User reviews

This film brings to mind "Liquid Sky" and "Repo Man" (it features Tracey Walter, who played oddballs in both). It has a plot based on fantastic elements, yet is grounded in ordinary events (the usual romantic involvements and lifestyles of the criminal mind). It does feature great music and good performances, even if the plot is a little stupid or slapstick at times. Dylan McDermott and James Le Gros are both great. I feel that Nancy Travis is a bit overmatched in her role (Sarah Trigger would have been better), and I don't get Quentin Tarantino, so he could have been replaced by anyone else in this picture. The over-the-top ending, which leaps into the ridiculous zone, drops the rating to a "6", but this is pleasant, diverting entertainment with nice-looking actors, if nothing else.

Last saw this in '95, so my recollection is a bit spotty. Never seen it available anywhere since then. Interesting cast - Le Gross is pretty good, Quentin is the mysterious Johnny Destiny is his sweet Road Runner - any decent actor could have played his role. Various other notables...I swear John Cusack is in this too, somewhere. Le Gross' character stumbles through one bad experience after another with the hopes that he eventually triumphs. I think Belushi plays Nancy Travis' husband? Pretty good bad guy, from what I remember. Look for this on eBay or Amazon if you don't want to rummage through garage-sale our going out of business video stores.

There are only certain movies that can overcome their technical failures. Movies like "Destiny Turns on the Radio" have an authentically magical spark that draws you in despite some bad production values. What's more, its whimsical but truly bizarre story never alienates its audience. It is solidly entertaining and memorable throughout. Featuring some dazzling performances (minus Quentin Tarantino's lackluster turn as the suave Johnny Destiny) and a truly unique story, "Destiny" is a low-key gem.

Dylan McDermott is downright charismatic as Julian Goddard-a fugitive who was able to escape a Nevada penitentiary through a once in a lifetime brush with luck and fate. He is rescued by Destiny and delivered back to his old life of crime after 3 years. He hooks up with hotel manager Thoreau, his longtime partner and friend-played by James LeGros who is one of the film's most shining assests. With a fresh new hand at life, he sets out to get back with his ex Lucille, who is looking for her big break as a singer (by any means necessary). She is now with a piggish casino owner played by a surprisingly funny James Belushi. Of course, Goddard needs to thwart him, his goons, not to mention a handful of cops on his tail in order to get to his long lost love. All the while, Johnny Destiny is planning his return to his netherworldly realm through means of a hotel pool portal (don't ask- watch the movie).

There are a lot of things that just don't work in this movie. Fortunately they are not hard to look past. These include the terrible sound, which require some leniency from the viewer. They also include some jokes that go flat-notably a completely needless subplot starring none other that Bobcat Goldthwait. As you know, Quentin doesn't do much for his great role and to top it all off, there are some things that don't make a whole lot of sense in the script.

The beautiful thing about this movie is that it doesn't stop being so effortlessly likable. It gets very far fetched, but it never turned me off the whole time. In fact, it only proceeded to draw me in and captivate my imagination. Not to mention it's sprinkled with great bit parts like Tracey Walter as Goddard's desert-rat father, a hilarious David Cross as Lucille's sleazy agent and Allen Garfield as Vinny Vedivici, the slob producer who can make her dreams come true.

It may not hit all its marks, but "Destiny Turns on the Radio" convinces you it doesn't have to. It is one of those irresistible movies that you don't know why you enjoy it, but can't help doing so nonetheless. Don't be shy, accept "Destiny".

I love Quentin Tarantino, both the director and actor (even though he's not a good actor). He's a brilliant auteur who changed the face of cinema. But to watch his performance in this movie would be a mistake. What we ave here is indie non-sense trying to ride the wave of RESERVOIR DOGS. The direction is weak and the plot and settings try duplicate the feel of WILD AT HEART, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, and TRUE ROMANCE. This is simply a knock-off, people, not a bold new entry! DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO is just a handful of actors and a soundtrack in search of a movie to be in. If the great QT had directed, or at least written this, it would be a real movie. Sadly it is just an immitative mess that uses Tarantino's name to sell itself. Don't be fooled! The thing doesn't even try to make it lame jail break/divine intervention plot seem at all real. Coyotes, neon lights, swimming pools, and Dylan McDermott do not a movie make. The dialogue sucks and the characters are thin. The guy who directed this mess hadn't done a film since the early 70s, after this mess, he shouldn't be allowed to try again until the 2070s. Others to avoid in this rip-off genre are SUICIDE KINGS and POOLHALL JUNKIES. If you want the real deal, see JACKIE BROWN, anything by Tarantino, TRUE ROMANCE and NATURAL BORN KILLERS. This picture is destined to be forgotten.

If you want to see one film that advertises the worst excesses of indie cinema, look no further than this incredibly overlong mish mash that blends the worst excesses of Tarantino and Lynch in one unwatchable stew. Heck, we even have to LOOK at Tarantino, who plays (I can't bring myself to use the word 'acts') Johnny Destiny, a Christlike figure who shoots firebolts and appears in a swimming pool. The only saving grace is, as usual, James LeGros, who once again makes an effort to deliver a decent performance in another indie embarrassment.

