One of the greats. On the surface, it’s really pretty cheesy, and it does have its faults, but when you dig into it, it’s something of a classic story (many people say that The Crow is more or less, essentially, generally speaking, the same basic plot), buoyed by some decent performances, and throw in a few eccentric weirdo characters, and you’ve got yourself a winner.
Starring Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, Nick Cassavetes, Randy Quaid as the sheriff, supporting role for Clint Howard, and an excellent performance from an unknown actor, the kid who plays the brother of the guy who is killed. And the comedy relief duo of Skank and Gutterboy is the icing on the cake.
Nick is the leader of a small gang in Tucson, hoodlums, bullies, and they do stuff like muscle people to give them their cars, and basically lord over the streets and wherever the kids gather to try and have a good time. He’s also extremely possessive and obsessive and narcissistic and paranoid.
One day, he catches his girlfriend in bed with some other guy, so he and his gang kills him and gets rid of the body in the middle of the desert somewhere. No body is ever found, so he isn’t charged, nobody is charged. The guy who they killed has a younger brother who works at a burger joint in town. That younger brother has no evidence, but he has always suspected that Nick and his gang of losers had something to do with his brother’s death.
Then, a stranger wanders in to town. Just some random guy, who befriends the younger brother as well as Nick’s girlfriend, so that guy immediately moves to Nick’s shitlist. But at the same time that this stranger shows up, a super high-tech, futuristic sports car shows up as well. Nick’s gang of delinquents’ modus operandi is to race anybody who wants to challenge them, and the loser loses his car to the winner. When the various gang members take on this future car, not only do they lose the race and lose their car, but they lose their life in the process.
So now the cops get involved, but the street racing continues, and more of Nick’s crew end up dead, and it’s almost as if they’re being targeted by this mysterious driver. And, the mysterious driver and the new guy in town are never seen together, never in the same place at the same time. Could they be the same person? And could this mysterious driver be some sort of supernatural reincarnation of the guy who they killed to take revenge for his murder?
It’s a really nice ensemble cast with a whole variety of characters. Best dialog comes from Skank and Gutterboy. They could have made the entire movie around those two characters if they wanted. Charlie Sheen plays his part rather low key, uncharacteristically uncharismatic, almost robotic, which I’m sure was intentional. Biggest head scratcher are those metal braces on the mystery driver’s arms and legs. Obviously, they disappear whenever one of the gang members dies. But what do those braces have to do with anything? Are they supposed to be some metaphor of him finding a way out of his metaphorical imprisonment?
That angle notwithstanding, this one gets it right. If there are any slow parts, they are quickly broken up by some decent action scenes. Charlie and Sherilyn don’t have much screen chemistry. And, while leaning towards cheese, this one is the easiest to watch and is a real fun ride the whole time. Everyone also makes a big deal about the soundtrack of early/mid 80s radio rock songs (Ozzy, Billy Idol, Sammy Hagar, Robert Palmer…), which is not unwarranted.
B-movie Roundup 