• Directed by Brad Jacques
• Written and produced by Marc Johnson
• Starring
  • Lisa Boyle
  • Robin Downs
  • Jonathan Slater

I always would prefer to enjoy the movies that are sent to me specifically for review. And given that this is the first film from a small prodco, I have to be charitable, but I’ll tell you first thing: I was kinda disappointed.

In terms of plot, it seems like a winner: Lisa Boyle (all together now: Rrrrowrrr.) plays Diane Carlson, a small-time actor just getting her shot at a big picture. She’s also a coke-snorting bitch. At a Beverly Hills party, an old friend shoves a disk in her pocket; said friend ends up dead by the next morning, and Diane can’t find the disk. Not surprising — she spent the night passed out on the bathroom floor, next to fellow party-goer Michael Taylor, a lookalike for Kyle Chandler on Early Edition, and apparently the only nice guy in all of LA (naturally, he’s from elsewhere — Boston, the home of Basic Pictures).

To be helpful, Michael gets her in touch with a PI friend of his, and suddenly the two of them find themselves getting shot at by a couple of wanna-be-bad hitmen.

Now, I gotta say, the production values themselves were adequate — a little rough around the edges, but if Roger Corman can still make a profit at this stuff, so can Basic Pictures. All of my criticisms stem directly from the storyline itself — this script desperately needed another revision before going before the camera.

Problem #1: We have two separate movies here: a gritty expose of the dark side of the Hollywood dream, and a Hitchcockian thriller of two thrust-together innocents trying to stay alive. Now, I’m familiar with the idea of plot and subplot, but that’s not what we have here; instead, it seems like two separate movies with the same cast edited together. Whenever tension builds in one storyline, they diffuse it by switching to the other one.

Problem #2: The Idiot Rule. One of the basic rules of scriptwriting is, Don’t have your plot depend on any given character acting like an idiot. Unfortunately this story does depend on it. Let’s see: Michael calls his PI friend, and suddenly the bad guys come gunning after them — at both her place and his. He talks to the PI again, the bad guys strike again. How many gray cells does it take to clue in — the PI’s in bed with the bad guys?

Problem #3: Lisa’s character is a coke-snorting bitch. I know that good movies can be made about coke-snorting bitches, but Diane is completely unsympathetic for most of the movie — obsessed with her career, making stupid decision, and refusing the help of others. This woman needed a pet kitten just so she could show her soft side. While she does turn her life around by the end, it’s too much too late (her change was so sudden, I thought I was watching a religious video about the great changes that happen when you Come To God).

Problem #4: The disk McGuffin. As Hitchcock knew, it’s not necessary to reveal everything about the McGuffin. Remember North by Northwest? Did we ever find out what’s on the much-coveted microfilm? Who cares? Instead, in this film, there’s a complex relationship between the PI and three principals in the LA underworld, and we have to stop the action for five minutes halfway through to give a flowchart of what’s on the disk, who wants it, who’s killed who for it, etc. Sometimes ignorance works just fine.

On the upside, as I said, this is a first effort. Basic Pictures signed Lisa for a second film, which should be completed by now. If they’re smart, they let the Hollywood types mine their own ore, and kept themselves to Boston, where they might be able to make a better and different movie.

Another upside is that, of course, Lisa Boyle has a sex scene. (Only one? you ask.) There are several other sex scenes here, but because they all occur in the “gritty underworld” storyline, they’re surprisingly unalluring.

I would recommend this movie only for students of low-budget filmmaking, to see how the movie was actually put together. The pure entertainment value, I’m sorry to say, is lacking.