Saw S.J. and guess what… Daryl Hannah served fuzzy navels… in the movie, not to the patrons. But, hey, I was must be psychic. (See post #3640.) Or maybe I am gay and just don't know it… Yikes!
The movie was sold out to a packed house. I rate the movie a 2.5 stars out of 4. 3 stars for me is an excellent movie, 4 stars would be one of the top ten I have ever seen, so 2.5 is a good rating from me. It was a lot better than the B rated filler you get on network TV, which would get a 1.5-2 stars from me. The directing and film work was excellent. The story was good. Definitely a side of Las Vegas none of us will see. There were some good laughs in the movie. (There is a scene with some transvestites that is very funny.) In fact, they could have taken this film in either direction: a serious drama or a comedy. Instead they chose a path down the middle, probably to appeal to a broader audience, and it worked well. Definitely entertaining.
Daryl Hannah has maybe 10-15 minutes in the film total and does not do much. She could have at least pranced around naked, but didn't. Jason Brower, who plays the gay lead character is excellent. My guess is his star is launched. Jesse Bradford, who plays the lead straight character is also very good. Tiffani-Amber Thiessen from 90210 has a bit part and is not memorable. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, IMHO, was completely wrong for his part. He plays a bisexual street hustler who is supposed to get paid by both men and women for sex. Yeah right. He looks like a scrawny, short, twerpy kid with a lot of gel in his hair. What woman is going to pay him for sex? They could have cast someone much more believable than him. He ruined the movie for me and cost them a 3 star rating in my book.
So that is my take. I liked it. Recast JTT and it would have been much better. Lots of use of the “F” word gives it an R rating so JTT's draw of teeny bopper girls is useless. Heavy gay theme too. So my guess is limited TV appeal by the TV executives by the time it gets down to that revenue source. My feeling is the target audience is college age students, early twenty somethings, and gays and lesbians. Movie loving, middle-aged liberals will also like the film. Not going to be a blockbuster, but never was supposed to be. At a cost of under $2 million, I think it will definitely be a money maker. If MVEE keeps cranking out quality films like this with these small budgets, we will all make good money from here. If MVEE comes up with a sleeper or a blockbuster, that will be gravy and the return on our investment will be multiples higher. So there you have it…I was pleasantly surprised.
-Dilution
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