Reviews

Writer, producer, director James Glickenhaus was known for taking familiar genre films and doing his own low-budget take. His prior film, THE EXTERMINATOR, was his take on the DEATH WISH urban revenge picture, SHAKEDOWN was his take on the buddy-cop film, SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS was his take on the serial killer genre, and so on and so forth. His versions are usually more violent and have more of a gritty edge to them, and that is the case here with his take on the Cold War spy picture. Ken Wahl plays a secret agent known only as "The Soldier" and is tasked with tracking down a stolen nuke that's set to blow up a Saudi oil field. It's a serviceable spy plot, and THE SOLDIER delivers some solid action sequences, but Glickenhaus' limited budget is better suited to exploitation flicks shot on the slimy streets of 1980s NYC than a James Bond-like globe-trotting spy picture. When a dozen oil drums in the middle of a sand dune is meant to represent a vast Saudi oil field, that felt like a pretty big stretch (not to mention some pretty terrible use of stock footage). Still, Wahl is good in the lead, Glickenhaus delivers some exciting action sequences, and best of all, the film features an early score by Tangerine Dream (THIEF, LEGEND, RISKY BUSINESS). Overall, THE SOLDIER is not exactly a Cold War classic, but it is kind of a fun, scrappy cousin to Frederick Forsyth that's at least as entertaining as FIREFOX and definitely better than THE EIGER SANCTION.

Disappointing Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western is a mixed bag. Where the film excels is an above-average story for an Italian western (co-written by Albert Band, father of B-movie icon Charles Band), telling the tale of defeated Confederate officer Joseph Cotten traveling back home with stolen gold that he has plans to use to reconstitute the Confederate Army. The set-up is basically a western road movie, where Cotton and his small group of rebel confederates have various encounters with Union soldiers, posses, outlaws, and others. The fun kicker is the gold is hidden in a coffin, and they have kidnapped Norma Bengell (looking very much like Claudia Cardinale) to pose as the widow of the supposed deadman in the coffin. Unfortunately for the film, Cotton seems to sleepwalk through the picture, never really digging his teeth into the part of his bitter defeated Southern Colonel, and Corbucci delivers mostly standard western action and nothing as savage or shockingly original as his best films (that would be THE GREAT SILENCE, THE MERCENCY, or CAMPENEROS). Overall, it's an entertaining film, but I can't help but feel like it was a huge missed opportunity for something that could have been a classic.

DEATH WISH-like rape/revenge story about a group of women who've all been sexually assaulted by the same hockey-masked rapist (Peter Brown). Think PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, but grindhouse instead of art-house, as the group of women train in martial arts in order to exact their revenge. Although the film pretends to be providing social commentary about rape culture and the ineffectiveness of the justice system, ACT OF VENGEANCE unquestionably exploits its subject matter for all the wrong reasons. However, the revenge scenes are pretty damn satisfying, and Jo Ann Harris is fantastic in the lead. Best known for her seductress role in Clint Eastwood's oddball southern gothic THE BEGUILED, Harris really should have been a bigger star, and I totally could have seen her as one of Charlie's Angels. It's a bummer she didn't go on to do much else of note, though she did consistently work in TV up through the 90s. Overall, this is not a good film by almost any measure, but it does have its sleazy grindhouse charms for fans of these sorts of films. I also wondered if the FRIDAY THE 13TH filmmakers borrowed from this film when they gave Jason his hockey mask in part three? The great Steve Kanaly also appears in a small supporting role.

Fine documentary on the life and art of silent film star Buster Keaton. Written and directed by Peter Bogdanovich (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, PAPER MOON, MASK), this was the last film he made as a director, and it's fitting that his final film is a love letter to one of the early stars of film and follows his career from the days of silent films through the Golden Age of Hollywood, all the way through the 1960s on the eve of the New Hollywood revolution. Not only does the film celebrate the life and art of Keaton, the film serves as a document of the evolution of American film and the Hollywood studio system. Featuring contemporary and archival interviews with diverse personalities, including Dick Van Dyke, Johnny Knoxville, Paul Dooley, French Stewart, Richard Lewis, Carl Reiner, Bill Hader, Mel Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Werner Herzog, Nick Kroll, Quentin Tarantino, Leonard Maltin, Ben Mankiewicz, and Norman Lloyd. While the film serves as a loving celebration of Keaton, it's not particularly revelatory. It works best as an introduction to Keaton for the uninitiated, but is nonetheless worth watching for Keaton fans for the many interviews and rare archival footage of Keaton and his work outside of his classic films.

