I am very, very critical of most movies. Especially these type of indie flix where the 2-bit actors recite their barely memorized lines one after another after another with little emotion. Or overact using the f-word to show their "range." Or act in ways no normal person ever would.You won't find this in Favor, my friend.I caught Favor on Comcast Xfinity Streampix last night and its the best movie I've seen in 5 years. Maybe 10. The casting, acting, script writing, character and plot development, and entertainment value are all 10 out of 10. I put it up their with Blood Simple, one of my top 10 of all time. The main character (Blayne Weaver) acts exactly like you would expect a man to act in his predicament. His wife (Cheryl Nichols) was amazing and it was hard to believe she was acting. What a star, and what a gorgeous woman. And the bad guy - Patrick Day. Wow. Maybe the best acting I have ever seen, and I mean ever. Yes, there are some flaws. The policewoman and her smart alec demeanor was over the top and a throwaway part. The plot had a few minor holes, but so did The Departed and The Godfather. But even with these minor flaws, I still cannot recommend this movie more. It's low budget indie look and style add so much to the realism. Compare this to the piece of indie trash called "At The Sinatra Club" I saw the night before or the ridiculously stupid waste of celluloid "Iron Doors" I saw the night before that and one can see what a true masterpiece this is.To all involved with this movie: Well done! BRAVO! Please make more just like it and this time get a major release so I don't have to catch your fine work two years later on Comcast.

Another one that caught me completely by surprise. Alicia Veliz and I sat down to watch this, after deciding to pick a couple of random DVDs. While it turned out I saw the other one before, Favor was new to us both and I'm happy to say, this was a Favor I didn't mind owing.Do you know the saying "A friend helps you move. A good friend helps you move a body" ? This is the entire premise of this movie and while it is a very small budget movie (you can tell the locations are no more than two or three places), the actors involved and the Director did a fantastic job of making this simple premise a taught and enjoyable thriller from beginning to end.With a slow build, but never boring Favor is all about the characters shown. Kip is one of those people some of us know, who always seem to have everything they want. A great job. A nice home. A loving marriage and everything in between. Like some people though, he takes these things for granted as if he's owed everything he has. Then we meet Marvin. Kip's old friend from way back. Marvin is the complete opposite. He's broke. He's unemployed. He's lonely and has nothing worth living for. After Kip asks for Marvin help to move his dead girlfriend's body, things get really complicated as Marvin unravels and begins to envy Kip's life. We know what's coming, but that doesn't make the ride any less fun.Favor isn't fast paced or action packed but the actors make the story riveting and enjoyable from beginning to end and I highly recommend watching it, if you're looking for a good suspense flick.

I went into this movie knowing nothing at all about it, so perhaps that's one of the reasons I scored it so highly. Sometimes it's great to just watch a movie for the sake of watching it rather then go in expecting something only to be disappointed.The story is not new, but the way it's delivered is quite good and not what I expected at all.I have never heard of any of the actors in this piece and given their sometimes wooden acting and sheer (seemingly) lack of talent helps deliver this movie in a fashion I'm certainly not familiar with. I am hoping that the actors were directed in such a fashion as to seem wooden and inexperienced to add to the impact they have on the audience.There are some rather ridiculous moments of 'special effects' but I'm not going to detract too much from the movie for what seem like 'after thoughts'. There are a couple of bad editing points, I can't fathom why they needed two Toyota Camry's, but clearly there is more then one and in a couple of scenes there is some annoying lens reflection, but I guess most wont notice anyway. Why do I bring these items up???, well I am of the opinion that this movie was a fluke, however I'm not totally convinced, but it seems to me that if you take an old script use unknown actors, use poor visual effects combined with poor camera work and still have a winning combination it's either a fluke or bloody good direction. I'm not knowledgeable enough on the director nor the actors to offer an 'informed opinion', but let's hope the next movie from Paul Osborne shows me that it was great work from him that pleased me so much about this movie. Overall I was glued to this movie for the simple fact that the actors had me wondering if they could deliver the goods, they delivered in spades as did the director, as mentioned the script is by no means new, but it has some interesting twists and turns that carry the movie and keep you guessing, to turn a old script into something that is interesting and is not 'too' predictable is an achievement in itself.I thoroughly enjoyed this.8/10.

Kip Desmond seems like one of those guys who hit the lottery. Prosperous job, beautiful wife, he's just LUCKY. The durability of his luck gets a major test in Paul Osborne's new drama/thriller, "Favor".There's no spoiler alert necessary to tell you the plot of this film. The concept is laid out in the first scene and fires out of the gate from there. The script is streamlined nicely to deliver this plot and not get involved in stray scenes that meander for no reason or jump into side plots that go nowhere.Kip gets what he wants, and what he's wanted for sometime is Abby, a local waitress with whom he's been having an affair. But when things go bad (that bad), Kip ends up going to an old high school friend to help him get rid of the body. The high school friend, Marvin, agrees and…well, let's just say it doesn't go so well. Every attempt to keep the act and the situation clean gets foiled by blackmail, guilt or really bad decisions."Favor" follows the path of good modern day thrillers like "A Simple Plan" and "Blood Simple", apparently, movies with "Simple" in the title. But "Favor" is far from simple. Osborne has created a steady air of "uncomfortable" that permeates each scene as the choices the characters make become darker and more desperate. There's nothing more fun at the movies than watching characters get deeper and deeper in trouble, and there's no shortage of that in "Favor", as the stakes get raised in scene after scene, sometimes to funny, but often to shocking results.Blayne Weaver plays Kip, a fine bit of casting, as Weaver can play weasel quite well. Patrick Day is the casting coup here, nailing pathetic loser who can turn around and be quite conniving. We all know and fear the hell out of the guy he's playing. They all live in our hometown, which is why we left there years ago. Other supporting cast members include Cheryl Nichols, Christina Rose, Rosalie Ward and Jeffrey Combs, but the film belongs to the leads just driving that story home. Again, a film this single-minded is refreshing.The tech elements are consistent. As most indie films are, this is shot digitally, but unlike most indie features which go nuts with the depth of field 'cause "Yay! We can do that now! Just like film!", you're never saying to yourself, "Look at how nuts they've gone with the depth of field 'cause they can do that now. Just like film". Instead, the cinematography serves the greater picture of setting the tone. And the tone is dark. The intangibles are here that always set an indie apart from a major studio picture. As they're intangible, I don't know what they are, but all independent films have them – just…little things that make this film an indie, but I think Osborne's writing shows he could just as easily collaborate with Robert Richardson, Rick Carter and Michael Kahn, so guys, clear your calendars.There's something enjoyable about watching the comeuppance of a white, privileged, entitled guy. I remember this guy Brad Wilkins from my college (yeah, his name was BRAD), and he never thought the rules applied to him. Man, I'd like to see him involved in the quagmire Kip finds himself in. And that's another positive quality of "Favor", you can't really root for Kip, or Marvin (or BRAD). They're pretty repellent guys. But you can't stop watching their story, and you hope the damage they cause doesn't spread.But it does.Enjoy.