Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie made on a Shoe-string Budget!!
Review: I thought this was a great story. Yes, the filming was a bit rough, but considering this was filmed on a shoe-string budget in around 6 day's, I actually am very impressed. Basically, this is the familiar story of a young country boy who moves to the city to sow his wild oats is given a fresh spin in this well acted erotic drama. Blond and blue-eyed 20-year old Jared (Spears) arrives in LA fresh from Georgia and looking for adventure. He moves into a youth hostel and meets sexy gay boy Robert (Jacobson). Robert falls for Jared, but Jared has not yet come to terms with his emerging homosexuality. Jared gets a job caring for a lonely blind woman, who needs in-house care. Her 35 year-old son Matthew (Tyler) shows up at the house and he becomes smitten with Jared. They hit it off and a hot sexual affair commences. Matthew is two-timing his lover and has a severe case of emotional blockage. There's lots of romance and hot sex in this unusual film, a cross between drama and erotica. I would recommend this video to everyone, I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mike Heine ('winterstone')
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of heart, but that's it
Review: I'm sure all the folks involved in making this movie are good people. The DVD contains an interview with the cast and the writer/director, and they all seem pretty likeable... But the movie just wasn't very good. First, the good points. The story was ultimately sweet -- it had heart. I found myself liking Jared and Robert and I rooted for them to get together. (Corey Spears is so darn cute that I was often distracted from his mostly not-so-great acting; Josh Jacobson was better.) The film quality: I could forgive the fact that it was filmed on digital video. And now the bad points. The characters: they're mainly unoriginal archetypes straight out of 60 years of gay pulp fiction. The cute, innocent small-town boy in the big city; the rich, 30something guy who turns out to be a lecher; the elderly woman who dispenses wisdom and turns out to be liberal... The plot: It's all black and white and obvious. Men with money won't bring you happiness; follow your heart instead! Okay -- there are definitely lots of people out there who still don't know that, so maybe they'd benefit from watching this. But you can advocate a point of view while still writing an entertaining movie with three-dimensional characters. The plot has little narrative flow. Things are left unestablished. For instance, what does Jared see in Robert in the first place? And there's little dramatic buildup and payoff. Things happen abruptly. There's a scene where Robert calls Jared but Matthew doesn't give him the message, and then it's dropped. In a better movie, this scene would lead to misunderstandings and a little bit of tension. But nothing happens here. The movie's dialogue is pretty bad. It consists mostly of cliches, as well as things like "cool" and "oh, okay" and "my bad." Sure, those expressions are true to life. And many of the scenes between Jared and Robert seemed very real, as if I were watching them on a surveillance camera. But there's "interesting" real and there's "boring" real. Watching paint dry is also real, but it's not entertaining. Although much of the acting is decent, two of the actors were pretty mediocre.
Rating: 
Summary: Stock characters, cliched plot
Review: In an interview available on the DVD, the star of "The Journey of Jared Price" says that someone once referred to it a gay after-school special. This is an apt characterization: this movie is no more realistic than classic schlock like "Desperate Lives," The after-school special where Helen Hunt takes PCP and jumps out of a second story window. The predictable plot, stock characters, awful dialogue, and amateurish production values conspire to make this one of the worst gay-themed films I've ever seen. The plot is clichéd and insulting, as well as patently ageist. Nominally, the film involves a young man from rural Georgia (the eponymous Jared Price) coming to LA, for reasons that are never made clear to us. He ends up living in a youth hostel rooming with a male prostitute (how colorful!) and making friends with another man his age. Eventually, he moves into the Beverly Hills mansion of his employer, a wealthy visually impaired woman. While living in her house, he meets the woman's son, an older gay man in a long-term relationship. The son decides that the way to spice up his relationship is to have a three-way with Jared. Jared refuses and, with the help of his employer, moves out of her house and into his own apartment. In the end, he starts dating the guy he met at the youth hostel. This summary makes the movie sound merely boring. Actually watching it is much more painful. The oldest gay character is predatory, sexually confused, and uncaring. The young characters are clean-cut and angelic. Sex outside of a monogamous relationship between same-age partners is portrayed as somehow wrong or bad. Does anyone else find this offensive? I felt like I was watching a gay movie made for the Family Channel. Worst of all, the dialogue is just terrible! In one scene, a character launches into a long monologue describing the meaning of the word "partners". It was so bad I almost winced. More truly awful dialogue comes when Jared realizes that the son is trying to involve him in a three-way. Has the screenwriter actually taken the time to listen to the way people talk? Finally, the acting is generally quite amateurish. The actress playing the employer appears to be reading her lines from a cue card, flat and emotionless. (The high point of the DVD is watching the outtakes of her screwing up her lines.) The character of Jared Price is competently acted, but he isn't given much to work with. The movie's only high point is the character of Jared's friend. His dialogue rings true-did he improvise it?-and is delivered very naturally. It's unfortunate that he only has about 10 minutes of screen time. Gay people of all ages and backgrounds (rural, urban, liberal, conservative, black, white, Latino/a, etc.) deserve well-made movies which realistically portray our lives, and assert the value and dignity of the many different choices we make. "The Journey of Jared Price" is not such a movie.