Based on a true story involving one of the film's producers, Luke Wilson plays a 90s businessman fixer who gets called in by a mobbed-up lawyer to help two coke-heads who figured out how to monetize internet porn. One of the pair, an ex-NASA scientist played by SUITS' Gabriel Macht, writes the code for secure online credit card transactions that is the basis for what's still used to this day, but after they fail to pay off their mob partners, that's where Wilson is called in make things right, which sets off the events of the rest of the film. Filled with drugs, Russian mobsters, and the adult film world, the actors play the film straight, but writer/director George Gallo, screenwriter of the classic action/comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, infuses a wicked dark humor into the film, which is the best thing about it. Where the film disappoints is that as the film progresses, it loses its sense of humor, gets more and more serious, and seems more and more derivative of other films, such as BLOW, which itself was derivative of other superior films, such as GOODFELLAS and BOOGIE NIGHTS. Overall, MIDDLE MEN is worth watching, but I'm not sure it's one I'll revisit. Still, it did make me want to watch some other George Gallo-scripted films.

Introverted high school senior Quentin, who has been in love with his cute neighbor, Margo, for years, is unexpectedly taken on a night of wild adventure with his lifelong crush, who then mysteriously disappears the next day. Q follows clues left behind by Margo with his friends as to Margo's possible whereabouts, leading to a road trip and new friendships and relationships. It's a likable teen comedy/drama about young folks discovering themselves, where it's about the journey and not the destination. However, PAPER TOWNS is not as funny or as touching as it thinks it is. Cara Delevingne steals the film as the unpredictable wild child Margo. Although she does not have as much screen time as the other characters, she lives up to her character's larger-than-life persona, and you cannot deny Delevingne's star power. Looking at her filmography, I'm kind of disappointed she hasn't gone on to do anything that is all that notable. She's been in some big films, like the first SUICIDE SQUAD (the bad one and not the good one) and Luc Besson's disappointing VALERIAN, but nothing else of note. With the right project, she should be a star. Halston Sage also makes an impression as Margo's best friend who tags along on the road trip, but the other kids on the road trip never rise above teen movie stereotypes. Although PAPER TOWNS has its moments, it's a far cry compared to the far superior coming-of-age films, such as PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER or SING STREET, which you should immediately watch if you haven't seen either.

Outside of BASIC INSTINCT, this is probably the best of the spate of trashy 90s erotic thrillers. Okay, okay, BOUND and THE LAST SEDUCTION are way better, but they both subvert the genre, whereas SINGLE WHITE FEMALE and BASIC INTINCT are pure, unironic examples of it. It's also worth noting that Brian DePalma had been making these sorts of thrillers since the 70s, with SISTERS, DRESSED TO KILL, and BODY DOUBLE. In this film, 90s business gal Bridget Fonda takes in roommate Jennifer Jason Leigh after breaking up with her cheating boyfriend, Steven Weber. Jason Leigh then becomes obsessed with Fonda to bonkers extremes. Her obsession reaches heights that border on parody, but I'm pretty sure the filmmakers and actors thought they were making a sexy Hitchcockian thriller. Directed by Barbet Schroeder, who made the sharp-witted REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, the darkly funny biopic of Charles Bukowski BARFLY, the underrated and somewhat forgotten crime thriller KISS OF DEATH, as well as a series of fine French films before moving to Hollywood, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE does stretch credulity and reaches some new heights of ridiculousness, but the Fonda and Jason Leigh (both spotting very odd wigs) are fantastic and fully commit to their bonkers roles. Schroeder treats the tawdry material as if it were REPULSION or DON'T LOOK NOW. Throw in the great character actor Stephen Tobolowsky as a creepy sexually harassing boss, who strangely (SPOILER ALERT!) gets a hero-turn in the film's climax between the warring roommates, a fine score by the consistently excellent Howard Shore (THE FLY, LORD OF THE RINGS), and fantastic photography from Italian cinematographer Luciano Tovoli, who's worked with the likes of Michelangelo Antonioni, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Dario Argento, how could you not love this trashy delight? FUN FACT! Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bridget Fonda's fathers, Vic Morrow and Peter Fonda, respectively, play adversaries in DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY.

