Midnight Heat

Midnight Heat is Brad Jones's homage to the late night sleaze flicks of the 1980s. Like cult classics such as Angel, it is set in a world of street walkers, pimps, and drug addled cops. It pays tribute to virtually every cliché of this genre, and in so doing, loses itself in a morass of different plot lines.

The film incorporates far too many plot lines for its own good, tracing the lives of a streetwalker, her pimp, another 'bad' pimp, a serial killer, and a cocaine addicted cop on suspension. Had the plot settled on one protagonist, it could've been a great exploitation film, especially given Jones's obvious enthusiasm for the material. As it is, the film just meanders. Indeed, at roughly an hour and forty minutes, it could easily have lost twenty minutes of film, and been a much better film for it.

The most obvious protagonist would have been Jones's own character, an unwitting pimp cracking under the strain of his lifestyle. Jones gives a good performance and actually makes viewers care about the deeply flawed character. Unfortunately, the character gets lost in various subplots, only coming to the forefront about an hour into the film.

For all its flaws, the film does have its good points. Jones knows his eighties sleaze, and throws the obvious clichés for a few loops. The film also has a suspiciously good soundtrack for something filmed on such a low budget. Still, one wishes a bit more time had been spent paring down the script.

Detective Rick 'Fucking' Wilson (Jake Norvell) is going to arrest The Scalper (Nick Foster), the crazed murdered who's been going around murdering the ladies of the night on the streets of 1980's Lake City, US. The Scalper's next victim is looking to be Donna Diggs (Bianca Queen) whom Rick used to be a customer of. At the same time Donnas pimp Martin (Brad Jones) is having trouble as he's blaming himself for what happened when The Scalper murdered one of his girls. It's a psychological action thriller in a classic 80's atmosphere, it's the set-up for Midnight Heat.

The atmosphere is very impressive for being only the second feature-length film made by amateur filmmaker Brad Jones, but as people should know by now, I'm a big fan of his work. But I've got to say, when he first showed himself on screen I felt really confused, 25 year old Brad Jones looks so uncanny when you're used to his current looks. But it's fine, because as soon as he opens his mouth you recognize him as the person you know and love. The storyline in Heat is paced well and the amazing soundtrack, which is completely borrowed from already amazing 80's songs, compliments it in such a way that it's not too hard to imagine this movie being made 20 years before it was.

The acting for the most part is really good in Midnight Heat, much better here than in Game Boys where it was my main concern, but that review is for another day. Brad is of course golden, as is Jake as Detective Rick. In fact, Rick might just be the perfect amount of camp in certain scenes that he outshines the rest of the cast. Whenever Jake starts yelling with that perfect smile on his face he consumes the scene in such a fashion that you'll never forget it. Bianca Queen is decent, but not as good as Brad, Jake or even Sarah Lewis in the minor part she plays.

The movie can be viewed for free on Brad Jones website (www.thecinemasnob.com) and is well worth doing, especially if you're a fan of his later work on Hooker With a Heart of Gold which this reminded me fondly of. If you're into sleaze, psychological traumas and drug-addicted cops, then Midnight Heat is for you.

I will start out by saying that I am a tad biased in that I have followed Brad Jones and friends through his escapades as The Cinema Snob, Midnight movies and the like, but however I think it says something when the biggest problem with Midnight Heat is the footage quality.

The acting is for the most part surprisingly good with, like the camera-work, a few flubs and bits of amateur work that pop in but quickly go away. The rough camera-work almost complements the gritty, dark feel that slowly develops over the course of the film although in the end it's something that could have been improved with a tripod... or better lighting. Almost all of the performances aside from Nick Foster and Alex Shryock were rather good, with Jake Norvell and Brad Jones in stand out roles.

Yes, it almost feel like it drags at times, and yes the budget does get in the way occasionally but it still did hit me at times. There were rather good shots, moments that worked rather well, like the rooftop scene between Rick Wilson and Martin with the storm clouds flashing lighting in the background (not added in later I might add), and it did leave me feeling something at the end.

It may look like ass from being filmed on Hi-8 tapes and being converted poorly to digital, the movie had a shoestring budget but the writing and characters managed to cut through all of that and deliver a sleazy, dark 80's style crime thriller about the people you'd meet and the things that happen late at night on the streets of big cities.