Blood and Concrete

Although the first ten or fifteen minutes of this video may make you wish you'd rented something a little more fast paced, the rest of the film will leave you hungry for more. The quirky humor of this movie is a very unique treat, much in the vein of The Blues Brothers.

The movie is set in a surreal Los Angeles. Our hero, Joey Turks, is a poor excuse for a car thief, who wishes he was a lounge singer (his biggest hero is Frank Sinatra). This in a movie that came out BEFORE being retro-loungelizard was hip. Joey gets caught up in the murder of a drug dealer and some stolen drugs. He is used as a pawn by the police and the nefarious criminal kingpin, but all he wants is to get out of his life of crime and settle down with his new girl, Mona.

This is dark comedy at its finest.

If you get a chance to catch this obscure movie, you're in for a treat. What could be more fun than a wannabe criminal (Joey Turks) who is too honest to get beyond petty thief, being chased by a gay hit-man and his fat crime boss (Spuntz), being framed by an aging police detective (Hank Dick) for the murder of a low-life trash talking' drug dealer, and as fate would have it, finding the girl of his dreams and falling in love - all on the same day. Nevermind the run-ins with the wannabe-masochist ex boyfriend and the criminal turned philosopher turned daddy... No, Joey has bigger problems! It seems that someone has stolen the entire supply of a new street drug called libido from H. Spunz who is very unhappy. Spunz thinks Joey took the drugs and Detective Dick thinks Joey will lead him to Spunz. All Joey wants to do is get out of town.

This brilliantly-written and superbly cast movie is entertaining from start to finish. The characters are so well conceived that you'll laugh just looking at them. The hit-man (Bart) and ex-boyfriend (Lance) are especially funny. Jennifer Beals (Mona) and Billy Zane (Joey) turn in exceptional performances in their roles. There is a certain sweetness about their fateful meeting and subsequent falling in love amidst the chaos. This movie is great fun - not meant to be taken seriously - entirely enjoyable nonetheless. If you get a chance to rent the video or see it on cable, you're in for a treat!

This film is a true sleeper. It's on late-night cable a lot, so there must be some recognition of its merits, considering it is such an old film. In a nutshell, this is pure LA noir, with crazy characters, crazy circumstances, and a lot of weirdness goin' on. The cast is superb, with Billy Zane striking just the right note, Darren McGavin turning in a hilarious performance, and the ageless and beautiful Jennifer Beals playing a subdued but nuanced part. (Kudos also to Harry Shearer, for a great cameo.) This film is truly a keeper, full of little moments that are funnier on reflection. (E.g., Bart starts to get amorous, so Joey all of a sudden starts concentrating on his dinner...hilarious.) Great entertainment.

Here's one of those fresh, original films, yet slightly dry, that went well under the radar, but deserves attention. Opening with a bloody opening, not many other bloody parts follow, except for an ugly dead guy rotting away in a pool, where the blood looks like coolay, we follow the misadventures of a loser type guy Zane (tailor made for the role as Joey, a thief, where a dissatisfied, detective (Mcgavin in a great part) is always watching. There are comic hit and misses I found, plus some surprising scenes, sexy Beals, (who's really good here) a used girl with suicidal tendencies, singing for one. Zane of course falls for her, where a dangerous romance ignites, where we meet a collection of dangerous oddball characters, some just oddball, one young dude coming across as David Faustino, who becomes a another victim. These actors all give good performances, James Le Gros, giving us a bit of a laugh, as Beal's last ex. The baddie duo, the fatman and the beefcake, we'll call em', and they do make a cute couple, who kidnap Zane as they think he might know where their bags of heroin of gone. He encounters them a few times throughout the movie, escaping and getting caught again. Take the movie, what you will, depending on your taste, in this offbeat crime comedy, The Dark Backward, another original. The movie is an enthusiastic effort where it's Zane's performance that engages, as a guy who never can really get himself together. You too, don't realize how good looking he was or how much a a good actor he was, especially when watching this.

You've probably never heard of this, as it went straight to video, but if you can track down a copy you're in for a treat. This is a really twisted, bizarre little movie that Billy Zane starred in way before he had done Titanic...heck, before he had done Sniper for that matter. It is waaaaay over the top and completely hilarious with a brilliant cast and wonderfully contrived plot. Besides Billy Zane this great cast includes Jennifer Beals (don't miss her perfect song "one girl in a million"), James LeGros, Harry Shearer (up there with Derek Smalls and Mr. Burns as his best characterizations), and Darren McGavin (as good - if not better - a performance than in A Christmas Story). After you see this you'll wonder why you've never heard of it before. Very funny. A great find.