I started off with this film thinking it's not as bad as I was expecting based on all its abysmal reviews. However, after an entertaining first act, it quickly goes downhill with boring redundant explosions and action you quickly become numb to and uninterested in. Cribbing from everything from MAD MAX, to BLADE RUNNER, to STAR WARS, the film doesn't have an original bone in its body. I never played the video game the movie is based on, but I'm guessing it's a knockoff of all these sources as well. However, seeing Cate Blanchett in an unabashed popcorn flick is pretty fun and does goes a long way in making the film just barely watchable. I really wish I could have seen her character in a much better of film.

I'd just watched director Alain Resnais' masterpiece, HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR, and was blown away, so I had to check out one of his other films. In LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, he again explores the faultiness of memories, but with far less success. Telling a surreal story at a posh chateau where a man is convinced he and a woman met once before and had a torrid affair. Is it gaslighting? Is it repressed memories? Is it different perspectives on the same experience? I believe the filmmakers land on the latter, but it's never made explicitly clear. You're not always sure if we are in the present or a memory or even who is telling a particular story or memory at that moment. It's audaciously filmed in a highly stylized manner, where entire rooms of people are frozen in place except for one or two characters or with strange and surreal repeated images. However, the film is emotionally distant and cold compared to HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR. It feels more like an exercise in cinema than trying to tell a human story. Resnais accomplishes what he set out to do, but it's not as satisfying of a film experience.

I'd somehow never watched this beautiful and heartbreaking cinematic masterpiece. A French film actress shooting a film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese man. The film follows the two over a few days, during which they share their perspectives on the war, as well as intimate details of their past loves. With themes around the faultiness and complexities of memory, especially when it comes to past traumas as well as with love. This story of unrequited love then asks, is it worth loving someone at all, knowing it will eventually end? Directory Alain Resnais, in his directorial debut after years of working as an editor, brings unconventional filming techniques and non-linear storytelling, which predates but was highly influential on the French New Wave. The opening shots of a lovers' embrace, where it's unclear if it's perspiration or burns from the war on their skin, are sensual and disturbing at the same time. HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR is masterful filmmaking, but the human story makes the film so memorable. Two lovers who know they cannot be together and their time is short, sharing their most intimate thoughts, stories, and memories. It's likely because they both know their relationship is finite, which is why they are able to so openly share these most intimate of feelings and experiences. Throughout the film, the audience knows these two cannot be together, and it's a cloud that hangs over the entire love affair. Without spoiling anything, the film has a scene in a restaurant near the end that has to be in my top ten film moments of all time. This is a beautiful and unique film for which very few compare. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE is probably the closest film I can think of to this one, but even that film cannot match HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR. On a side note, there's a fun, cheesy, direct-to-video action film called HELL HATH NO FURY, whose plot set-up is very similar to a story shared by the woman about falling in love with a German soldier during the war. However, in the action film, the female character ends up hunting for Nazi gold. I like to think that film was secretly a prequel to this one. ;)

This film was largely derided when originally released, but in my video store clerk days, I was a champion of the Alec Baldwin Kim Basinger remake of THE GETAWAY. The original film version of the Jim Thompson novel starred the King of Cool, Steve McQueen, and was directed by action maestro Sam Peckinpah from a script by future action maestro Walter Hill. With a pedigree like that, you'd expect this to be the most incredible action film of all time, but it ended up being merely a well-crafted, entertaining action flick that was nowhere close to BULLITT or THE WILD BUNCH. This remake actually fixes some problematic elements of the original, particularly excising the rampant misogyny and making Basinger's character equal to Baldwin's Doc McCory, compared to the pretty but relatively useless Ali McGraw in the original, and even improves upon it in other areas. Where the remake arguably exceeds the original is how the theme of trust runs throughout the film. Besides the various criminals being suspicious of one another, there's a sly parallel between the husband and wife criminals, unsure if the other is really as loyal as they pretend. Baldwin and Basinger are both fine, but it's James Woods who steals the film in what is arguably the slimiest of his many slimy roles, playing the crime boss who gets Baldwin out of jail in order to pull a heist for him, which, of course, goes wrong, filled with double-crosses and killings. Michael Madsen is also pretty memorable as the untrustworthy mullet-sporting Rudy, who's partnered with Baldwin and Basinger by Woods against their will, along with a before-he-was-famous Phillip Seymour Hoffman (billed as Philip Hoffman) playing a young criminal who says he "shoots real nice." There's also Jennifer Tilley, who's a lot of fun as a kidnap victim turned confederate of Madsen, playing one of her typically bubble-headed husky-voiced vixen characters. Visually, the film looks dynamite and features some serious talent behind the camera. From Australian director Roger Donaldson, who made a name for himself down under with films like SLEEPING DOGS and THE BOUNTY before moving to Hollywood to make some fine thrillers, including NO WAY OUT and another southwest noir WHITE SANDS, he brings a lot of panache, to the proceedings. Donaldson is greatly aided by ace cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr., who brings a hot, sweaty look to the film, and the action is tightly constructed by James Cameron's regular editor, Conrad Buff. Top that off with a fine ambient score by Mark Isham. THE GETAWAY is a 90s neo-noir classic with a hint of erotic thriller that not enough people talk about. My main complaint about the film is that it does feel beat-for-beat too similar to the original. I wish they had changed things up a bit more, but the filmmakers were trying to make Walter Hill's original version of the script before McQueen and Peckinpah tinkered with it, but this is a minor quibble. Still, if you dismissed this film back in the day because of Baldwin and Basinger's annoying tabloid omnipresence or if you have just never seen it, do yourself a favor and check out this minor 90s action classic.

