I don't know that I agree with how successful Chronicle was, at least from audience perspective. Or more specifically, my perspective. I thought the set-up for the main camera was far too convenient, almost throw-away to get the story started. And the gimmicky cell-phone scene mixed with a plethora of security cameras and police dash-cams made the whole ending battle so aware of itself that I couldn't help but think about how I was sitting in a movie theatre watching this movie with my friends. There was almost no emotional attachment at that point. Now, I'm usually the resident "snob" in my group of friends, but all of them agreed with me on the point. It felt contrived, and gimmicky. And the entire movie, all I could think of were ways I would've written things to make it more believable, and how if it hadn't been FF, it could've been so great. SO great. Not to mention every aspect of the characters, teen culture, and relationships felt so cliche, it must've been written by the child of some famous hollywood Director/Producer. Oh wait... I just honestly don't see any of this happening with an outsider. They might think the attempt is cute, but not cute enough, even if you throw in a buzzword or two about found footage. The bottom line is, it doesn't matter what I think. They made plenty of money back from their relatively small investment, and Max Landis gets to go on being Mr. Hollywood. Congrats!

Garrett, I can’t comment on the movie as I haven’t gotten to see it yet [it's on my to-do list]. But per your other point, obviously someone who is the son or daughter of a Hollywood insider has a massive advantage in terms of working in the business, if that’s their inclination [as it often is]. However Hollywood’s blood type is $$ and it doesn’t matter if you are the son or daughter of a studio head, if what you do as an actor, writer, director or whatever does not make money, you will have a really hard time getting work. Granted they may cut the son/daughter/nephew/niece/son-in-law/daughter-in-law a bit more slack. Maybe they have to fail three or four times as opposed to two or three times for us normal types. But it’s all about bottom line profitability nowadays. To repeat: They do have a major leg up as they literally born into a Hollywood network. Not denying that. But they have to produce results to succeed over the long haul.

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