The only real flaw with this film lies in the fact that a banking nerd immediately trusts a greasy thug. That wouldn’t happen in reality. In reality the natural enemy of the banking nerd is the sporty thug and is treated with mistrust well into the third year of their acquaintance.
Rob Lowe is the sleazy cool dude Alex here who infiltrates the life of retiring Michael (James Spader) and turns it upside down. After meeting in a bar where Alex leaps to his rescue, Michael becomes immediate friends with this high-calibre slicky and before long he is being introduced to all manner of life’s more sordid dealings. Holding up 7:11s, shagging people other than his fiancée and attacking co-workers seems nothing to this previously weak-willed guy. With Alex’s ‘help’ Michael becomes Mick and is living the high life… until he comes home one day to find all his shit is gone.
Before long, Michael is in still deeper shit as a body turns up beaten to death by none other than our man Alex, the greasy thug with obvious psychotic traits. With his slacker brother’s help he needs to figure out how to clear his name and get his life back in order, while attempting to get Alex busted.
While mildly entertaining for the brief flirtations with sexual congress, the film does hold and maintain the tension well as Michael struggles to keep his head above water in the dangerous undertow of Lowe’s Alex. However, when the film is boiled away and only the bones remain, there isn’t much here to impress as the overall original premise is pretty thin.
Performances seem deeply mired in the greed of the just-ended ’80s, with a broad yuppie tone to the whole film. Reflecting this is the blank colour palette of clothing on characters. Nowhere is there a garment of any colour other than deep greys, blacks, rich browns and contrasting whites. This gives the film the deep unpleasantness it is aiming for, but perhaps not in the way the filmmakers originally intended.
1990 was a fine year (and a price tag we don’t see anymore). This means the film has suffered some decay over time and while the print used here is pretty clean, there are numerous artefacts of all types floating about freely. The picture quality is quite good with lines being clear and only the mildest of soft edges occurring at times. Colour is always very low key, keeping the palette parallel with the dismal clothing tones noted above. Shadow detail is fairly good, with only the mildest of grains appearing in some night scenes with black (thankfully, as they use so much of it) being natural. Delivered here in the cinema aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with anamorphic enhancement the overall transfer is pretty good for a low-rent 15-year-old film.
Dialogue is clear, but sometimes embarrassing when Rob Lowe attempts crappy international accents. His Italian gets jumbled with his French and when the French follows reasonably soon after it sounds more like ‘attempted gay.’ Crap indeed.
Sound effects on the other hand are alright and essentially invisible while the music of Trevor Jones puts us firmly in the late ’80s. Plenty of breathy saxophone that, strangely, still finds its way into films today. Dunno what’s up with that. Naturally, this old school release garners an impressive Dolby Digital stereo treatment, which is quite average. The whole soundscape plays a considerable bit lower than a regular DVD does, so watch your levels when the next disc goes in.
The so-called ‘brat pack’ of the 1980s was truly dying by this stage and this film seems a half-hearted attempt to try and resurrect interest. Whether it did or not I can’t say, but I somehow doubt it. The film seems pretty thin with Alex’s interests taking the story into the sordid underworld of sex and drugs - mostly to keep the audience entertained I imagine – and without that (thin as it is) there’s little else hooking the viewer around here.
...Unless you like 'before they were stars' bits. The eagle-eyed will have to work hard to recognise David Duchovny creditted as 'Club Goer'. (Look for the dork in horn-rims and leather jacket).