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I have to disagree with Dreamscale (again). There's actually some pretty good writing here, but (I'll give Dreamscale this, though) Justin's reaction to Heather being a killer seemed a little "off," Scary Movie-ish. Like Wes Anderson trying to do a thriller/slasher.
Code
Justin paces around the elevator, panicked.
JUSTIN
Oh shit, I'm stuck in the elevator
with a killer.
He screams.
JUSTIN
Help. Help someone.
A little too on-the-nose. I'd change it to "Oh shit" or leave it out altogether. Not how I (or anyone in the real world) would react in this situation. And I would use exclamation points. He's stuck in an elevator with a killer, for crying out loud! Scream your lungs out, Justin! (Not you, Bieber.)
There are a few orphans taking up their own action lines. Try to fit everything on one line, or add at least one extra word so the orphan doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.
Also, why did she get back in? Just to kill Justin? Why didn't Justin get out, too? Afraid of heights or something?
Where did the gun come from? Don't they have security guards? Sorry. seemed a little random. "I'm only pulling out a gun because I'm in a movie."
Grading method:
Walk This Way = A Sweet Emotion = B Dream On = C Dud Looks Like a Lady = D No More, No More = F
I thought this was alright. I've been avoiding it as the title put me off. I thought it was going to be some awful sex comedy. Thankfully it isn't.
Not sure about the paint idea. Did he think she'd passed some bloke painting who flicked his brush at her? That isn't a euphemism.
I think there's a solid idea here. It didn't quite come to fruition. But it's not as far off as some might say.
It needs work, some editing and polishing. That said, there wasn't many scripts in this challenge that don't need any work. Apart from mine, obviously.
I like this. Sure it needs work but it is shoestring budget, set in an elevator and it’s entertaining.
I liked the characters, the way they acted, their dialogue. I guessed she was a hit woman quite early on but it didn’t deter me.
Once she gets back in the elevator with the ‘paint’ on her face it starts to lose it a bit and the WTF moment does come out of left field but a polish could fix most of these issues easily. It’s like Mr. and Mrs. Smith but if they had just met…and killed each other lol.
-Mark
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First the good. I like the concept and actually like how it ended. Both assassins dead and freaking the hell out of the first person to open the elevator. My main problems are with Justin. If he’s a killer too, he doesn’t really act consistently. At one point he’s acting scared and shouting for help, then later he’s alluding to how little Heather knows about him. In the end it comes down to, what is he even doing here? We know Heather’s here to kill someone in the building. But why is Justin here? Coincidence? If so, why does he care about what Heather’s doing? Why play with fire? If what she’s doing is any business of his, why wait until after it’s done to intercede?
I’d figure out Justin’s role in all this. Maybe he’s supposed to protect her target. Maybe they’re both attempting to collect a bounty on the same target. Once you have that, rework the story with that knowledge, because right now Justin as a hitman feels random, even though it’s hinted at
The writer seems to be offering a hint of what's to come early on when Justin asks Heather whether she'd had a busy day.
Heather: A killer. Justin: Yeah, me too. Gotta get this job done...or my boss will kill me, too.
But there's not much more here to help set up the finale. I take it she's supposed to kill somebody, and Justin's supposed to kill somebody. The elevator stalls.
Heather climbs out, completes the job, returns -- maybe for the shoes, as someone else said, or maybe to stab Justin. She does so. Next, Justin shoots her. Whether she was his original target, who knows? Whether Justin was her second target, who knows?
The script cruises nicely from Point A to Point Z. What's missing is some of the letters in between.
You know, I rather like this one. It's very simple and straightforward. Not very fancy at all - but it works. When I read the blood description, I immediately cringed, thinking "vampire." So assassin was actually a bit of a relief.
As to plot points... I'm not 100% sure how a female assassin could use a broken elevator ruse to reach her target... why not just go straight to that floor? Because disappearing temporarily through an escape hatch looks just as fishy.
That aside, nice work! And definitely one that would be easy to shoot.
Wait, so, instead of going to the floor, she opened the latch and climbed there? I'm very confused now, where and when did she kill the other person? Also, no Tarantino? Ha, ha, ha. Maybe I'm just totally out of it right now but really, not even sure about anything that happened here. The elevator being the only location hurts the script (but it's part of the challenge), since every beat occurs OS, barring the ending. Really hard to connect with anything unfortunately.
This is a good one, mostly because I felt it was well written and smooth. The writer gives us little details about these two characters over the course of the story, but doesn't smash us over the head. Stuff like that just adds to the read, IMO. It helps the flow, and it gives a neat visual. The characters actions sometimes get you to know them better than any dialogue can. This script does that.
Only nit was the ending. Didn't really do it for me, but where else could this one have gone really? It was entertaining and well written, and that's good enough for me at the moment.
I read this yesterday and remember the twist of two killers. It's a generic one but you played it out solid. I have to say I like the characters and their interactions more than the structure of the plot, which is good, I believe...
The challenge is extremely hard this time imo and you showed you can take it successful.
Has potential, but falls short and is too convenient with respect to the ending. With work, it could be fixed, but there is still the matter of falling too close to Prizzi's Honor.
Okay, thanks for all of the comments on my script - all of them. Not sure if I will rewrite and put this out there. I want to address some of the things mentioned in the reviews. Since I have to explain some things, doesn't that mean the script needs work?
1. This was originally going to be a rom com and to be called Love in an Elevator. That is why I chose the writer name Steven Tyler. 2. Yeah, I had a little Mr. and Mrs. Smith in mind while writing this. 3. Some questioned why Heather left the elevator. The power went out, and she was there to do a hit. 4. As to Justin, he was there to hit Heather. 5. The power going out was not in his or her control. Just happened. Both hit persons just improvised to the situation. 6. They didn't know each other. She's there to kill someone, he's there to kill her and she doesn't know it. 7. She realizes he's there to kill her when she she's the disorganized man's stuff neatly stacked in the corner. 8. At first, I was going to have him live. I changed my mind at the very end for a more WTF ending. 9. I wish I had spent more time on it and some of the writing showed it.
Thanks again to all that read and commented.
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