Rating:
Summary: Journey to Boredom
Review: Let's just say that I would have liked the movie much more if the acting had been even remotely decent. While the story line is plausible and somewhat interesting - what coming out story may not be - the "actors" got in the way. Even the blind woman read her lines poorly. And what a name for her - Rocki Cragg?!? I didn't understand the constant camera attention to her ability to put the tea cup on the table. Was the director trying to tell us the woman isn't blind? Oh, and what was the deal with Jared watching his roommate in the dark filmed in such a way that we couldn't see anything? (But I guessed that the roommate was flying solo.) It was good, however, to see that the main character, who really needed to shave those scraggly hairs from his chin, made a better choice in the end, even if he did chose [an aroused] pauper over the manipulative affluent. The ending was kind of sweet, though fleeting. Better looking characters and dialog would have made this film at least a 3. But, since it is what it is, I do have a used copy available for sale.
Rating:
Summary: Heart Warming & Refreshing!
Review: My Partner of going on 17 years and I really enjoyed this movie. It showed other sides of gay life and that with good advice & concern the young man was able to find happiness and a future. We both really liked this movie and thought it had a lot to offer.
Rating:
Summary: Heart Warming & Refreshing!
Review: My Partner of going on 17 years and I really enjoyed this movie. It showed other sides of gay life and that with good advice & concern the young man was able to find happiness and a future. We both really liked this movie and thought it had a lot to offer.
Rating: 
Summary: A Small Town Perspective
Review: Not a bad little movie. A little weak in the story line at times. A little disappointing at times, mainly with the ending. It was a low budget film, but once you start watching, you tend to forget about that completely.
Rating: 
Summary: You can TELL this one was done in five days
Review: Okay, first off, I DID enjoy this movie. No, REALLY. It was fun, for what it was worth. But yeah, it was pretty clear this movie was done in a really short time. It's not as polished as it could be. The plot line wasn't terribly compelling. The acting was decidedly amateurish. The only saving grace for this movie was the old blind woman (whose name I forget) who actually had the strength to do something beyond just bending to the whims of other people. As a blind person, she was the one person who could see past all the...in everyone's lives. Rent this movie. Really.
Rating:
Summary: You can TELL this one was done in five days
Review: Okay, first off, I DID enjoy this movie. No, REALLY. It was fun, for what it was worth. But yeah, it was pretty clear this movie was done in a really short time. It's not as polished as it could be. The plot line wasn't terribly compelling. The acting was decidedly amateurish. The only saving grace for this movie was the old blind woman (whose name I forget) who actually had the strength to do something beyond just bending to the whims of other people. As a blind person, she was the one person who could see past all the...in everyone's lives. Rent this movie. Really.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing what they did in 5 days....
Review: Parts of this movie are great. Parts are a bit rough. When you come to realize that it was made in 5 days with little budget, the end result is pretty amazing. It is a good quality movie that tells a sweet story. The Matthew character is well done. You don't know whether to hate him or pity him. There are many people like this out in the community so I think the character hits a note of familiarity. The Robert character is a bit simple but likable. The actor that plays Jared does a fine job but there are times when it just doesn't seem to come together. Specifically, when Jared is yelling at Matthew. That feels forced. Mrs Haines is, in my opinion, the most lovable character and if I were to ever watch this movie again, it would be because of her. She adds a great deal to the movie. Her interactions with Jared are kind of like icing on a cake but it is very sweet. Overall, not a great film but certainly worth watching. A good "snuggle up with your sweetie and watch a good movie" kind of film.
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