless you've never watched a movie and completely oblivious to everything. He then "accidentally" while crouching down at the ground gets this scandalous laughable shot of the first lady and has to decide what to do with it. The whole film is about that pretty much. The story writing was bad. The acting's bad, really bad at times. It didn't look that professional either, I don't believe this was made for 750k, that's a lot of money this looked done on the cheap.

Joyce DeWitt's (first lady) performance was weird and unbelievable. The president is played by Michael Pare, I've never heard of him and looks more cop like than president to me but I guess he was OK. He doesn't have the commanding presence and charisma Presidents usually have. He wants this photo stopped for fear of his re-election campaign of course, cliché, done a million times so he sends his right hand man Jack Adams (Martin Kove) to fix it. The under the table twist your arm fix it guy not cliché at all. I get with a face like that he has the bad guy thing down so maybe it's the stupid writing but his performance wasn't good either. It looked forced, unrealistic, cheesy probably because it played to the cliché type. I've seen worse writing in movies where you say "what?" outloud because its so ridiculous. This was more eye-rolling give me a break type writing so everyone could've given decent enough performances but they didn't. McGowan's performance was decent but bland. I've a hard time seeing him as leading man, the qualities of one don't show at least in this film but a decent job.

Robert Loggia plays Thomas' father, Paul, and David Chokachi his brother Eddie. I wish the mother was around; these guys don't look like they'd be related at all. Chokachi's the pretty boy type; McGowan not so much. Loggia does what Loggia does, but he's also Robert Loggia of Scarface and had success so his agent should steer him around these roles. Of course he'd like his son to do the right thing as any father would and his brother of course is seen as the cliché would have it the good son. He's a fireman, always doing the right thing has his life and family together,not the brother you question. There's always a good and a rebel kid right? Again the actings not good but both Loggia and Chokachi did their jobs not well not their best I'm sure but not the worst. That honor belongs to the final character in this film.

Thomas' girlfriend. Along the way his girlfriend Arianna (Angela Gots) an unknown is playing with him on whether or not they should sell it making a bundle of dough since the first ladys a public figure and could argue they have a right to and of course she has a stake in that decision; they could then live a better life and out of that dump they're living in. Oy vey. Ms. Gots is in all honesty probably one of the worst actresses I've ever seen. She simply can't act what so ever.I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would cast her or how the director or whoever gets final say thought what made it into the movie was good. If that was "good" what were her other scenes like? To make it worse she's so ugly that after a while all you can think of is "god she's really ugly" and "wow one eye is higher than the other", she's hard to look at and on top of that her voice makes you cringe and hard to listen to. It's very deep and man like but gravely rough,whiny, snotty at the same time. And something about the way she moves her mouth is just gross. I shudder thinking about her.

There's other various clichés/characters, a punk rock chick that's pretty useless except to be the alternative youth whose face becomes as multi-colored as her hair and clothes. Always have people take a beating when you're messing with money and power. If you need a hospital you'll go somewhere that doesn't look like one with a bleach blonde doctor and a face full of war paint. There's only one way to turn the bad son around and that's death. There's so many clichés I lost count. I'm sure Borneman had the best intentions but this is a major dud.

I kept hoping there'd be some knock your socks off twist I didn't see coming. I think what was supposed to be twists especially the ending were extremely predictable. You may not realize while watching its supposed to be a twist. Maybe I was supposed to be dumb? I doubt most will be so simple they'll find this suspenseful or thrilling especially with the heavy burden of often bad acting.
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Absolute Crap
jconn12-ll26 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Ugh this film is absolute crap. It might not be the absolute worst film I have ever seen but it is far up there. Who wrote this junk? I felt like my brain was turning into a puddle. It's so poorly written and acted you feel it is slowly stabbing you in the eyes and ears. I have sat through some pretty bad movies before. Anyone remember Britney Spears in Crossroads? That was better and that sucked big ones. Anyone who says this is a good film is either a ringer working for these people or should be promptly checked for a bracelet on who to contact and where to bring them back to. I won't even get into the whole plot. It's been done time and time again and this is one of the worst versions of the same old song.

Let's just break it down like this.

Writing - BAD Looks - Slightly above amateur looking Actng- HORRIBLE Overall - Melodramatic laughable crap

Zach McGowan - I like Zach outside of this film. He's not the best looking guy and I don't foresee any Oscars in his future but he seems like a likable guy and that can count for something. He was not terrible in this but it wasn't enough to save it. He was floundering all by himself in a poor career choice. Good thing for Michael Bay.

Robert Loggia- WTF? Why? Can't be the payday it was obviously made on like no budget. He didn't do much. He can't save this.

Angela Gots - Who? Worst actress ever? This lady is hideous looking and definitely now on or close to the top of my worst actresses list. A lead actress should at least be semi attractive she has a Neanderthal type look to her and sounds like a frog with bronchitis that just drones on and on. She also looks far older than McGowan.

Joyce DeWitt - Ridiculous as the first lady of the United States of America. Talk about a reach. She looks and acts like a cartoon character.

Michael Pare- Who? I see he has a bunch of credits I guess I just missed him or they were straight to video films. He was whatever in this. Didn't see him as the Prez and it looked like he was making official statements in someone's backyard. If he is president shouldn't they be living in the White House?

Martin Kove - What happened to Kreese? He's ridiculous and the finest of cheese no money can buy.

David Chokachi - LMAO guess it could be worse. He is working more than Pamela Anderson, David Hasselhoff, his hamburger or most of the Baywatch alumni from any season really except Jason Momoa and a couple others. He could have done without this one probably though I haven't seen any of his other recent projects to compare it to.

I'm not really sure why Angela Little is listed first and no one else is really worth commenting on.