This film is a complete cheese-fest, but I loved it! A plucky single mom leaves her office job to open up a jazzercise studio. However, she runs afoul a corporate jazzercise studio that wants to put them out of business, which leads to a climactic jazzercise showdown! Leotards and musical montages abound in this Canadian FLASHDANCE knockoff (our heroine even stands by a FLASHDANCE poster at one point). While clearly cashing in on the spandex-dance film 80s craze, it is utterly charming and nowhere as raunchy as FLASHDANCE or PERFECT. The film's lead, Canadian actress Cynthia Dale, is incredibly charming and likable. I'm surprised she never made the leap from Canadian TV and movies to Hollywood. She's so good. While HEAVENLY BODIES could easily be enjoyed ironically, like SHOWGIRLS, I straight-up loved this film. It's cheesy 80s comfort food that is pretty irresistible for anyone who grew up watching these sorts of films. Light romance, bitchy mean girls, wall-to-wall music (everything from the Pointer Sisters to The Tubes), and a classic 80s film climax where the heroes challenge the bullies to some sort of competition to settle things. What's not to love about this corny 80s masterpiece?

THE UNHOLY WIFE is a disappointingly slow and unoriginal film noir about a gold-digging wife, British actress Diana Dors in her American film debut, married to rich wine producer Rod Steiger. She takes a young lover, and if you have ever seen THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE or pretty much any other film noir, you probably know where the plot is going. I'd have expected a better film from director John Farrow (THE BIG CLOCK, HIS KIND OF WOMAN) and especially from a film starring the great Rod Steiger (ON THE WATERFRONT, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT), even if he's playing the cuckold husband, but this film is certainly not at the level quality you'd expect given the level of talent in front of and behind the camera here.

An agricultural research facility is a cover for military bioweapon development. When a virus accidentally escapes, the faculty goes into lockdown as the virus turns those trapped inside into homicidal maniacs. I used to watch this movie over and over again as a kid and loved it. The idea of a bioweapon escaping and making people kill one another was fascinating and terrifying to me. I hadn't seen George A. Romero's THE CRAZIES, so this idea seemed wholly original to me. The other thing that always stuck out to me as a kid was seeing G. W. Bailey in a dramatic role and being taken aback by how good he was when I was previously only familiar with him as the ridiculous antagonist in the POLICE ACADEMY movies. Directed by Hal Barwood, who co-wrote several memorable films, including CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, DRAGONSLAYER, and MACARTHUR, before going on a prolific career as a video game designer. He co-wrote the film with his writing partner Matthew Robbins, who has continued working in film, most recently partnering with Guillermo del Toro on multiple films ever since the underrated horror film MIMIC. Despite that pedigree, this film was not as scary as I remember, but it is a well-structured story and has a solid cast that includes Sam Waterston (LAW & ORDER) as the local sheriff trying to save his wife, Kathleen Quinlan (TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE), who's a security guard inside the facility, as well as Bailey and Richard Dysart (THE THING) as scientists, and the great Yaphet Kotto as a government officially trying to cover things up with the angry mob of townsfolk outside the facility. 80s mainstay Rick Rossovich (TOP GUN, ROXXANNE, NAVY SEALS, THE TERMINATOR) also appears in the film.

