BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Micitype Pretty Good

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

blanche-2 "Shimmer Lake" is a very enjoyable dark comedy from Netflix.The story of a bank robbery is told backwards. When I started watching it, I thought it looked cheap. I don't think it cost a fortune. It concerns the local sheriff and his attempts to bring three bank robbers to justice - one of whom is his brother. The story goes in reverse day by day as we meet the different participants.I thought the dialogue was funny, the actors were fine, and while it will remind some people of Fargo, it's no Fargo though it is good. And I loved the way it was wrapped up at the end. Clever, funny, Netflix has redeemed itself after that awful thing Handsome.

Robert Thorpe With very few dark comedy thrillers out there, or thrillers at all for that matter, I had decided to check this little film out. The gimmick is telling the story backwards, which has been done a 1000 times and rarely works. Instead when gimmicks are used, it takes the focus away from the story which is usually ill conceived and predictable, as with this film. When gimmicks are used as a storytelling device, it must be used to enhance the story (Irreversible, Memento are two brilliant ones) not just as a way to tell a story. Putting cohesive stories together within the framework of a gimmick takes precision and this film clearly lacked it. For anyone that did not get the story from the Thursday (second day) reveal, and I am talking the entire story, you simply were not paying attention. Telling a story backwards has to be more than just a simple delivery method, it must be apart of the story. This film is not that funny, despite the other reviewers, and the moments that are suppose to be funny are forced, because of the abundance exposition. Literally, every character tells you what they are thinking and what they are doing. No one is thinking in this film. It simply is poorly written. The direction is less than as Ron Livingston who is great is just a cog in the oil-less machine. All the comedy is forced down our throat because it is not naturally written or performed and that falls on the director. I found myself bored and playing on my phone. Not to mention, it is a simple revenge story that has no imagination to it. UNLIKE FARGO that someone mentioned in a review, this film has no heart, no sense of what it is and what it wants to say about the subject matter. Very flat.

Samiam3 This comedic crime picture chronicles the aftermath of a foiled bank robbery, but in reverse, one day at a time.The recipe which involves the humorous blunders of very dumb criminals and the cops who are after them has all the pulp, but none of the juice or the sugar to make it much good. The reverse time gimmick doesn't make the story anymore interesting, because it never feels like a story worth telling. The payoff for each chapter is merely to tell us who got killed and how. If only we could care. Shimmer Lake has virtually no respect for its characters so neither will most of the audience. Their one function is to be laughed at. Shimmer Lakes one achievement is that are a few moments that prompt giggles. Worst of everything is Shimmer Lake is the acting, which delivery and reactions that at times seem intuitionally phony. The way Rainn Wilson's character holds a gun in one scene is so ridiculous that it can serve no other meaning than to tell us that he's never held a gun in his life. The catalyst for the whole fiasco involves the death of a child that is never even explained let alone shown to us. All we get is a wide shot of a burning cabin. Shimmer Lake does itself no favours by cutting this backstory out of the movie.The finished product plays like a student production made by students who spend more in the movie world than the real one. It's hard to imagine ho this movie got sold.

jtindahouse There are two reasons you might make a film with a non-linear time line. The first is that you have a twist in your film, however the twist doesn't come at the end of your story so you need to make it happen at the end of your story (much like 'Memento' did). The second, and inferior, reason is that your film simply isn't unique enough on its own. 'Shimmer Lake' is a combination of both of these reasons I suspect. There's a twist of sorts which would have come at the beginning of the film and now comes at the end. But what they won't tell you is that by doing this it is also hiding the fact that this is a very run-of-the-mill story line told a thousand times over. I'm sorry, but it really is. There is nothing fresh here in that regard. I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities in this script as well. It should have been more fun. There should have been more reveals (or at least more important ones). As each day goes by backwards, it feels more like things are simply being confirmed for us, rather than taking us by surprise. There's also a quite bizarre tone to the film. There are a few actors in the cast known primarily for their comedic talents. When they're on screen the whole film feels more like a comedy than anything else. Then when they're not on screen the film decides to take itself very seriously. In that respect the film is an absolute mess that looks like it has been dissected a hundred times over in the editing room. There was an idea here that could have been good, but that was as far as things got. Sadly this is a misfire.