Slam Dance

'Slamdance' is a frustrating exercise! A good director (Wayne Wang - 'Smoke') and an interesting cast, led by Tom Hulce ('Amadeus'), are dragged down by a rambling and dull script from actor/writer Don Opper (previously responsible for the inexplicable cult movie 'Android'). All your standard noir elements are here - a sexy blonde with a double life, a hero in way over his head, a murder frame, corruption in the police force and even higher, but Opper manages to make it all so boring you can't wait for it to end!

I mentioned the interesting cast, and that is the only reason for sitting through this. It includes legendary character actor Harry Dean Stanton ('Repo Man'), punk rockers turned actors Adam Ant and John Doe ('Boogie Nights'), Robert Beltran ('Eating Raoul') and the too little seen Millie Perkins ('The Shooting'). Virginia Madsen ('The Hot Spot') also appears in flash back only.

'Slamdance'? I'll sit this one out, thank you.

Maybe I am biased when I say that as I only rented this out because Don Opper wrote it and played a part. But that's only because he's good at what he does. Five years after writing and staring in the classic film Android he made this downbeat conspiracy mystery which has a good handful of funny bits stuck in for good measure. A woman is dead and the police are suspectful of an artist who called into the police after escaping from some strange guys with guns. The plot is slowly revealed as to what is going on. Although this movie doesn't really have enough twists in it than it should have had it is still rock solid entertainment, why Adam Ant is in there as the artist's mate I'll never know. Rent it out and see what you think. 7 out of 10

Plenty of twists and turns, and some excellent visuals, but it really needed good music to bring it all together. You have Adam Ant and you don't have a good sound track... tragic.

A very strong cast, well acted, with a good script, and really enjoyable. I should have like to see more Virginia Madsen and more of that snappy 1960 Buick.

Ready for a wild ride into the underworld?

Murder, sex, Mafia, cops, love and marriage ... Slamdance has it all!

C.C. Drood* is a cartoonist but his life is anything but a comic strip. When an affair with a mystery woman he meets at a friend's club leads to murder and his implication, life turns upside down for Drood. Just wanting to reunite with his wife and their daughter, Drood has to solve a mystery that even the cops can't figure out. And life begins to imitate art ... the art of being treacherous!

==========> *TOM HULCE is C.C. Drood. Tom, again, brings us a complete character ... as real as life. Drood has a funny side, a serious side, a vulnerable side and a loyal side. He shows us the chaos of being caught in a lie and the struggle of trying to straighten it out. Drood is a great role and is done to perfection by Hulce!

Whatever they thought of this movie when it came out is simply snow blindness to the fact that it carries the very best qualities of noir mysteries of the 40's and 50's. Trailing in the same path that made many movies of this genre infamous,the leading character's effort to untangle the web of double-cross, lies and deceit surrounding him, and redeem himself, is no less engaging than in any of those films, and the plot doesn't have a single point of silliness or implausibility that often marred Hollywood products of the 80's, or any other decade for that matter. Slam Dance uses the neon and metallic backlit of the Los Angeles skies to underscore the desperation surrounding the inhabitants of this Lost story who often mix pleasure with deviancy, loneliness with crime and love with murder.

The dance of chaotic moves is a metaphor for Drood's life, and resistance to be pushed over, until he finds a purpose and is brought back after the purgatory of redemption to the memory of the woman that loved him and the family that centers his world. It certainly didn't appeal to the superficial audiences back in the day, saturated by ridiculous plots and one dimensional characters. Slam Dance doesn't have any of these, it's the "Touch of Evil" of it's time. Don't read empty reviews and be sure to give it a look, you won't be disappointed.