Nichts als Trouble mit den Frauen

Many times movies that are determined to be off-the-wall wind up going splat! but this one works OK. Danny Aiello plays an ordinary Joe hanging out with his friends at a coffee shop when in walks a sexy young woman (Angelina Jolie) who may as well have a blinking neon sign around her neck saying TROUBLE! The boys put Danny up to flirting with her and amazingly, she responds. Obviously she wants something from this guy and that something is a ride to her home, a trailer out in the desert.

When they get there, things start to get weird. Mom (Anne Archer) is a breathy-voiced version of a 50's sitcom mother, and there's this incongruous, menacing biker (Michael Biehn) at the trailer with her. Who is this guy, a boyfriend? Houseguest? Husband? If he knows what's good for him, Danny should say goodbye and step on the gas, but he hangs around too long and gets involved with all sorts of madness and freaky characters.

Some people will reject this film out of hand as being too stupid or weird and others will say it doesn't go far enough. A group in the middle will find it nicely out of the ordinary and modestly entertaining. Aiello is rather subdued as befits a befuddled guy who's into something way over his head and Jolie is verrry sexy.

Al is divorced and he has moved from New York to Seattle to Los Angeles (I don't even know why Seattle was mentioned). He makes his living selling cars, though he seems to know some people who are ... less than honest.

While Al is eating at Johnie's restaurant with friends Sal and Terry, Elie walks in wearing a skirt so short it should be illegal. Al decides to talk to her and finds out she needs a ride to her mom Julie's place in the Mojave Desert. Al agrees to take her.

When they arrive at Julie's trailer (excuse me, 'movable house'), Julie's boyfriend Boyd is there watching TV. Boyd lights his cigarettes with a blowtorch and treats the gentle and sweet Julie like dirt. Elie goes to the Buffalo Chip Saloon to meet boyfriend Kaiser.

From there, things get weird. I mean REALLY weird.

This is a pretty good movie, with good performances by the leading actors. And plenty of plot twists. But what really makes the movie work is the crazy characters. Such as the tire repairman with the big guns. And then there is the time a man needs a cadaver and two guys hear this and are all too willing to help. One even pulls a gun on someone so the man can have his cadaver right away!

Boyd reminded me of Billy Bob Thornton, though maybe that's because I read about him in Life magazine the day I saw the movie. It would be interesting to see what he would have done with the role. Michael Biehn just made him a demented clown, but an entertaining one.

I have to mention the camera work with the introduction of Elie. They wanted to make sure we noticed her legs!

I wasn't sure whether this was a comedy at first, but by the second half I had to laugh.

I knew nothing about this film going in. For the first third, it seems to be a regular, if predictable drama/thriller. Then it morphs into a completely unpredictable black comedy. I thought "what the hell?" but stuck with it. I ended up liking it, but you have to be able to swallow some ridiculous scenes and characters. I felt like it had a cast of excellent actors working with a ludicrous script.

Not the best movie ever made, and it probably won't overwhelm you with its powerful storyline. But take it for what it is, a quirky, off-the-wall caper/romance/black comedy hybrid, and chances are you'll be quite pleasantly surprised. The protagonists are likable, the villains are cartoonish, and in the end the solid acting all around (I never realized what a good actor Danny Aiello can be) made this little low-budget noir almost believable, or at least endearing. And yes, the scenes with Angelina Jolie are on their own worth the price of admission - watch her electrifies the screen with every flick of a emerald-nail-polished finger and every mocking little grin. And you say to yourself, Man this girl is going to be a STAR...

Incidentally I think this is probably her best work before 1997's George Wallace, for which she won a Golden Globe. It's also probably the source of her fascination with Barstow...

It would be easy to dismiss this as just another bad film. Actually, it is a bad film but it's redeemed by a couple of strong elements, most notably the appearance of Angelina Jolie and Danny Aiello. This is one of Jolie's earlier films, coming after Hackers but before her breakout performance in Gia, and you can really see her coming into her own as a star. A star is someone you can't take your eyes off of when they're on screen - Jolie is beautiful and sexy as hell but beyond that, even at this early stage, she's got a certain indescribable something that makes it hard to take your eyes off of her.

Aiello, of course, is great at playing the kind of lovable schmuck he plays in this film. The loser with a heart of gold. In this film he's 50, just gone through a nasty divorce and trying to figure out life in LA. Unlike some of the other posts up here I could totally see him going out to the desert and getting mixed up with some of the crazy characters there. He's got an empty life and he's looking for something - anything - to give him a reason to keep going.

Ann Archer has been better in other things, but she's rarely been made to look more beautiful than this.

On top of all that, it's a great looking film that uses some really cool LA locations. Much of it was shot in Johnnies, a googie style diner on Wilshire Boulevard that Tarantino has used. Other locations include a cool 50's era motel (anyone know where this was?) and of course, the great California desert.

So overall I wouldn't say this is a great film, but it's worth watching.