This was a great movie about a woman named Gabriela (Angela Jones) who is obsessed with murder. She gets a job for the P.F.C.S. (Post Forensic Cleaning Service) and begins to clean up the messes left at crime scenes. She becomes obsessed with a local serial killer (Billy Baldwin) and jumps at the chance to clean up some of his "work". This is one of my favorites from the year with excellent performances and atmosphere. Although I usually can't stand Mr. Baldwin, he plays the role of the dapper serial killer like it was made for him. MTV starlet/model Daisy Fuentes plays a PFCS worker. The real star of this movie is the music as it carries the movie so well and leaves an odd, fun feeling to some twisted subject matter. This is the second release from Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder label. (The first was the Jack Hill classic "Switchblade Sisters"). Rent this movie...now!!
George C. Scott stars as Jake Van Dorn in this dirty little film about a god-loving man from bible belt America whose life is turned around when his daughter goes missing. He ends up going to California to find her in the big city when he finds out that she has gotten involved in the seedy world of porn. I found out about this film in the book "Killing For Culture" and it sounded right up my alley. I really liked this film as the acting was great with George as Van Dorn, Peter Boyle as a hardened P.I. named Andy, and Season Hubley as a likeable hooker that helps Jake in his quest. The funny thing was that I found the God-fearing attitude of Van Dorn much more frightening that the sex industry.
In The Kingdom Of The Blind (1995)
Great little gangster drama from actor Nick Vallelonga who starred, wrote, produced, and directed this little gem. Nick plays a cop who is drawn into helping the mob when his little brother gets involved in a hit gone wrong. I love mob movies and this one seems to be better than many. William Petersen (Manhunter) co-stars as the mob boss and Michael Biehn appears in a small role. A nice surprise was Leo Rossi (who is generally in good movies but really bothers me) as an overenthusiatic interrogator. He almost stole the show in one scene and didn't piss me off. There are some obvious Tarantino influences but who cares, this is a great flick.
The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
This is a weird one in that I really liked it and disliked it at the same time. I thought the acting was great and I was entertained throughout the two hour running time. My problem with the movie lies in the writing. If you are going to make a movie about a smut king, there must be some things about him that make you cringe. I felt like Larry Flynt was a little angel in this movie who only wanted to stand up for free speech. Come on, he wanted to see women naked and exploited. There were also a number of inconsistencies with the plot jumping around for no apparant reason and many life events not being explained to my liking. If you can overlook all of this and simply want to be entertained with some great acting, rent this. If you want to see a two hour campaign for free speech, rent this. Oh yeah, and my main reason, Crispin Glover's in it.
I rented this to see if Anna Nicole Smith could act. She can't. This is, however, pretty good for a low budget action flick. Anna plays a CIA agent who is trying to recover a secret CD and get revenge on the people who murdered her husband. If you can ignore the fact that she can't act, you'll probably enjoy this. The whiny Joey Travolta is one of her costars and he produced it.
I absolutely despise this movie. I had to watch it in 10 minute intervals over a month. I wouldn't wish a straight-through viewing of this on my worst enemy (although it would make a brutal method of torture). I don't do any drugs though (other than alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine) and this may be really good if you were really high.
Back to: