With the release of Fredianelli's previous feature, THE MINSTREL KILLER, you began to see the beginnings of something very special. With THE BIG SLEAZE the spark is still there but there is hardly the same amount of effort.
THE MINSTREL KILLER is a period piece (set in the 70's) and the attention to detail is almost perfect. Also, there was an original score making it very easy to actually get distributed, in some form, due to there being no copyright infringement. THE BIG SLEAZE has MJ's "Billie Jean" play at one point.
For his next picture (and for the rest of his career) the director NEEDS to push forward and make something that can reach a mass audience without running afoul with the law.
In other words Mike, make something you can profit from.
With that said, THE BIG SLEAZE is a lot of politically incorrect fun. The film has a plot but it is merely there to pit its main character (played by the director) into a number of situations that get more outrageous as the running time goes on. Its episodic nature is what keeps the entertainment value up with few hiccups along the way.
In a lot of these underground films you find a lot of one situational type stories due to the micro-budgets these films normally have. Save that crap for television. This is supposed to be cinema! And I think THE BIG SLEAZE proves that Michael Fredianelli understands this.
The wack job characters our protagonist encounters would be very much at home in some Troma movie. Henry Lee (as a crazed Asian porn star in search for the holy grail of snuff films) and Robert Amstler (as a freelance Rouster who is a loony Toon character come to life!) are two actors who made the most impression on me when I watched it. Their comic delivery is impeccable.
There are few actors who aren't up to snuff with the others though. The protagonist's ex girlfriend and the eventual new girlfriend both aren't very convincing (especially when the latter has to start crying).
The show stopper is the film's pre-climax when our "hero" is hired to blow up Disneyland(!). Now that's something you're not likely to see in any type of cinema anywhere.
I originally wrote a much more detailed, and better, review for this Fredianelli outing but the powers that be on IMDb saw it fit not to publish it.
So, as a favor, I quickly jotted down this capsule of a review. Hope you found it helpful.
7/10
