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Chaude journée à L.A.

Original title: Hugo Pool
  • 1997
  • R
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
5.1/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
Alyssa Milano, Robert Downey Jr., Malcolm McDowell, Sean Penn, Patrick Dempsey, Cathy Moriarty, and Richard Lewis in Chaude journée à L.A. (1997)
Official Trailer
Play trailer2:15
1 Video
7 Photos
SatireComedyRomance

An LA pool cleaner/Alyssa Milano falls in love with a young man with ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease.An LA pool cleaner/Alyssa Milano falls in love with a young man with ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease.An LA pool cleaner/Alyssa Milano falls in love with a young man with ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease.

  • Director
    • Robert Downey Sr.
  • Writers
    • Robert Downey Sr.
    • Laura Ernst
  • Stars
    • Alyssa Milano
    • Mark Boone Junior
    • Malcolm McDowell
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.1/10
    2.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Robert Downey Sr.
    • Writers
      • Robert Downey Sr.
      • Laura Ernst
    • Stars
      • Alyssa Milano
      • Mark Boone Junior
      • Malcolm McDowell
    • 35User reviews
    • 13Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    Hugo Pool
    Trailer 2:15
    Hugo Pool

    Photos6

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    Top cast32

    Edit
    Alyssa Milano
    Alyssa Milano
    • Hugo
    Mark Boone Junior
    Mark Boone Junior
    • Pool Supply Man
    Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell
    • Henry
    Brendan Dawson
    • Man with Truck
    • (as Brendan B. Dawson)
    Sean Penn
    Sean Penn
    • Strange Hitchhiker
    Robert Downey Jr.
    Robert Downey Jr.
    • Franz
    Cathy Moriarty
    Cathy Moriarty
    • Minerva
    Patrick Dempsey
    Patrick Dempsey
    • Floyd
    Sean Glenn
    • Andy
    Bert Remsen
    Bert Remsen
    • Sad Old Man
    Kevin Dornan
    • Bad Advice Father
    Michael Mazzola
    • Kid
    Richard Lewis
    Richard Lewis
    • Chick Chicalini
    Chuck Barris
    Chuck Barris
    • Irwin
    Jim Shield
    Jim Shield
    • Lifeguard
    Ann Magnuson
    Ann Magnuson
    • Drowning Matron
    Eddie Perez
    Eddie Perez
    • Gardener
    Lora Gómez Eastwood
    • Merengue Dancer
    • (as Lora Gomez Eastwood)
    • Director
      • Robert Downey Sr.
    • Writers
      • Robert Downey Sr.
      • Laura Ernst
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews35

    5.12.1K
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    Featured reviews

    6wiper04

    A unique movie

    I have to admit, as I watched the movie, my expectations haven't been met. Most of all, I expected a plot. Since most movies have one, at least to some degree, the `average' watcher tends to expect one here, too. But, it didn't take me long, until I realized that this movie wasn't the `average' movie, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

    In the first scene where Hugo's father was introduced, I began to realize what the character of this movie is like. This perception strengthened as more and more people showed up and exhibited their unorthodox, quirky features. Alone the weird things like `a stranger is sleeping in somebody else's truck, then the owner shows up, asks no questions and they both hit the road without even wasting a thought about what this is all about' made me laugh. The dialogs between the characters and the spontaneous and almost unreasonable turns of the plot make the movie special. It is hard to explain to someone who hasn't watched it.

    Read the other comments and you'll find the opinions range from real bad to gorgeous. My advice is, be open-minded. This is not the average movie - in many aspects. Don't have too high expectations and you won't be disappointed, this movie is no blockbuster but it sure can be very entertaining if you give it a chance.

    All in all, I liked the movie and if you ask me if I'll watch it again, I'd say: no - no doubt. (6/10)
    5bkoganbing

    Some Strange Characters

    Judging from the range of comments on Hugo Pool they seem to run the gamut. As a film, it's not the kind of thing I'd usually watch, but it did contain some rather strange characters.

    Alyssa Milano in between her stints as Tony Danza's daughter in Who's The Boss and one of the Halliwell sisters in Charmed was cast in the lead by director Robert Downey, Sr. She seems to have taken complete charge of the pool cleaning company that is a family business because dad (Malcolm McDowell) is reverting to being a teenager and mom (Cathy Moriarty) can't control her gambling addiction. In fact she either has to come up with the money or sleep with the bookie.

    Anyway somebody has to step up to the plate and Alyssa seems the only one likely to do so. She's got a lot of customers out there in Nevada who want to use their swimming pools because of the heat and who need them cleaned.

    Anyway on her route she meets Patrick Dempsey who even with Lou Gehrig's disease is not about to miss out on all the good things in life. In fact one of only two parts of his anatomy are untouched by amytrophic lateral sclerosis, his brain and the love muscle. In fact the second has some remarkable staying power as he informs us.

    Hugo Pool is the story of all these characters and the day they spend together. It's an interesting tale and maybe had it been done in a more straightforward and romantic way, I might have liked the film better.

    Still it's not the fault of the cast who give some very good performances. Not mentioned by me before are Robert Downey, Jr. as an egotistical movie director and Sean Penn as a hitchhiker Malcolm McDowell picks up. Dig those sky blue shoes that Penn wears.

