Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997)

Kiefer Sutherland directed and reserved for himself the best part in Truth Or Consequences, NM. He's one kill crazy amoral dude in this film.Vincent Gallo gets released from prison and within the day he's greeted by his girlfriend Kim Dickens and they hook up with Kiefer Sutherland and Mykelti Williamson for a caper involving robbing drug dealer John C. McGinley who Gallo has bad history with.We find out early enough that Sutherland really enjoys pulling that trigger. In what should have been a simple robbery he kills McGinley out of some pique and then kills another who turn out to be an undercover cop. Getting away they kill a few more cops.The next step for these out of control hoods is to rip off and kill Mafia kingpin Rod Steiger. Now with the organized crime and the police hunting them, they give no indication of slowing down.Sutherland the director let's Sutherland the actor have full range and he goes with it. Totally fascinating performance.The second one to pay attention to is Kevin Pollak whose camper is commandeered by the gang and he and wife Donna Moreland are taken hostages. Moreland is in proper fear, but Pollak starts stockholming with this gang. Makes for some very interesting behavior and he's fscinating to watch.The shootout, where else but the town that changed it's name from Hot Springs to the name of a radio program as a gimmick. Truth Or Consequences, NM is a fascinating and fast paced caper film where things quite don't work out and a few aren't whom they seem.

This is the kind of movie that you stumble upon, on basic cable, at 3am, when nothing but infomercials are on: entertaining enough to keep watching, though very predictable, clichés up the wazoo, the plot has been done to death, in better movies, and the acting is mostly flat (save for Keifer Sutherland). The excessive violence and gore were a nice touch (I'm a big Tarantino fan, so that explains that), but ultimately, nothing can earn this movie even 5 stars out of 10, because its just written badly and poorly executed, so I'm going with 4 stars, because I didn't absolutely hate it and Vincent Gallo was hot and in his prime, in this movie. A MUCH better drug movie is Drugstore Cowboy (1989).

There were defenantly some good moments in the movie, but it ended up just dragging on and on. There were also several scenes which didn't feel real, I just didn't think that they would happen in real life. After it was over, I was disappointed that I wasted my time. Though Keifer Sutherland was very good in the movie, and I rather enjoyed his character. All and all Don't waste your time with this movie, I doesn't hold any value, and you will probably be disappointed in the end. Its not just the fact that the ending wasn't very good, but the complete movie as a whole was not very entertaining.

"Truth or Consequences N.M." is a sloppy drama about a petty crook and his girl, a half-psycho killer, an undercover DEA agent, and an abducted ordinary couple traveling together with a bunch of drugs and cops and the mob on their tail. In spite of a good cast, this B-movie is just more of the same old stuff we've all seen many times before with nothing to distinguish itself. Full of plot holes, continuity goofs, abjectly ordinary action, etc. this is one for the late night couch potato only. (C)