Interesting? NO Thrilling? NO Suspenseful? NO Predictable? Yes Worth Watching? No. Not unless you don't mind completely wasting your time and feeling the urge to put a plastic bag over your head.
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One of the worst movies I've seen in recent memory
whitepaddedbird22 October 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Writing's half wit childish and simply bad, horrible acting , the directing seems it was meant for another film like the director never meant or wished to direct this junk. Even the camera work was bad. The plot's bogusly stupid and clearly a super low shoestring budget independent self made film, no legitimate producer, production company, or studio would read this script let alone option and produce it. That's how bad. I'm not against people making their own work, I've buddies that do. Funneling creative energy into projects but this doesn't fall into that category. Pretty much everyone's reviews are spot on beside the executive producers which seems unethical and delusional to review your own film.

I found Snapshot on torrents, it has no place on TV, theaters, redbox, netflix, it's that poor. Looking to pass the time. Out of curiosity I chose this as I've met or worked with Robert Loggia, David Chokachi, and Angela Gots. Loggia's a real nice, cool guy. Has that old school down to earth vibe that just appreciates everything he has even if he was aiming for more. David's a great guy, all around nice, friendly, giving guy. Totally down to earth, animal loving, earth loving guy. I think he's probably more capable than people think and Baywatch being his launchpad into fame was a double-edge sword leaving a stigma of ludicrousness of Baywatch that didn't allow him the chance to show his capabilities on a platform that could transition him to the next part of his career and keep him away from a travesty like this movie. I hope he gets better opportunities in the future. He played Zach McGowan's brother in this some of his weakest acting which isn't surprising considering how bad this was.

I worked on the COD:AW game and seen Angela Gots in action. She's as others mentioned a horrendous actress and so much more. You think she's bad in the final cut, imagine how bad she is while trying to act and she barely says anything in this game. Some questioned her casting in COD but I heard because she speaks Russian but looking for uglier to be real, thick bodied, more masculine looking, acting, walking, talking like the women often in the Marines/Army which makes sense it's COD (Snapshot had a reason to I'm sure other reviewers there's always a reason) unfortunately she's not in shape, athletic, or coordinated but it's a video game we can fake it, a lot of things are faked in entertainment shocking right. Therefore unlike the other reviewers I expected a bad performance and wouldn't expect anything else as I've seen first hand.

What I was surprised by was that Eric Etebari was the director of Snapshot. Often people forget their surroundings. COD's a live action performance capture video game, every movement the actor makes is scanned and noted, we've amazing exo suits in the game, and the characters look like the actors in most cases, not hers, her character's oddly better looking than she is as is a couple others. She doesn't look anything like her pics on here either whats up with that? The cameras kind of everywhere. We see hear everything, keeping eyes peeled to make sure everyone's hooked up right, transferring right to make a person into a digital version of themselves. Angela's one of those people that's constantly on her phone, it's glued to her hand, second we cut at all she's off getting her phone. One of the guys and myself saw her on Mr. Etebari's facebook and email account and not as a friend. I swear my eyes saw her sign into his account, read his emails, look up people, and it even looked like she was writing as him or I'm losing it way early. She was tapping away, looking like she was doing something pretty dam negative. We assumed she hated him and was trying to accomplish something negative. So I'm pretty surprised to see she worked for him as her director here. She couldn't save this film anyway. I only glanced at his page but it looks like he's doing pretty good and she'd be better off staying on his good side considering her lack of talent and looks. To be honest she seems like the type that would take advantage of everything and everyone anyway. The dysfunction of all these people probably contributed to the terribleness of Snapshot as well. It's hard to work well toward the same goal if everyone has secrets. Another reviewer even spoke about an actor in this film writes all their fake reviews. Birds of a feather I guess.

I kind of like Zach McGowan as the lead he seems like a cool dude, I watched Black Sails to. He does a middle of the road job but even as the lead that's not enough to make this a middle of the road movie. There's too much bad it was a waste of him being involved. I feel there's an epidemic in Hollywood of everyone thinking they can just make, write, direct a film because they feel like it or put themselves and their friends in it. I feel this film falls under that tragedy.
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My Husband Requested His Money Back
lizabooth8017 May 2015
Warning: Spoilers
The hubby and I were having date night in our new neighborhood. We moved to the arts distract of North Hollywood to be closer to his new job and decided to see a movie. We didn't realize there was some kind of event going on where people were showing their movies but tickets were for sale and there wasn't any of the big commercial films out that looked that good so after looking up a couple people in the film we decided to support small filmmakers and the creative community we moved into. I didn't see the reviews on my phone and didn't know there were reviews until looking up another film on my laptop now. On my iphone it seemed like it couldn't be that bad, the main guy was in Shameless and Black Sails and Robert Loggia was in it and the lady from 3's Company. I figured it would be a cute little film made for a little bit of money. We were so wrong. This is an awful movie that we tried very hard to stay as long as possible hoping it would get better but it only got worse. The concept was immature and made no sense and the dialogue was preposterous. The acting was worse than a school play with the worst being Joyce DeWitt who seemed lost and out of her element and Angela Gots who was simply mindbogglingly BAD. Watching Angela play with this box and her daddy issues that came off neither genuine nor sentimental and trying to act supportive to her boyfriend and then telling him they should just sell the photo to her getting suspicious and investigating his past is akin to water torture, completely inhumane to endure. Some of the smaller roles were very bad too. The grungy looking girl with the fishnets made no sense, a 30 year old with a daughter and her boyfriend, the girl in the camera shop, the gay guy. Just terrible. Cliché would be too kind of a description. This was worse than cliché, much worse. I've been to school plays better put together. After we couldn't take it any longer we left before it ended. I am not sure how much longer there was left but we had enough. My husband actually asked for his money back on the way out!
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