When I was kid growing up in Scotland, there used to be a really cool cult film show called MOVIEDROME. It was hosted by Alex Cox (director of Repo Man) and each week he would pick a film, talk about it very honestly (often pointing out shortfalls and foibles of the production) and then show it. This was before DVD of course, so it was a great opportunity to see some pretty weird and wonderful films, things like RIVERS EDGE, NEAR DARK, and something with Dennis hopper escorting a dead body across the united states on a train(don't remember what this was called).
This is exactly the kind of film that would have been on moviedrome, great and improbable casting (Crispin Glover and Eric Roberts together at last!), unachieved potential etc. Busey really impresses as Rick, he really takes his character on a journey, and towards the end he really starts to impress. I think the pairing of Busey with Indie film legend Crispin Glover, helped Busey achieve this performance. Whether because of the good on screen chemistry they obviously have or because Glover sets the bar pretty high acting wise.
Other plus points include the credible and snappy dialogue, and a great cameo by Eric Roberts as Jennifer Tilly's husband/manager/pimp. On the downside, we have a pretty uninspired performance from Tilly, and a meandering plot that doesn't seem to get its act together until the last 20 minutes or so. There also parts by played by Goldberg and Lyon (is that right?, the girlfriend) that are so underwritten that they could almost have been left out they do that little to forward the action. The terrible split screen sequences are extremely half-arsed and should have been left on the cutting room.
All in all very interesting failure. BBC bring back moviedrome and might even pay my license fee this year.
