Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995)

I fell asleep two times and watch it two days. I respect Quentin Tarantino but this movie, if you can call it a movie, just disappoint.I know I won't watching it again.

I was scrummaging through my local dirt mall VHS bins one day just trying to kill time before I went to see some flick. I can't remember what it was right now. But in the bin which I was not even really looking through as I had already discarded most of my own VHS collection in favor of DVDs but something caught my glaze. It was picture of James Le Gross who I love from his role in Phantasm II and who was beside him on the case than none other than QT himself. I had to have this and for three bucks in a bargain bin it was somewhat worth it. No the film will never set the world on fire, but i don't think that was the point of this film either. The point of this was to try and make something small and personal. As I don't know the director of this and have never watched any of his other films I can say through my eyes he failed. the films story if there is one moves so slow that Bush would have had time to respond to the Katrina disaster before this film came to head. Le Gross is the main reason to watch this if you must and not QT as he just lies around sulking up the scenery, same as Jim Belushi. While Le Gross is wily and dirty looking in this film just like a latter film he did Highway Hitcher he just looks bad but really hes not and it's shame his one claim to fame is Phantasm II. Even though Mike Baldwin did a better job Le Gross worked well with what he had in that film. He deserves better than this, so I will give the film three stars because I feel sorry for him.

First, for those of you who are interested in this because of Quentin Tarantino, take heed that his work on the "film" is only that of an actor, not writer or director. To make things worse, he has the best performance of the movie. While the rest of the cast seems solid on paper, it would help matters if they weren't all phoning in their lines (even Bobcat Goldthwait fizzles). The movie tries to be a quirky indie a la Pulp Fiction, but aside from the horrid acting, it also features poorly written lines and scenes so painfully bad (it's not often I encounter a scene intended to be comical turn into unintentional comedy) that you'll wonder what kind of person directed this. The answer to that is simple: someone with no other directorial credits--for good reason!!

I don't know what convinced Quentin Tarantino to take a role in 'Destiny Turns on the Radio,' nor do I really want to. Essentially it is a rip-off of his ultra-popular "Pulp Fiction," released in 1994, only that movie had a point and this one does not. Dylan McDermott heads an all-star cast as a crook that is let out of jail, only to find his old pal (James LeGros) has lost their cash to a mysterious wanderer named Johnny Destiny (Quentin Tarantino), hence the title.However, things aren't as clear as they seem to be. Sure, the movie's title is easily explanatory – but what on earth Johnny Destiny stands for (other than, of course, destiny), why he's there, who he really is, what he's doing, why he wants to do what he's doing – none of it is explained.Furthermore none of it is ambiguous like 'Donnie Darko,' where we enjoy guessing and forming our own conclusions. Nope, it's just stupid and guessing what any of it means wastes too many precious brain cells that doesn't deserve to be burnt on such lousy, paper-thin material.It's like someone, somewhere, said, 'Let's make a movie with Quentin Tarantino. It'll have no plot, we'll just have some weird characters interact and tell jokes and entertain the audience.' Entertaining, perhaps, but not in a good way.The ending stinks of studio interference and more often than not the movie is just downright confusing. It could very easily be one of the worst films of all time, if not for the fact that it is rather sporadically amusing at times (its strongest traits of very little) and there are some OK performances from James Belushi and LeGros. The rest of the cast is a dud -- Tarantino tries, but fails, in a cameo-sized role. He's flamboyant and obviously savoring the opportunity to pay homage to all the cool-cat characters of classic cinema, but it's soon revealed that his character, Johnny, is just plain strange and unlikable. I expected to feel something – anything – when he appeared on-screen, but I didn't. Co-star McDermott in particular is just plain awful, lacking the charisma required for the role. Often appearing in made-for-television movies, McDermott once again establishes the fact that he's not the sort of actor you'd wanDialogue is stiff (stuff like "kiss me, baby" manages to sneak in). Overall it's just a goofy movie that thinks it's a lot cleverer than it is -- not awful because it doesn't take itself too seriously and is fun sometimes, but overall just a big mess of various ideas that clash together. A pure marketing scheme, cashing in on Tarantino's image no less.I did enjoy one performance, in particular -- James LeGros ("Phantasm II"), who reminded me of Barney from "The Flintstones." A likable actor playing a likable character with depth -- too bad he had to waste his talent on a movie that is otherwise so very thin.