Meta horror film involves the co-star of TERRIFIER 1 and 2, Jenna Kanell, playing an actress who has breakout success with a starring role in a killer clown horror movie. However, she finds herself the victim of a crazed fan intent on recreating the killer clown movie's scenarios. It's not an especially clever film, but Kanell gets to show off more acting chops than she was allowed in the TERRIFIER movies, and FACELESS AFTER DARK also serves as something of a counterpoint to the misogyny of those films, as well as the nature of toxic fandom. However, Damien Leone does get a thank-you in the credits. Overall, FACELESS AFTER DARK is nothing to go out of your way to see, but it's not terrible.

Most Netflix action films are entertaining but immediately forgettable. That is not the case with REBEL RIDGE, which is a cut above most Hollywood action flicks in general. Aaron Pierre, an actor I'm completely unfamiliar with but who should be a star after this film, plays a former Marine carrying a bunch of cash to bail out a friend when he's pulled over by some racist and corrupt cops who confiscate his money on suspicion it's drug money. The antagonism between Pierre and local law enforcement only grows after he confronts Sheriff Don Johnson about getting his money back. The arrogant southern cops continue to push Pierre around, not knowing his particular set of skills, and you can guess where the film is going. The plot may not be all that original and is basically FIRST BLOOD in the south, but Pierre is compelling and charismatic in the lead, Johnson is a riveting complex villain, and simmering racism that permeates below the surface throughout the film elevates what could have been a routine action flick to something more significant. Besides Pierre and Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, who I'd only ever known as a child actress, stands out in a fine performance as a local city worker who sees the corruption and wants to help but also understands the risks of doing so. However, the real standout in this movie is writer/director Jeremy Saulnier, whose prior films GREEN ROOM and BLUE RUIN I read were both smarter-than-average genre films and both of which have been on my watch-list for some time, are now going to get bumped up to the top of my list as a result of REBEL RIDGE. Check this one out if you simply want a good action flick, but if you require more substance to your average action flick, this one will fit that bill.

Meandering story of the rise and fall of a 50s and 60s biker club. The film opens with a title card saying the film was inspired by a photo book of motorcycle clubs of this era. That's the main weakness of the film, that it seems more interested in recreating a time and place than telling a story about characters or plot. There is a bit of a story involving Jodie Comer falling in love with bad boy Austin Butler, who joins Tom Hardy's biker gang. Butler is ostensibly the star of the film, but Hardy steals the movie as the thoughtful, if troubled, leader of the gang. Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, who made the excellent TAKE SHELTER, he does a fantastic job with the look of the film and creating an accurate recreation of the era, but the evolution of motorcycle clubs from being a social men's club of motorcycle enthusiasts to a criminal organization involving drugs and murder was not all that compelling and rather cliched. Michael Shannon and Norman Reedus also appear in the film in supporting roles.

The plot sounds like a knockoff of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, with a young female FBI agent in the 90s quickly promoted to help catch a dangerous serial killer named Longlegs. However, writer/director Osgood Perkins' LONGLEGS is nothing but conventional. Perkins (son of PSYCHO's Anthony Perkins) brings a disquieting slow-burn to the standard serial killer formula, with a sense of dread that hangs over nearly the entire film. Demons and evil seem to lurk in the shadows in almost every frame. Maika Monroe (IT FOLLOWS) is spot-on as the awkward and inexperienced agent, and it's a treat to see Blair Underwood (L. A. LAW) in something again, playing her mentor and superior. However, it's Nic Cage's unrecognizable and unhinged performance as the titular killer you remember. He's not in the film all that much, but he makes more than an impression. Cage will haunt you long after the film is over. With hints of Satanic Panic, the film's most unsettling element is the lack of explanation for the visceral and grizzly depiction of evil in the film. Sometimes, there is no reason, and evil simply just exists out in the world, which is a pretty dark statement. LONGLEGS is not a movie for all tastes and is definitely an A24 art house-style horror flick, likely too grizzly for the art house crowd and probably not conventional enough for mainstream horror fans. If you're in that sweet spot in between, you'll probably dig this film.

Matt Reeves' DAWN and WAR OF THE PLANET OF THE APES films are far superior to this entry, which feels more like a paint-by-numbers Marvel action movie. It's all noise and thunder versus a film about characters and actual ideas. Taking place 300 years after the last Apes film, the time jump is welcome in that this sequel is less beholden to continuing plot lines from prior films, offering opportunities for new world-building. Humans in this new future world have lost the ability to speak, making this film more similar to the original 60s and 70s Apes films, which could have been interesting. However, the story is mostly a rehash of the earlier films in the franchise, with a clash between ape leaders with differing views. At almost two and a half hours, the film is a painfully overlong slog and would have been a far more tolerable movie at a tighter 90 minutes, but really, they should have come up with some original ideas. Andy Serkis is also absent from this sequel as a motion-capture ape actor, though he did stay on as an acting consultant. I'd say skip this one.

