New Rose Hotel (1999)

New Rose Hotel (1998)Willem Dafoe and Christopher Walken, two ageing A-listers along with the sexy Italian Asia Argento, star in this slow paced tale. I won't bore you with details about the story, as you can read them here, besides which, I watched the Italian version, and don't understand a word of Italian, this in itself might have improved the film.I'll come clean. Prior to watching New Rose Hotel, I had read about it, I knew the story, Asia Argento followers appear to do what they can to praise the film where possible, while casual viewers tend to rate the film as a non starter. I wanted to give it a try. On attempting to source a copy, it became apparent New Rose Hotel hadn't made it to Blu-ray, and DVD's were on offer for extortionate prices, probably because it might be a deleted title. What I did find was an original VHS Mondadori Video featuring a rather interesting cover on ebay. I put in an offer for £3 and within two days, it was mine! (like new)Visually, while New Rose Hotel looks dated, there were one or two moments I liked what I saw. The opening credits are rather eye catching, resembling something more from the 80's. I'm not sure what the mood was like on set, but Willem Dafoe and Christopher Walken both appear to be in good spirits, and acted somewhat aloof. I got the impression both took on the job, as maybe there wasn't much else on offer at the time. Willem Dafoe had an added bonus of being paid to frolic with Asia Argento, who would often appear to act in such a fashion as to appear to be having-ago at acting, having a bit of fun, and seize the opportunity to flash her breasts.I had an idea of what was going on most of the time. I doubt if the film has been in English it would have added much. As strange as it might sound, I got the impression the film was acted in English and dubbed to Italian, as Asia Argento's lips didn't synch with the audio.To sum New Rose Hotel up, it comes across like a raw low-budge B- movie.

I'm a big Gibson fan, a big Walken fan, a big Dafoe fan, Asia Argento ain't bad to look at, and here is my favorite illustrator, Amano, in his only film appearance. Wow! I was real excited to find out this short story had been made into a movie with such a great cast.After seeing it, it's no wonder I'd never heard of it all this time. It just stinks.Walken is really the only thing carrying the movie at all. The other characters are all unlikeable and easily forgettable. Dafoe is a silly caricature. Argento can't act worth a damn. Amano has no lines.The plot is fairly straight-forward, but for some reason the director decided to abruptly end the movie about two-thirds of the way through, and then replay the whole thing over again in a series of unnecessary flashbacks inter-spliced with what would be included as deleted scenes on the modern day DVD.I really wanted to like this movie, but there's just nothing there except for one of Walken's canned sociopath characters (although well done) and Argento's boobs, which are exposed so many times by the end of the movie, I actually got bored of seeing them. Too bad.

New Rose Hotel (1998) was another strange film from Abel Ferrara. Instead of his usual street dramas. Ferrara expands upon the elements that he utilized whilst making BLACKOUT. A dark and moody film that was adapted from a short story that was written by William Gibson. I was surprised by how intriguing and interesting the movie was. I have heard so many negative things about this production that I was a little leery in watching it. But I was impressed by the story, acting and directing.Christopher Walken and Wilhem Dafoe are two losers who are always looking for rich people to swindle. One day they find the perfect pigeon who'll make them a lot of money. But they need a seductress. They find one in Asia Argento (who's smoking hot in this movie). During the bug hustle, Dafoe falls for her and the two make a side swindle. Unfortunately nothing is really as it seems. Instead of running off with Asia, Dafoe tries to play all sides but he winds up with nothing. Before he can split, his mentor Walken kills himself before the hit men can ice him. Dafoe realizes that he's be burned by a better con artist and flees. Hiding from everyone, Dafoe spends the rest of his pathetic life hiding out in a derelict apartment complex The New Rose Hotel where he re-lives the last month of his life over and over until he ends it all.Even though we never see what happens to Dafoe's character, one can assume what happens to him. He has nowhere to go but inside the coffin he's created. The movie is a serious character study about not knowing what you could have and how greed and stupidity make a dangerous combination. I found this movie to be very deep and moving as well. But it's not for everyone.Highly recommended.

It's hard to believe that a movie directed by Abel Ferrara based on a story by William Gibson and starring Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe and Asia Argento would be anything less than great, but this movie is just OK. It has a lot of moody atmosphere. Asia A., the lovely Eurobabe who is supposedly ogre-ish horror-meister Dario Argento's daughter (I, for one, won't believe it until I see the blood tests), spends most of the movie in various states of undress (unfortunately, so does Dafoe). Walken is great as always. But literally nothing happens. It's all atmosphere, eerie music, and occasional bursts of softcore groping. Neither Ferrara's visuals, Walken's acting presence, or Argento's tatooed nether regions can ultimately carry a film so totally devoid of conventional plot, suspense, or action. Not a bad film, just a disappointing one.