Choke

Like most everyone who views this movie, I did it for the stars Michael Madsen and Dennis Hopper. The two are extremely underrated and sadly, because of that, have to headline a lot of crap. In this film, Hopper plays a guy who accidentally kills a blackmailer and is offered help from the mysterious Madsen.

The film actually isn't as terrible as it could have been. I've seen both in much worse, both independently and working together (LAPD, horrible film). The direction was pretty poor and the script needed a few re-writes, but both give the best performance possible with the material offered. Also the ending is pretty strong, so you can tell the story had potential. But when a glowing review of a film is, "It could have been much worse", it doesn't say much for the film itself.

All in all, this is one that can easily be skipped if neither of these actors draw you in. But if you're a fan of either or both, give it a watch. They both give strong performances that outshine the obvious flaws of the film. Trust me, there are much worse options out there.

**SPOILERS*** Finding her boyfriend, Bradley Armstrong, in the arms of another girl Kate, Tamara Cholakian,Gena, Chelsy Reynolds, gets so drunk to the point where go gets in her car and visually impaired, by the bottle of booze, and runs down and kills law student Pete Farmer, Robert Baugh. Even worse leaves the scene of the accident.

Getting in touch with her dad Henry Clark (Dennis Hooper), a big time real-estate business man, he tells Gena to hold still until he can come up with something to get her off the hook. Henry had been having a big fight with his partner Ron Sloan, Roy Tate, over his unsavory business practices. Henry tells Ron to take a hike out to the Death Valley Desert for the summer and forget to come back.

Ron picking up the outside extension phone, as Gena called her father, heard the trouble that she's in and started to use that to get back in with Henry by blackmailing him over his daughter's action. Going to the Clark home and finding Gena alone Ron gives her this cock & bull story about him working for her dad in helping her out with the accident that she had that night. Ron then takes the incriminating evidence, the damaged car with blood stains of the dead Pete Farmer, away from the police to find.

When Henry find this out from Gena what Ron did he blows his top. And gets in touch with Ron at the company cafeteria to talk things over. Going into the bathroom to get away from anyone listening in, there was a couple of cops sitting at one the tables having a snack,Henry grabs Ron by the throat and squeezes it until he passes out.

Waiting outside for Ron to recover and leave the bathroom Henry notices that he's not leaving and when he goes in he finds him on the floor dead. Panic-stricken Henry throws Ron's body out of the bathroom window, in broad daylight, and waits outside for the coast to be clear to dispose the corpse that was hidden under some brush. This sets off a bizarre encounter with Will, Michael Madsen, who seems to know everything that happened between Henry and Ron. Even the fact that Ron was laying dead in the bushes.

Will has a problem of his own he has a dead hooker in the trunk of his car that he's trying to get rid of. Talking Henry into helping him by driving his, Will's, very distinctive looking car through the local hooker's strip in town while he gets rid of the two bodies, Ron and the dead hooker Christianne De Marco, some miles away. Will wants Henry to seen by the locals thus giving him an alibi to Christanne's murder.

By now you and those in the movie "Choke" forgot about Gena's hit and run accident but it later comes to the surface with explosive results. It comes out end of the movie with an ending that came right out of left field with the force of ship load full of Cruise Missiles.

Weird is the word for "Choke" that keeps you guessing to what's happening in the movie and just what that deranged cuckoo bird Will is up to until the last frame. Michael Madsen's Will is so strange and obnoxious in this movie that at one point he actually invites a cop, Gino Dentie, to tow away his car. The car that had two murder victims in it's trunk? this after the cop warned him over and over to move out of a parking space reserved for the disabled.

Michael Madsen, who seemed to be doing a John Deere commercial throughout the entire movie, was so nuts and off-the-wall that for a moment I thought that he may have well had a disable sticker on his car fender due to the mentally unstable condition that he was in.

Superb acting by both Michael Madsen and Dennis Hopper would have guaranteed Oscars to them in a perfect world. Unfortunately, as can be seen from the very few comments at IMDB, no one with a good taste in movies has ever seen it.

This story has an intriguing premise, an engaging story line, and the series of events unfold in such a way that you would enjoy the ride and never bother try to figure out how it would end. The entire plot sequence involves every familiar but sinister plot device to make an exciting story, but it is the dialog between Hopper and Madsen that makes this movie tick. The interaction between the two of them is so good that you would have to see it to believe it.

Definitely one of Madsen best movies, clearly showing why he was the first choice for Travolta's part in pulp fiction. Best Picture, Best Actor Awards go to this movie. One of my favorite movies made.

One word of warning: the first five minutes of this movie while the credits roll are atrociously bad (poor acting from D grade actors) that take away 1/2* from this otherwise perfect movie. 9.5/10

First of all, this movie is not even remotely what the box is trying to sell it as. It's not meant to be taken totally seriously, and is in no way a tense, psychological thriller of any kind. It is a hilarious dark comedy that, despite two fave actors of mine (Dennis Hopper and Michael Madsen) being in it, really defied my expectations. I have to admit I rented it solely for those two names (especially since Madsen was playing a serial killer), but I did not expect it to be as enjoyable as it was. Hopper plays an uptight, jumpy, rich jerk who drives around in his hummer in between jumping down people's throats. The sight of Hopper, looking dead serious in a business suit and odd shades, driving the hummer is funny as hell, whether it was meant to be or not (and looking at the rest of the movie, I find it highly probable that it was). Hopper gets blackmailed by an opportunistic scumbag when his own daughter becomes responsible for a drunken hit-and-run incident, and Hopper, being the loving father, tries covering it up. This is to no avail when the con man scumbag comes calling, but things look up a bit when Daddy loses his temper in a bad way and Madsen, playing a devil-may-care serial killer, happens to be lurking in the area and offers a helping hand to the frantic Hopper, who must dispose of the corpse. It just gets funnier from there, and that's where I'm going to leave it because giving away the ending in this case would probably eliminate one's will to see it. All in all, it's just as I said, a good dark comedy.

Hopper has never been worse as if he felt as this movie is worthy of only a grade B performance and he delivers a rather good one. Outside of Madsen and Hopper the acting is horrid; you've seen better at your local high school. The sound and at times the editing and camera shots are low end of B-movies. The scene with the peeping tom is of movies greatest gratuitous nudity scenes I've ever seen (it doesn't even come close to fitting in the movie). The script was probably a great 10-page outline, but when it comes out to a full-length movie there are more holes in it then the dead bodies Madsen left behind. I do have to say Hopper dressed in a nice suit driving the Hummer had me laughing out loud, but I don't think that was the intent. Yes there is a little style, and Hopper can always draw my interest. However the interesting plot concept never pays off and you are left wondering why you wasted your time watching this.