Mojave Moon

It would be easy to dismiss this as just another bad film. Actually, it is a bad film but it's redeemed by a couple of strong elements, most notably the appearance of Angelina Jolie and Danny Aiello. This is one of Jolie's earlier films, coming after Hackers but before her breakout performance in Gia, and you can really see her coming into her own as a star. A star is someone you can't take your eyes off of when they're on screen - Jolie is beautiful and sexy as hell but beyond that, even at this early stage, she's got a certain indescribable something that makes it hard to take your eyes off of her.

Aiello, of course, is great at playing the kind of lovable schmuck he plays in this film. The loser with a heart of gold. In this film he's 50, just gone through a nasty divorce and trying to figure out life in LA. Unlike some of the other posts up here I could totally see him going out to the desert and getting mixed up with some of the crazy characters there. He's got an empty life and he's looking for something - anything - to give him a reason to keep going.

Ann Archer has been better in other things, but she's rarely been made to look more beautiful than this.

On top of all that, it's a great looking film that uses some really cool LA locations. Much of it was shot in Johnnies, a googie style diner on Wilshire Boulevard that Tarantino has used. Other locations include a cool 50's era motel (anyone know where this was?) and of course, the great California desert.

So overall I wouldn't say this is a great film, but it's worth watching.

This is a very dry comedy that has a few good spots, few and far between.

It's a mild adventure, in the mode of old Hitchcock with a Monty Python twist. Unfortunately, forty minutes go by before anything more than a pleasant smile is evoked from the viewer.

A lot of this takes place in the Mojave, which is good, and at night, which gives us a "cool warm" feel.

The "everyman" character is very human, and most of the characters are very believable, believe it or not, which is surprising, considering their extreme behavior. Much of what happens has the feel of things that the people involved actually experienced. There is an element of realism in the fantasy.

The pace is "mojave moon", and maybe that explains the title. For the first 40 minutes, you will look at the clock, then the story unfolds. It perks up most with a very funny shootout at close range where no one can hit anything.

This "cool warm Mojave moon" feel is probably the heart of the movie, and probably what was really intended. If so, it works well. I've taken vacations to LA, Vegas, and Laughlin, and rented a car simply to drive through the desert, usually starting in LA, and the "cool Mojave" feel begins, at least for me, after the stop at the atmospheric ostrich farm cafe. From there on, it's the tranquility that this film seems to aim for.

This isn't a laugh riot. It isn't something you'll watch a lot, but it does have "atmosphere". I won't say I'm a fan of the film, but it has a good look, and is perfectly titled.

Many times movies that are determined to be off-the-wall wind up going splat! but this one works OK. Danny Aiello plays an ordinary Joe hanging out with his friends at a coffee shop when in walks a sexy young woman (Angelina Jolie) who may as well have a blinking neon sign around her neck saying TROUBLE! The boys put Danny up to flirting with her and amazingly, she responds. Obviously she wants something from this guy and that something is a ride to her home, a trailer out in the desert.

When they get there, things start to get weird. Mom (Anne Archer) is a breathy-voiced version of a 50's sitcom mother, and there's this incongruous, menacing biker (Michael Biehn) at the trailer with her. Who is this guy, a boyfriend? Houseguest? Husband? If he knows what's good for him, Danny should say goodbye and step on the gas, but he hangs around too long and gets involved with all sorts of madness and freaky characters.

Some people will reject this film out of hand as being too stupid or weird and others will say it doesn't go far enough. A group in the middle will find it nicely out of the ordinary and modestly entertaining. Aiello is rather subdued as befits a befuddled guy who's into something way over his head and Jolie is verrry sexy.

This is not at all the sort of film I am usually attracted to. The only other film in my experience that I could compare it to would be Tarentino's "Pulp Fiction". It's not as slick, but there is less blood... It was only on the second viewing that I was able to start to appreciate it and not until the shootout at the petrol station that I saw that the film is in fact a comedy on the black side. I think this should have been made apparent earlier in the film to give it a more uniform identity. The desert atmosphere is always attractive and explains the film's rather surrealistic feel.

For me the film is original and entertaining and the performances are excellent.

"Mojave Moon" is a film fueled on the magic of a full moonlit night. It has a distinct, memorable and charming presence. I love this very feel of the film, but unfortunately it wares off as the movie tries to reinvent itself at the end. It shifts into a different mood, from a sweet romance into a wacky, cartoonish comedy.

Danny Aiello is a genuine actor, and his best work is in his little indie films like this. He plays a used carsalesman named Al, who is lost in a routine life. One day a beautiful free spirit (Angelina Jolie) serves as an outlet as he follows her into the Mojave Desert for a mysterious adventure.

The premise is almost identical to "Box of Moon Light", a far better film. Both films are about a person serving as a way out of the deadly foe of time. If only "Mojave Moon" centered itself more on the wonderful magic of the journey and the life-changing outcomes like "BOM", instead of becoming untrue to itself. (Ironically both main characters are named Al).