From the director of PULSE, I was expecting a supernatural J-Horror flick, but this was instead more of a grizzly serial killer movie along the lines of SEVEN. A detective investigates a series of murders committed by different people who, after their violent crimes, have no memory of their heinous acts. I kept waiting for a big supernatural turn but was surprised when the film went in a different direction, which was interesting but was not all that plausible for a movie that seemed to be striving for some realism. Still, it was an intriguing story, and I wanted to see where it was going, making it well worth watching despite its lack of credulity and rather deliberately slow pace.

Set in the late 70s, a late-night talk show is facing cancellation, so the host hatches a scheme to boost ratings by booking a possessed girl for the Halloween show, but things do not go as planned. Presented as a documentary, cutting between behind-the-scenes footage and the network broadcast of the show proper, it's a fun conceit, but it's really the story and characters that carry the film. David Dastmalchian (OPPENHEIMER, THE SUICIDE SQUAD), as talk show host Jack Delroy, is terrific as a man with demons from his past (figuratively and literally?). Laura Gordon and Ingrid Torelli are both also compelling as the doctor caring for the possessed girl who is the lone survivor of a Satanic Cult. Ian Bliss is also memorable as an Amazing Randi-type of a skeptic who seeks to debunk the seemingly supernatural proceedings. The film maintains a careful balancing act between camp and legitimate scares, starting off making fun of 70s talk show conventions, but by the end, the period setting helps to accentuate the unsettling unreality of the film. My main complaint is that the period setting is a bit too precious at times and is not done straight enough, with distractingly bad hair, outfits, etc. A more subtlety and less camp, such as with the CONJURING period films, LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL would have worked better. Still, it's a fantastically clever and original horror film that goes gloriously off the rails in the final act, making this one a must-see for horror fans who dig films such as EVIL DEAD or those by Ti West.

Sharon Stone plays a traumatized woman who gets locked in a high-end apartment with the corpse of a man she's been dreaming would murder her. I read that writer/director Frank De Felitta (AUDREY ROSE and THE ENTITY) originally wrote this as an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. This film would have been stronger if it was a tight 60-minute story. The first and second acts could have easily been combined because this full-length movie version felt like it had a lot of filler on the front end. It's not until the final act, when she's locked in the apartment that the movie gets good, and that's where it's actually worth watching. Stone is good and makes for a sympathetic heroine. Steve Railsbakc (HELTER SKELTER) and Ronny Cox (ROPOCOP) also appear in the film, as does character actor Albert Popwell (DIRTY HARRY). Overall, it's nothing brilliant, but it's worth watching if you're in the mood for something that reminded me of a Lifetime Channel thriller.

A mixed bag of a rock and roll comedy from director Allan Arkush, who earlier directed the cult classic ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL featuring The Ramones. This film has a concert venue owner, Allen Garfield (NASHVILLE, BEVERLY HILLS COP II), fighting off attempts to buy him out by a sleazy, well-funded concert promoter, the hilarious Ed Begley Jr. However, the film's main character is really Danial Stern (HOME ALONE) as the stage manager who has to keep the show running while also trying to woo back his old girlfriend, Gail Edwards. That rom-com storyline, along with a bunch of cool musical acts, could have been an exceptionally entertaining film, but the inclusion of AIRPLANE / NAKED GUN type of spoof gags is distracting and not all that funny, detracting from what could have been a fun movie. This was done at the insistence of the producers and against the director's wishes. It's reported that this film was made for a tax write-off and was planned to lose money, just like in Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS, which is likely why the film got so little support. Still, Stern is affable and charming, as is Edwards, who I had a crush on as a kid when she was on the sitcom IT'S A LIVING as the waitress Dot. The funniest bit in the movie, though, is Malcolm McDowell as a Mick Jagger / David Bowie parody character named Reggie Wanker (yep, it's that kind of on-the-nose humor). McDowell is clearly having a good time in a type of silly comedic performance I had never seen him do before, which was fun. He also sang his own songs, which he insisted on in his contract when he accepted the part. You even get Lou Reed playing Lou Reed, though I was most excited to see Lee Ving, lead singer of my all-time favorite punk band FEAR, playing a punk rocker named Piggy. So there is a lot to like about the film, even if a lot of the AIRPLANE-style gags fall flat.