Head Trip, a feature length film by Patrick Cox, begins with an opening sequence of various shots of cars going up and down the highway in or near Orlando, Florida. This rather drab beginning is appropriate: the film never really gets your full attention, and you'll see lots of traffic and street scene "filler" before it's over. A somewhat amateurish feature shot on videotape, it nonetheless has a few appealing moments. The two leads, Tom Ryan and Vanessa Lynn Bamber, show some potential as actors in their roles as the "average people" muddling their way thru life looking for love in all the wrong places.

The story revolves around those two, but unfortunately not closely enough. There are a few gratuitous nude scenes thrown in along the way for good measure, and two particularly unappealing scenes, where first a solo woman singer/guitar player, then later, the even less appealing "Otis", lip sync the songs being used (as background music, basically) to serenade the young jinxed lovers. The whole film would have been improved, in my opinion, if the Otis character had been written out entirely.

Fast motion traffic scenes and not-so-special fx are used to little purpose, presumably as filler to aid in stretching the story to feature length. This film somehow reminds me of a cross between the '60s TV show, The Monkees, Nickelodeon's Clarissa Explains It All (but with slightly older characters, just past college age) and el cheapo syndicated sitcoms, reminiscent of the old Love, American Style skits.

The video quality is so-so, the cinematography pretty bad, the sound inconsistent at best - at its most annoying during scenes shot outdoors when there is "wind roar" in the microphone and in dropouts during other parts of the movie. The main story between the two leads, while naively sweet in a sense, is not very original. The dialogue is mostly uninteresting. All that being said, there are moments when this film has a certain amatuerish, "homemade" appeal. My biggest surprise was to learn that this was the director's fifth feature film! It would have left me with a better feeling if it was a directorial debut...

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Head Trip (2000, Patrick Cox Productions) (out of 4)
written and directed by Patrick Cox
produced by Patrick Cox and Attila Pazmany
music by Even Them, Connie Blackwood and Otis
starring Tom Ryan and Vanessa Lynn Bamber

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