Keys to Tulsa

Forget what some of those other reviewers said--this is a good movie! (Perhaps the plot twists were a little too challenging for them to follow.) The acting is great--especially Deborah Unger and James Spader. And Mary Tyler Moore does a great holier-than-thou slut-turned-society-swell. And Cameron Diaz is dead-on as a ditzy blind date. And Joanna Going does a hot striptease. And ... and ... hell, just see it.

Had this been produced by a major studio with an experienced director at the helm, this movie would of been so much better. Keys to Tulsa contains both the look and music of countless straight to video/cable movies from the same period. Which is a shame because the cast is great and was clearly game for anything. Fans of David Cronenberg's Crash will find it amusing to see James Spader and Deborah Kara Unger reuniting, playing a trailer trash couple instead of a yuppie couple. But just like in Crash, their characters aren't exactly faithful to each other. However it's the beautiful Joanna Going who steals the show, looking like a skinnier and smaller breasted Alyssa Milano as the stripper named Cherry who is constantly under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol at all the wrong times. It's surprising to know that she was around 34 when she made this movie, as she looks more like 24. Adding more insult to her great performance, despite her large role her name nor picture is nowhere to be found on the region 1 DVD case from Artisan. Meanwhile, Cameron Diaz who only has a cameo that lasts a few minutes at the beginning of the film has second billing.

This is a really good movie. I mean that. Great acting, dialogue, and full bodied plot keep this film moving just fine. You'll need to dig this one up in VHS at your local video dealer, but it's well worth the search. This one's a gem. 7 of 10

On the other hand , James Spader is seen here as a very menacing and masculine character and Deborah Unger , Eric Stoltz and Cameron Diaz all do a fine job of showing us the kind of trouble that wealth coupled with boredom can get a spoiled and no longer quite that young brat or two into . I enjoyed it . I got it out to see a bit more of Ms. Unger , but I gained a much greater appreciation of Mr. Spader .

Keys To Tulsa spends most of its two-hour length teetering on the brink of being a convoluted mess, but the wit and charm of the script and the cast combine to make it a worthwhile watch. Eric Stoltz is hilarious as the hapless Richter, delivering some great one-liners and generally appearing to enjoy the hell out of most of the movie despite his character's fairly pathetic situation. There are a lot of characters with a lot of back story in Keys To Tulsa, and at times it's easy to forget who has done what to whom. (There are also three characters named Richter, Victor and Vicki in this movie, which may work on paper, but phonetically it's a little jarring, and there's no apparent reason for them to have such similar-sounding names.) Overall, though, it works as kind of a slapsticky film noir. Mary Tyler Moore is a scream as Richter's mother, and Michael Rooker is reliably freaky as Richter's childhood friend. Give this one a shot. It's not what you'd call high art, but it's a lot of fun.