The Prime Gig (2001)

This is a very well made movie. It's gritty and realistic and the characters are well developed. The acting is superb, in a low key ultra realistic kind of way. The cinematography is unobtrusive and perfect for this story. The music fits the piece. It's a small story with somewhat big-time actors that is told in a slow and subtle way. For people conditioned to plot lines that move ultra fast and are hammered through their skull into their brains, this movie is not going to move fast enough for them. However for those with an attention span this movie is going to work well. I particularly liked the attention that was spent on how the actors interacted. Also I liked how all the different little characters here and there seemed to be well developed. It's nice when every character is important.

Telemarketeers...just the sound of it makes some of us cringe because not everyone likes those telemarketers to 'harass' us over the phone over something they want to promote on.And when moral questions are being raised about what is right and wrong, it has become a grey area. This is where Penny Wise (Vince Vaughn) has to deal with his own conscience.Scamming people through the phone is what Penny is good at for his job as a telemarketer, and when he was being hired to be part of this million-dollar scam, he was rather being hesitant at first. It's where his conscience starts to collide.Very interesting and quirky look at telemarketers who scam for the sake of money. Vince Vaughn portrayed it that well.Guess I will never see those telemarketers the same way again.

Vince Vaughn's character is named Pendleton "Penny" Wise.A reference to Stephen King's It? Is our hero an evil, heartless predator like the others? Maybe it's a just a play on words. If so, you'd think he'd be smarter with his money. I suppose it could just be irony.Regardless, I found the movie very predictable and am surprised at how gullible some of the characters in the film actually are. However, the ending is very realistic. Perhaps most people will frown upon the lack of closure, but it's not like other movies haven't ended this way.Anyway, I didn't know if anyone else had notice the similarity in the character names. There was no mention of it in the trivia section for the movie.

I once worked for an old line telemarketing company. I was the guy who trained sales people, not telemarketers who read scripts. I was also the guy who filled phone dialing consoles with scammers when it came time to bid contracts, scammers being the type of people I could not hire for anything other than contract bids. Scammers are good. If you take a deep breath, they can close a sale on that. So, movies like The Prime Gig and Glengarry Glen Ross are fascinating because, if you pay attention, you'll get to see things that most people never get to see, never mind believe. The Prime Gig is well done and more than real enough for those who like stories about scams. The acting is good and there's an absence of melodrama. Everything is done straight up. Movies like this are difficult to end but here we are given a real life ending. The ending works. The movie works. I very much enjoyed it.