A Certain Sacrifice

Complete crap! The biggest joke of the year, no wait, the biggest joke ever! Waiste of VALUABLE time and effort. Worse than basement junk. The only thing it's better than is sitting in bed vomitting, eh, even then doubtful. Even the story plots of the Smurfs cartoons seem like Oscar winning story lines compared to this complete, worthless, mindless, empty, pathetic, stupid, forsaken, unbelievable, no effort, cheap, no money budget, not even any snacks at break time during shooting, no class, boring, no pride, valueless, meaningless, piece of old car junk engine, "human made noises below the waste" of a sound track, embarrassing, shameful, and "cover your face for eternity for being seen in this" of a movie! The writer/director should be sacrificed!

What can one say to defend a movie like "A Certain Sacrifice"? Even I, as much as I LOVED (yes, LOVED) this movie, must ask myself. As you may know from other reviews and such, Madonna has a very early role as a deathrocker who gets together with a very angry "philosopher" who left the suburbs for New York's underbelly. (I related to this on a lot of levels, so I know it's possible to say that there are some fascinating characters, events, and ideas in this ugly, little film!) Then, there's that "Raymond Hall" guy, who is quite the successful attempt at the creation of a character who is so repulsive, you just wanna get sick every time he's on screen (until he's about to be killed, then it's funny)! Anyway, Raymond is a horny, dirty IL' dude, who ends up raping Madonna in the bathroom, while loving boyfriend Dashiel (the philosopher... heh heh) waits for her to fix her make-up. The gory revenge that ensues (with the help of Madonna's Gothic sex cult, or her "family of lovers") gets cheezier and cheezier, but, thankfully, the filmmakers are well aware (they just don't give a f*ck). So... is the sound bad? YES! Is the dialogue sometimes hurtfully cheezy? YES! Is the acting terrible? Not nearly all of it. In fact, most of it was pretty damn good, even though Madonna's better acting moments were when she started to come off as a Goth castaway from a John Waters movie toward the end. (And, yes, I know John Waters doesn't have a lot of Goths in his movies, but it's the best comparison I can think of!) Anyway, is the gore very minimal and fake-looking? YES, but still it's a lovely touch! Is Madonna shown fully nude? NO, but she's shown topless several times, once even covered in the blood of her slaughtered rapist. Also: This movie MUST be seen when you're VERY intoxicated. Then it can sink right in. I've done it three times, I think I turned out alright, but my wife's head needs to stop calling me from the 'fridge. Time to listen to some more Pattnosh.... mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! FIVE STARS (and I HATE to rate things with stars!)

1st watched 2/24/2005 - 2 out of 10(Dir-Steven Jon Lewicki): Cheap, exploitation film featuring Madonna in her first starring role??? The only reason I'm giving this movie more than 1 star is because of the business sense of the filmmakers to put this together and make money off of the Madonna name. Other than that, the film itself, is pretty much about a low-life who becomes lower and lower, up into the very end of the movie. This low-life meets the Madonna character who runs around with a gang of lovers, and basically gets involved in satanic rituals, murder, and whatever else turns them on. Even a couple nude scenes of Madonna doesn't help this from being a cheap thrown together mess of a movie.

this "film" wants to be esoteric, but it fails to succeed. i wouldn't go as far as to say "don't watch it," because i sort of enjoyed it's campy, home-movie style. camera work and sound quality are no better than home movies that were made around the same time--when home video cameras were made available to the public. Interestingly, it seems Madonna has had her faux British accent since she was young. ;-) a large portion of the movie focuses on Madonna's breasts--they are exposed in many scenes throughout the movie. Seems right up her 1980's alley... The music in the flick is terrible and it is evident that Madonna is just a supporting character as none of the music is hers, nor is it her voice.

A Certain Sacrifice is a basement film, or more accurately a guest room film. As the person who convinced S. Lewicki to finish this film I must stand up for it. This film has a small, but hard core, cult following because it is genuine and unvarnished. The technical quality may be non-standard in some spots, but the film itself is a true time capsule of New York in the late 1970's.

The actors were responsible for their own words. The camera work was dynamic and free flowing. The grim and gritty nature of this movie will stand the test of time as a testimony to all film makers that reality can be captured…that even the `home producer' has a chance to get his work seen by an international audience if the conditions are right.

This film is a "Blair Witch" cinema verite style revenge drama that may disappoint those who look for slick production values, but there are few films that can match it for its raw and natural portrayal of New York before it became a cleaned-up mega mall.