Storyville

For surely this 1992 movie is just terrible. What a waste of capable talent. This proves even good actors can't salvage bad material. I give this a 2 count, for the presence of such as: Jason Robards, Piper Laurie, James Spader and the great Woody Strode in an almost unrecognizable part, and for seeing parts of New Orleans that may be gone at this point of time.

The plot seems very silly. Adapted and directed by Mark Frost from a novel called JURYMAN, it wandered aimlessly between the courtroom and Bourban Street. Spader, our lead, seems to have no sense at all and walks into one setup after another. Can't he see this can ruin his career as a prospective Senator? Wandering all alone in the seedier parts of town, getting out of a car to check out an abandoned truck only to be attacked by our hidden villains, allowing a pick up to toss him all over the place, and not one thought how this can ruin him. Silly and stupid.

Piper Laurie, his "mom" either is high on drugs or she's blind. She never looks anyone in the eye. She seems to stare into space most of the time. Robards yelling and over acting in his thankless role, Parks shooting it out in the courtroom and not stopped until he has wounded just about everybody. Only two cops there to stop him? And Steve Forrest, looking very distinguished in white hair, as the judge, pulls out a revolver at the bench and gets Parks finally. Judges carry firing arms at the bench? No reasoning in this film.

Spader is sort of walking around saying "duh" most of the time. Only redeemable factor is to see Woody Strode in yet another thankless role, but he seems the only one focused in this drama. Charlotte Lewis is the femme fa tale who seduces our hero and then gets accused of her father's murder. Her character made no sense at all. Was she a set up? Was she a hooker? She was so obvious in her make for Spader. Not the most attractive person to be such a temptation as to bring a future Senator out on a rainy night into the dark and dingy world of prostitution. My vote goes to Strode and to the French Quarters of New Orleans which we hope will come back to it's beauty after the devastating hurricanes that hit it recently. Here's to that spirit.

"Storyville", from the outside looking in, is a poorly directed novel adaptation with Spader as a southern lawyer from a wealthy family - the only person in the film with no southern accent - who is running for Congress in the midst of a potentially damning scandal and murder mystery which he must overcome to win the House seat and purge the skeletons from his family's closet. Supposed to have been one of those steamy/sweaty New Orleans noir dramas where everyone knows evereyone else's business and they all have secrets, this film is a jambalaya of murder, sex, deceit, corruption, a couple of babes, courtroom drama, assorted strange/weird characters, token T&A, and even the kitchen sink in a sloppily concocted B-flick with little potential beyond a late night t.v. soporific. Watch this with a nightcap and you won't remember it in the morning. (C)

For surely this 1992 movie is just terrible. What a waste of capable talent. This proves even good actors can't salvage bad material. I give this a 2 count, for the presence of such as: Jason Robards, Piper Laurie, James Spader and the great Woody Strode in an almost unrecognizable part, and for seeing parts of New Orleans that may be gone at this point of time.

The plot seems very silly. Adapted and directed by Mark Frost from a novel called JURYMAN, it wandered aimlessly between the courtroom and Bourban Street. Spader, our lead, seems to have no sense at all and walks into one setup after another. Can't he see this can ruin his career as a prospective Senator? Wandering all alone in the seedier parts of town, getting out of a car to check out an abandoned truck only to be attacked by our hidden villains, allowing a pick up to toss him all over the place, and not one thought how this can ruin him. Silly and stupid.

Piper Laurie, his "mom" either is high on drugs or she's blind. She never looks anyone in the eye. She seems to stare into space most of the time. Robards yelling and over acting in his thankless role, Parks shooting it out in the courtroom and not stopped until he has wounded just about everybody. Only two cops there to stop him? And Steve Forrest, looking very distinguished in white hair, as the judge, pulls out a revolver at the bench and gets Parks finally. Judges carry firing arms at the bench? No reasoning in this film.

Spader is sort of walking around saying "duh" most of the time. Only redeemable factor is to see Woody Strode in yet another thankless role, but he seems the only one focused in this drama. Charlotte Lewis is the femme fa tale who seduces our hero and then gets accused of her father's murder. Her character made no sense at all. Was she a set up? Was she a hooker? She was so obvious in her make for Spader. Not the most attractive person to be such a temptation as to bring a future Senator out on a rainy night into the dark and dingy world of prostitution. My vote goes to Strode and to the French Quarters of New Orleans which we hope will come back to it's beauty after the devastating hurricanes that hit it recently. Here's to that spirit.

In the Big Easy, a young man from a prominent family runs for national office in "Storyville." Just from that sentence, you can probably figure out the rest. Family secrets, corruption, and sex. Spader is Cray Fowler, whose father committed suicide, or perhaps it was accidental, years past. His uncle Clifford (Jason Robards) is a surrogate father to him. Cray needs the black vote, but Michael Warren (Nathan LeFleur) who can deliver it has heard some things about how the Fowlers made their money that he doesn't like.

Cray wants to find out more about how his father died and also investigate the gas and mineral leases that made the family so wealthy.

What he finds out is devastating.

I'd call this a typical turgid tale of the south, with good acting by the young Spader, Jason Robards, Piper Laurie, and Joanna Whalley. Very interesting to see "Scandal" actor Jeff Perry nearly unrecognizable 23 years ago.

The acting enlivens a derivative story that's okay, even if it's not something by William Faulkner.

A rampant fan of James Spader or not, this film is awful. The acting is brutally contrived, and I'm sick of seeing Spader in those pointlessly sexual situations, as has been his claim to fame, as it were. The fact that Spader is a decent actor doesn't do justice to the unremitting bouts of horridity.

A beautiful and "mysterious" Japanese maid seduces James Spader by way of leaving him a note on a napkin. "Meet Me At Storyville" sayeth aforementioned note. Storyville is some kind of neo-classical, über-Gothic club replete with with all-too-gothy foot-watching shuffle dance and one random couple making out as the only rapid action I'd venture to guess that club ever saw. He meets the sultry and readily available Charlotte Lewis (Lee); she takes him back to her swanky Japanese-motifed apartment (and makes him take off his shoes) where she then changes into kung-fu garb and pulls the pancake roll from hell. Long story short, he winds up sleeping with her in her bathtub while the camera pans around to a hidden room that is filming their love-making.

I also failed to mention Spader's character is a candidate in the senate, thereby making this recording of their sudsy festivities (I say "sudsy", but there were no suds) blackmail. Spader discovers this the hard way as he also discovers random things about his father, their past, et al.

I personally wouldn't spend two licks on this movie. It's horrid. Save your money, save your time, seriously.

...Though, I wouldn't mind having the soundtrack.

But still.