BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

sgar-1 I saw this shortly after it came out. For at least the first half hour I honestly thought it was a comic satire mockumentary of a fictional doomed startup. It was so inane and random. Then I had the stunning realization that it was real. And not very good.

bob the moo At the time of the dot.com boom, Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman start up their own internet company seeking to offer a platform to enable activities carried out at the local Government level, such as the payment of parking tickets, applying for licenses and so on. We join them at the very start of this journey as they gather funding, grow the employee base and begin developing their product and compete for business and investment. However, in business as in life, things do not always go to plan.I was quite looking forward to this film, not least because it was one of the documentaries screened as part of the ten year anniversary of the BBC's Storyville stable – Storyville being known for the quality of the documentaries. Secondly I did also think the film sounded fascinating on many levels due to the subject matter but also the amount of access it had to the top people in the company throughout the entire process. I'll get to what I think of the film in a minute but firstly let stress that my focus will be what I thought of the film and NOT simply personal views on the people. Reading reviews here, I was surprised by the number that said little on the film but seemed to be reviewing Kaleil and Tom – several with opinions and insinuations that I personally would call offensive at best, racist at worst.Many have commented on the way Kaleil and Tom delivered (or failed to deliver) their product but again the concern for me as a viewer is how the makers of the film have failed to deliver. I'm not sure where the failing occurred but how it appears is that they thought the battle had been won simply because of their great access and that simply being there would be enough to make this fascinating viewing. They are wrong. I'm sure it must have been tough to edit the film down from two years into this running time but it feels like all they have done is cut together bits that are important, without really packaging it together or helping the audience understand anything beyond what we are seeing. As a result it really fails to portray much of value in regards business or the dot.com era – hell, even the closing captions seem brief and disinterested.Without a focus from the makers we are left to find our own and of course we end up on the individuals of Kaleil and Tom. This makes the film more of a fly-on-the-wall reality TV show, relying on personal tensions etc to drive the story forward; but you know what? It isn't that good. Both men are interesting to a point but neither individually or together do they justify a film to share this with the world. It is a shame because the film is not terrible by any means but without any sort of focus and a real lack of vision from the makers, we are left with very little of interest to work with and annoyingly it becomes increasingly apparent as you watch.

geohaber-2 This film is a good first step in chronicling the rise and fall of a hot dot.com business. Left unrevealed, as many other viewers have commented, is a more insightful look at what the business was all about, what the challenges were in marketing it, how the business expected to make money, and exactly how it rose and fell. Nothing is mentioned about the problems of recruiting talent, pitching prospects, or confronting competition which, apparently, was the cause of the govworks downfall. We also would like to know more about the backgrounds of the founders--where did they grow up? What did their parents do? And what's the story behind the daughter of Tom? (Other comments allude to his "gayness" but I didn't feel that was clearly implied...Is it relevant?)

arvy If you are interested, this is what these boys are doing now.Not convinced they have ever actually achieved anything, but the film is nevertheless interesting for the first 2/3s of the show.It follows the team raising money, hiring people, firing some others and getting swept up in the bubble of 99-2000.It would have been better to see the new CEO takeover and the machinations involved here as the demise that is shown is a purely personal one, and I would be interested in see what they thought about it after the event. Clearly Tom and Khalil work together (see below)http://www.recognitiongroup.com/articles.php?post=74 http://www.recognitiongroup.com/about_us.php?sub=2