Under the Hula Moon

The beginning of the 90s brought many "quirky" and "off-beat" independent films, a particular sub-genre of which is the semi-spiritual desert crime movie. Others of note are "Wild at Heart", "From Dusk Til Dawn", and to a certain extent "Natural Born Killers". Good films like those spawned junk like "Highway 666", "Destiny Turns on the Radio" and this ineptly surreal anti-masterpiece "Under The Hula Moon". It's a comedy that aims for a certain emotional tone, attains it, but keeps going to the point of irritation. While the pursuit across the spirit-world of the desert and the casting of Chris Penn are good ideas, the film is not dirty enough or hard enough to be a good crime movie, and isn't focused enough on laughs to really be a comedy. I won't blow the ending, but let's just say it's bad. The film is basically a bad side effect of genre-cancer. This is the dregs of indie-mania.

Let me just say that this film is not to everyone's taste but others will love it. I've seen it four times. Betty ( Lloyd, who is always fabulous, does a mean American accent here) and Buzz (Stephen Baldwin at his best) play a perfectly suited couple who live in a trailer and dream of big things. When Buzz's brother (Chris Penn) turns up things go haywire. Chris Penn gives a scarily intense performance. He is really great and gives a violent edge to this hilarious and quirky comedy. So if you like your movies unique and original. Under the Hula Moon is for you.

I started watching it, and couldn't stop. I don't know if I wanted it to get better, or just wanted to see where it would go next. It was funny, and still, not a good movie, or a bad one. I know when it was over, I felt like something had been stolen from me. It had some inklings of Raising Arizona, but not as funny. There were some "hidden" funny things, but you have to pay attention. That's not always easy with this movie. A few times I wanted to turn it off, but like looking at a car accident while it's happening, it's bad, but you can't look away. I would recommend it, if you have some mind candy time to kill. Or perhaps just want to turn your brain to mush while eating cheetos and drinking strawberry quik.

Considering that the overall score for "Under the Hula Moon" has an abysmal overall score of 4.3 AND it stars the far less famous siblings of famous stars, I assumed it would be a terrible film. To my surprise, the film was quirky and a lot of fun...though I assume it's not a film for all folks, as it is quite strange.

Buzzard Wall (Stephen Baldwin...Alec's brother) lives with his wife in a trailer in the middle of the Arizona desert. They are quite poor, as Buzz spends all of his time working on his invention, camoflage sunscreen, instead of working an actual job. Betty (Emily Lloyd) loves him dearly, but she is frustrated by Buzz's obsession with this invention...an invention that no one seems to want.

One day, Buzz's psychotic brother, Turkey (Chris Penn, brother of Sean) arrives...freshly from escaping from prison AND killing a man. Soon he beats up Buzz and abducts his wife....and spirits her off to Mexico against her will. Assisted by a really annoying ex-girlfriend/TV reporter, Buzz sets off to get his wife and beat the snot out of Turk.

The film is weird from start to finish...and the film tried very hard to be quirky and strange. The music, set design and costumes all work well to create a weird look...and I really liked it. As for the actors, despite being the 'lesser brothers', but did just fine and the film really worked due to the funny script and direction. My only complaint, and it is very minor, is that the resolution seems to come a bit too quickly...but still, it's great fun.

By the way, the language in this movie is pretty rough...so it's not a good movie to show your kids, dog, mother-in-law or Father O'Reilly if he stops by for a visit.

Unlike another comment here, I did not at all get the idea this movie is a Pulp Fiction rip off. However, I can see that liking this movie is very much a matter of taste.

I quite liked watching it though. I caught myself being curious what the next plot twist was going to be a few times, as the development of the plot is a bit strange. I would definitely buy this if it were out on DVD.