Out of Season (2004)

The movie is really slow paced to start of with, and is generally not very interesting. Sure it picks up towards the end. Sadly that's not much excitement either and the measures seems to outweigh the goal. Two story lines in the movie, runs parallel until they crosses paths towards the end. Sadly I think the bad acting were shining through the most towards the end. D. Murray, acting as "Simeon" might be the only one with decently portraying his character.I paused the movie twice while watching, getting a break and doing other things. To then resume watching later. Thats usually not a good sign. I felt the acting were below average, and worst at the end. The plot seemed quite unlikely to me and the slow pace, for the first hour made it hard to do in one sitting.

**SPOILERS** Weird 1940's Hollywood type film noir filmed entirely in the former Communist Peoples Republic of Romania of all places! The movie has former Chicago Jewel thief Harry Barlow, Dennis Hopper, get involved with this aimless drifter Pierre, Jordan Frieda, who at first tried to rob Harry's beach-front bar. Catching Pierre with his pants down Harry has him put under his wing and trained to rip off the local amusement park's daily take. This all is to happen after the amusement parks grand opening of it's world famous roller costar known as the anti-gravity ride.Pierre ended up getting stuck at this dingy coastal town when his money, that he had hidden in his hotel room, was stolen by this homicidal religious fanatic Simon Guant, David Murray. Simon got Pierre to rip off Harry's Bar only to have Harry, who caught him in the act, get Pierre to work for him instead. Harry plans to use Pierre to rip off the amusement park's owner Michael Philips, Jim Carter, take when the park opens.What both Harry and Pierre don't know is that Simon is playing it both ways in planning to have Michael murdered with the help of Michael's cheating wife Eileen, Gina Gershon,whom he's planning to double-cross at the very last moment. The slippery and slimy Simon has Elieen confess on tape, without her knowing, that she's to have Michael murdered which will be all the evidence that Michael will need, by paying Simon $10,000.00 for it, to get an air-tight divorce against her!To round the utterly confusing movie plot out there's also Michael's snotty and spoiled daughter Kelly, Dominique Swain, who's Pierre girlfriend and is also looking to stick it to both her hated parents Michael & Eileen. Kelly is also unknowing working in concert with the greedy and unscrupulous banker Fraser MacDonald, William Armstrong, who's got a lean of Michael's amusement park by him being behind on his loan payments to his bank. It's Fraser who's also just dying to get his hands on the 60 aces of prime waterfront real-estate, that comprises Michael's amusement park, and turn it into a multi-million dollar shopping mall!***SPOILER ALERT*** The whole mind boggling plot, by Simon Eileen Pierre Kelly & Harry, falls apart with Pierre breaking into Michael's house and thus keeping his wife Eileen from murdering him and being stopped by her partner in crime Simon, who planned to double-cross her all along, from doing it at the very last moment! Harry who, like almost everyone else involved in break-in at Michael's pad, has no idea of what's going on and is later attacked and both brutally tortured-as well as crucified-and murdered by the crazed and criminally deranged Simon. The by then helplessly drug and alcohol addicted Simon thought that both Harry and his accomplice Pierre ripped off Michaels' amusement park receipts as well as his wife's, Eileen, jewelry which in fact they didn't!In the end Simon,together with the femme fatal Eileen, ends up getting everything that he so rightfully deserves with Pierre taking off in the by then late Harry's 1969 firetruck red Cadillac Seville and riding into the California, or is it Romanian, sunset. It's now left for Pierre girlfriend Kelly to put on an act, as well as throw off suspicion on herself, as the grieving and orphaned daughter of her dead parents Michael & Eileen that she unintentionally had a hand in doing in as well as Simon that she very intentionally did leave hanging on a vine.

Wow, having just watched the movie and then read the comments, I'm struck by the differences of opinion on this one. Some hate it, some love it. I'll put myself in the "I love it" column. It's a dark and gritty film with generally unsympathetic characters and maybe a tad too many off-kilter viewing angles but I couldn't take my eyes off this film.Yes, there's violence, but that's not uncommon these days. There's a mixture of accents, which seems to bother some people more than others. It didn't bother me; people move around and it's unreasonable to expect all people to sound alike.It's a mysterious type of film; even after watching it, you'll likely wonder what such-and-such was all about. That's OK: it means you're still living through the action. It didn't all stop when the credits started to roll.Ignore the negative comments and give this one a go. I give it a TEN.

I was lucky enough to get a preview of this film in London, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's quite a gripping drama/thriller that unfolds against the backdrop of a bleak,non-descript seaside resort as it shuts down for the season. I don't want to give too much away about the story line, but the movie it most reminded me of is The Grifters. The acting quite literally blew me away. There are 3 standouts performances though. I think Dennis Hopper gave his best performance since Blue Velvet. In certain scenes his emotions are so raw you feel it in your stomach--Oscar calibre stuff. Jordan Frieda (Lulu's son) delivers as Pierre the protagonist (and I use the term protagonist very loosely). And David Murray--oh my... This guy just exudes evil as Simeon. Shame that the AFI's list of Greatest Movie Villians has already been published. He will definately make the list when it's refreshed. Simeon is the most complex character in the film and David Murray plays him perfectly. Excellent direction by Jevon O'Neill--he has created quite a haunting movie, with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end and will leave you with a sense of longing for the other half of humanity--the good half.