Compelling Evidence

Once in a blue moon, I'll read comments about a film BEFORE I watch it. (I usually DON'T do this, to avoid being influenced.) The former was the case, however, prior to my viewing of COMPELLING EVIDENCE. I felt the need to be more cynical, so, based on the reviews of it, I selected this cinematic masterpiece as the sole celluloid wonder which I had time to see that day. I COULD have picked others, but, this sounded like the flick to be certain to fulfill my masochistic needs: you know...to make me shake my head; roll my eyes; and almost puke. And it met these expectations, primarily because of the dreadful acting. But then, Danny Fendley does that to me. I have seen him in other movies and there's just something about his style, or his delivery, or I don't know what, which I'd find better in much smaller doses. (How 'bout non-speaking roles?) Also displayed frequently was that tell-tale low-budget audio. And, the story is so incredible that no cast could salvage it: An action star's wife is murdered; he's got a mistress; then, he goes from hating an intrusive reporter, to bangin' her, and maintaining his innocence via her program. Talk about messed up. This takes the cake.

Possibly the big attraction to this film would be the appearance of Brigitte Nielsen, or Danny Fendley who plays the role of Rick Stone and is married to Brigitte (Michelle). There is a reporter on a local tabloid newspaper who manages to photograph Rick in bed with a hot gal completely naked. Naturally, Michelle wants a divorce and also every penny that Rich Stone owns. As the film progresses there are lots of naked sex scenes and that is about all this film has to offer, the acting is a disgrace and this really is the type of film production a porno studio would use as a story line and then of course the love making. If you like nudity, this film might interest you.

The only possible reasons to watch this is if a) you are a Brigitte Nielsen completist; or b) you have a morbid desire to see the late Dana Plato's breasts (my reason was the latter, but I've already come to terms with my sickness).

Bad acting, bad script, bad cinematography, and non-existent production values add up to worthless dreck, even by direct-to-video standards.

Danny Fendley, playing a "famous action star" looks about as buff as my very fat beagle. Besides not looking good in the part, he can't act very well. This might have been part of The Method, of course: he became an action star in his own mind and like all action stars, was incapable of delivering lines well.

Melissa Moore, who is topless in most of her scenes, looks like a topless action star. Not counting her chest, she's shrill and uninteresting.

Dana Plato. Poor Dana Plato. She delivers some emotion (not much) in her readings, but you still wonder what she was doing here. Surely she had to know that even with nudity, this could not be a route back to Hollywood stardom. In retrospect, she only furnishes leering pathos.

I don't remember much of Brigitte Nielsen. She was killed off shortly after giving a canned speech to her husband (the "action star").

The script does not help this untalented cast. It's silly in terms of its plot, and plodding in its dialog.

Even the subtitle, "Murder in Hollywood" is wrong: this was filmed (taped) in Atlanta. If Edward Wood had lived another 20 years, he might have ended up directing this, and probably would have improved it.

Let me give the pros first. Brigitte Nielsen looks really good in this film and actually acts capably. She is also killed off in about 10 minutes. There is an attractive actress at the beginning who gets naked and then killed stupidly.

That's it. There's nothing else to recommend about it.

Matt

I had the fortune to witness this "movie" recently and I can honestly say that it is THE worst movie I've ever seen. Yes, I said fortune, for it it is rare to see such a gloriously bad movie and I wholeheartedly enjoy the experience. I did not see the very beginning, so I had no idea who was in it, nor did I recognize the two big "stars" in it (Nielsen and Plato) when I saw them. Amazing considering how hugely popular both are [sarcastic remark #1].

I happened to catch this while living in Costa Rica. Strangely, Cinemax (Skinemax) is broadcast in San Jose, the capital city. I think it is stolen from a satellite and relayed to a broadcast station, but don't tell anyone, OK? I need my bad movies. Anyway, it seems to be the only station in English (with Spanish subtitles) and since I was going through TV withdrawal, I sat back in the vacant hotel restaurant and watched. Initially, from the topless woman and bad acting, I thought it was a low budget soft-core porn flick, but this film could never hope to aspire to such lofty categorization [sarcastic remark #2]. The acting, mainly from Danny Fendley and Dana Plato, was simply atrocious. Plus we're supposed to believe that scrawny, poodle-haired Fendley is a big action movie celebrity in this movie. Plato plays a tabloid TV reporter, intent on scooping Fendley's affair by any means, including trespassing. Nielsen plays Fendley's wife who quickly dumps him after the affair is exposed on national TV. Shortly thereafter, Nielson shows up dead and the mystery begins. Boy with that kind of plot, who needs acting? [sarcastic remark #3]

While watching this, I felt there just wasn't something right about the reporter character. This plainly unattractive yet wholesome looking woman making sleazy come-ons to this cheating jerk of a character just left me feeling odd. Then while watching the credits to identify the perpetrators of this cinematic terrorism, I finally realized the source of my unease. The reason why this bad actress gave me the willies was because she's FREAKIN' KIMBERLY FROM DIFFERENT STROKES! Somehow time has diminished this young lady's acting abilities and standards. But it seems that she can't even degrade herself properly. The 2 "love" scenes that she participates in are carbon copies of each other and are about as arousing as watching an old person negotiate stairs [sarcastic remark... OK let's just stop counting].

Don't worry moviegoers, everyone's respective bad acting seeps into even the last moments of their simplistic characters' sad little lives. Luckily, only one main character survives. I'll let you see the movie to find out who.

Seriously, if you enjoy bad movies, please make an effort to see this movie. I'm sure that Dana and Bridgitte would appreciate the royalties.