    Hugo Pool might be your cup of tea, it wasn't quite mine though.
    JimInDC

    Miserable plot, horrendous casting.

    Alyssa Milano plays "Hugo" an overworked pool cleaning gal, who needs to clean 44 pools in one day. That is the only normal part of this movie. The rest of it has such poor casting choices and plot lines that is is painful to watch.

    Along the way she picks up her father, Malcolm McDowell, who is doing the worst Jimmy Durante impression I have ever heard, and who is trying to kick his heroin habit by shooting the heroin into a puppet that he carries around. Retarded.

    Jimmy Durante, er, Malcolm, then runs into a gay hitchhiker with blue shoes, played by Sean Penn. How they talked Sean Penn into this role is beyond me. He appears to be trying to be mysterious, but comes across as a whiney gay 12-year-old.

    She sends her dad (and the hitchhiker) on a mission to get some water for one of her clients, a bug-eyed jabbering Richard Lewis, who is supposedly a mafioso, but comes off as threatening as a wet paper bag.

    She then picks up her mother, a gambling addict. She in turn shanghais one of Hugo's clients, a man with als (Lou Gherig's Disease) and starts carrying him around in the back of a pickup truck (wheelchair and all) so he can be her gambling good luck charm. Ridiculous.

    Along the way, they run into Robert Downey Jr as a wacked out film director, but Robert puts on this outrageous fakey French accent and so he comes across like a bad Inspector Clouseau. Obnoxious.

    They finally meet up with Hugo's Mom's bookie, played by Chuck "Chuckie-baby" Barris from the old GONG SHOW, who is more interested in a romp in the hay than money. Strange.

    The ending is more like a documentary about ALS than a comedy, and has the totally predictable typical heart wrenching ending. That didn't even get any sympathy points from me. Lame.

    The only redeming virtue would have been seeing Alyssa in the buff, and that didn't even happen. What was that director thinking? Weak.

    My assessment: 2 of 10 Good only for hard-core Alyssa fans.
    NewYorkLondonParisMunich

    save two hours...just dial 1-900-QUIRKY

    I didn't know much about "Hugo Pool" when I rented it last night. It seemed to be about an interesting collection of quirky characters. What I found out is that it's a collection of quirky characters, all right, but interesting, they're not.

    Here's the plot, such as it is. Alyssa Milano plays a pool cleaner. We follow her around for a day as she cleans a few pools and encounters quirky characters, some of whom are family members, others customers.

    Ms. Milano is awful in the lead role. This is the caliber of acting you'd expect from the girl playing Laurie in the high school production of "Oklahoma". It's pretty much a one-note performance, as if she were told, "act impatient," so she responded by setting her jaw and stomping through the movie. Drive truck, pour chemicals, act impatient, encounter next customer, scold Mom, act impatient. No higher gear, no lower gear, just the one setting.

    Sean Penn and Robert Downey Jr. are terrific actors. Something went wrong here, though. Mr. Downey does some sort of burned-out-Inspector-Clouseau routine, while Mr. Penn does some sort of grown-up-Jeff-Spicoli thing.

    Whatever. At no time did I see any of these quirky characters as anything other than actors trying to act quirky.

    And I kept thinking about the 44 pools Ms. Milano was supposed to clean in one day. Say 10 minutes per pool, and 10 minutes' drive between pools, and that's nearly a 15-hour day. And she kept saying she was running late. Would you want to have, say, pool #40, and have some bickering pool cleaners in your backyard at 10:00-11:00 at night?

    And I got to thinking about the money. Mr. Downey's character was behind on payments, the numbers averaging out to $200 per month. Let's say there are only 44 customers, pools being cleaned once a day. So the pool cleaning company is grossing $105,600 per year. If there are 88 customers, pools being cleaned every other day, the company is grossing $211,200 per year. If pools are cleaned once a week, and the pool company works 5 days per week, the company is grossing over half a million a year.

    I don't have a pool and have no idea how often pools are cleaned. But the point is, it was more interesting to sit and do the revenue calculations in my head than to watch the parade of actors acting quirky. Or badly acting.
    Terry-32

    This was a nice movie.

    I rented this movie because I saw everything else at the movie store 30 times each. This was a special treat for me. Alyssa Milano is a wonderful young actress. She's so sweet and she's tough at the same time. I really loved her character. I also liked the love story with her and Partick Dempsey. Malcolm MacDowel was hilarious. I like his relationship with Sean Penn. They were funny together. I loved that thing with the shoes. Cathy Moriarty was great as the gambling mother of Alyssa Milano. I enjoyed this movie a lot. I think very highly of it.

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Malcolm McDowell replaced Alan Arkin.
    • Goofs
      After Hugo changes from her pants into her shorts (right before crying in the truck) she is seen cleaning her first pool wearing pants again. After that she is back in her shorts.
    • Quotes

      Strange Hitchhiker: If words could speak, I'd still would have nothing to say.

    • Connections
      Featured in Robert Downey Sr., le père (2022)
    • Soundtracks
      Misterioso
      by Thelonious Monk

      Published by Thelonius Music Corporation (BMI)

      All Rights Reserved

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    FAQ18

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 12, 1997 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Hugo Pool
    • Production companies
      • BMG Independents
      • Nomadic Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $13,330
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $6,305
      • Dec 14, 1997
    • Gross worldwide
      • $13,330
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 32m(92 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby

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