Compelling Evidence

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.

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.

The late Dana Plato has a chance to shine in this mystery thriller. Plato fans will love it!!!!

The film is about a philandering actor whose affair is made public by a tabloid reporter who illegally videotapes him having sex with his actress co-star. The wife is naturally angry and publicly sues him for divorce. When this wife is brutally killed soon after, they naturally assume that the man did it--he had a motive and had acted very violent since the affair was publicized.

The first two minutes reveal that this is some sort of soft-core porno action film--a really, really stupid one! That's because as the film begins a couple is on the run and the man has an arm that is moderately bleeding. So what do they do? She pulls off her blouse and wraps is in her shirt and they then have sex....though somebody is supposedly chasing them! Then, you see a guy with a rifle shoot down a model helicopter! Oooh, I see Oscar! This 'film' stars Dana Plato and Brigitte Nielsen--and it has Oscar written all over it (well, maybe not). It's actually just a crappy film shot with what seems like a home movie camera with nothing to recommend it, though I could see people watching it in the hope of possibly seeing Plato naked! I am sure there are some guys with "Diff'rent Strokes" fetishes out there! But, considering how messed up Plato was at the time and that she died soon after, it's all too creepy for me--especially since Plato looks about 45 even though she was only about 31--she also bears a strong resemblance to Faye Dunaway in "Mommy Dearest". Hearing Plato cursing like a sailor and behaving so rudely is just nasty...and not in a good way!! And, speaking of nasty...Brigitte Nielsen just looks pretty sad...a shadow of her once beautiful self. I never thought I'd feel sorry for this lady, but this film certainly made me feel bad for her.

The entire production is shoddy from start to finish. The acting in particular was horrible--very, very amateurish to say the least. You know it's bad when Plato and Nielsen are the best actors in the film!! As for the direction, it's fair to say that if Ed Wood had been alive, he might have been assumed to be the man in charge! So why did I watch this dumb film? Well, I am a bad film fan and have seen most of IMDb's Bottom 100. While this film hasn't made the list (due to having too few reviews for it to qualify), it's score of 1.2 would put it towards the top--a distinction it would truly deserve.

I've watched Danny Fendley in probably 10 or more films and he can do a really good job IF he is interested in the part. He obviously wasn't to thrilled with this one. You can watch his work and tell if he likes the script. He can be a very high caliber, talented actor but he basically just went through the motions on this one. There was a nice chemistry between Fendley and Brigette Neilson, it's to bad that they didn't have more time to work together on the film. The story plot of this film lacked and the directing and editing were also sub par. Speaking of Directing, I've also seen improvement in Donald Farmers work as a director. As for the rest of the actors Dana Plato did a good job and was well suited for her role. She has a perky attitude that is demanding of attention.