I swear, some people would praise David Lynch if he barfed. The problem with “Wild at Heart” (1990) is that he’s trying too hard to be stylish and not nearly hard enough to be good. Summary: Older, crazy, alcoholic rednecks are trying to kill younger, stupid, chain-smoking rednecks. Nicolas Cage plays himself, but with an Elvis accent. Laura Dern stars in her own porn movie within the actual movie. Diane Ladd plays the same character twice – with a Southern accent and without, sometimes in the same scene, sometimes in the same sentence. They’re all surrounded by gross weirdos. And barf.
Archives for posts with tag: Crispin Glover
There are a lot of reasons why a film can be lousy. Perhaps the worst one is laziness. “The Con is On” (2018) is a limited-release bomb of a caper flick. The caper stinks (stolen loot, a psychopathic Russian, a big jewel, whatever). Uma Thurman looks spectacular and gives the impression of effort as a con artist with a checkered past, but her husband is Tim Roth doing a half-assed Dudley Moore impersonation. Crispin Glover plays himself as a bipolar director. Everyone else sucks and is not worth mentioning, except Parker Posey, who is horrific as a whacked-out movie flunky.
With the success of “The Hangover,” a whole new genre of R-rated, male-oriented comedies was unleashed. Fortunately, “Hot Tub Time Machine” (2010) saw “The Hangover” and raised it one better. Why? Great dialogue, a fully formed plot, it doesn’t try to be something it’s not, and it tries to be the best something it is. Trust me, I was there in the 1980s. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a lot of fun. Just ask the time-traveling protagonist, John Cusack. This is the perfect Friday night movie for a gen-Xer. Order a pizza, down some beers and laugh out loud.
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