Prison escapee heading for Las Vegas is given a ride by Johnny Destiny, a mystery man and walking fortune cookie. Destiny may be playing havoc with the crook's life, for nothing goes right once he hits town: the money he robbed three years ago is missing and his girl Lucille is now a lounge singer involved with a mobster. Sort of a surreal, would-be noir filmed in blazing colors, written by the team of Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone--who don't seem to know anything about Vegas (the film is an outsider's fantasy-version of Las Vegas). Overacted by the cast, although Quentin Tarantino retains his wily charm and charisma as Johnny (one misses the crackling dialogue typically found in his screenplays, however). Jack Baran attempts a certain style in his direction, but this whole stew seems left over from the 1980s. * from ****

"Destiny Turns on the Radio" is an extremely fun trip into a weird mythological netherworld of Las Vegas. It is a film that implements a purposefully corny magical realism to tell a story of an escaped convict rediscovering his destiny.

And magical it is. This film is in a class of a few other 90's films (all of which never really found an audience outside the late-night-Cinemax crowd) that capture a magically bright, giddy, and surreal atmosphere -- this one in a gleeful Las Vegas setting. Its classmates include "Box of Moonlight" and "Mojave Moon".

Despite a few technical flaws (the sound's iffy and so is some blocking -- and I'd lose Tarrantino if this was my film), the movie just works in an odd sort of way. The cast seems to be having a great time (note especially Tracey Walter and James Legros' father-son's-best-friend bonding scenes), the locations and cinematography are dazzling, and it provides an intangible escape into a weird cinematic netherworld. It's as if some portal opened up to these filmmakers in this specific class of the mid-90s and enlightened them all with late-night-Cinemax charm. More, please!

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.

Aside from an earlier comment written about this movie, I happen to believe that DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO is a fine indie film. The dialogue is actually quite pungent with one-liners and gritty 'over-the-top' tough-guy-ness which makes it rather enjoyable. The story takes place in Las Vegas where an animistic spirit in the form of a man, Johnny Destiny (played by Tarantino), brings luck and good fortune to whoever he comes into contact with. The cast is idealistic and sparked with character, especially in the cases of wacky Thoreau and angry Julian (played respectively by James Le Gros and Dylan McDermott), and in a surprise casting move with comic veteran James Belushi as Tuerto, casino manager of The Stardust and new lover of the befallen Lucille (Nancy Travis of 'SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER'). Johnny Destiny is the somewhat loose glue binding all of these characters together, which is a far stretch I'll admit, but the fun is in how it plays out, the excessive Las Vegasy overacting (which shouldn't be mistaken for real acting) and the quips of the dialogue. The only problem with this film, however, is that Tarantino's acting is horrid and somehow his association with this movie lumped it into a generic Tarantino-esque category, making its viewers somewhat upset due to the overwhelming lack of F-words, point-blank gunpoint stand-offs, and bloody faces. What DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO does offer, however, is a magical, mystical feel in a city where lady luck is prayed upon every second, and characters who obviously take themselves too seriously only to learn that success and fortune can fade in the flash of a lightning bolt. Other interesting and great casting mentions go to Bobcat Goldthwait and David Cross.

You know those really stupid ideas you get sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night? Well, you can imagine the scene: the man who would later have the idea for Destiny Turns on the Radio is asleep in his bed. He wakes up in a cold sweat one night; "A magic swimming pool!", he exclaims, "..and a cool guy can come out, and this guy be the illusive one, who holds it all together", he's really sweating now, "and we'll get Quentin Tarantino to play him!". After seeing the movie, it's safe to say that it was an extremely stupid idea.

As mentioned, Quentin Tarantino plays a man that comes out a swimming pool. Yes, you heard me right; in an absolutely ridiculous sequence, Tarantino actually rises from an electricity-ridden swimming pool. The only thing more ridiculous than that sequence in this movie is Quentin Tarantino's actual performance. Tarantino has proved, time and time again, that acting isn't his forte, but he puts it beyond a shadow of a doubt here. He tries to look cool with his swagger and slow moving voice, but he actually just looks pathetic. One good thing is that he doesn't get a lot of screen time; but the mere fact that he's in it loses the movie some of it's credibility, and this is a movie that doesn't exactly have credibility to burn. It's a shame that this movie is so terrible really, as it does have quite a good cast. Dylan McDermott, one of stars of my guiltiest pleasure, 1999's rom-com; Three to Tango takes the lead role, with Nancy Travis (So I Married an Axe Murderer) as his girlfriend, James LeGros as his friend and David Cross, who I actually like a lot, is in the movie as an agent of some sort.

The stupid plot isn't helped at all by a lacklustre script. Modern crime movies have become known for snappy dialogue and offbeat characters, and this movie has both; albeit both badly done. The dialogue has some truly ridiculous lines and most of the time they are delivered badly, too. This is most probably due to the fact that most of the cast were probably cursing their agents while making this film, and have probably spent the last ten years trying to forget that Destiny ever turned on the radio. As you, the viewer, will no doubt do; but it certainly won't take ten years. My advice? Watch something else.

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 wan

Dialogue 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.

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!!

It's not this movie's fault that it's this movie. Call it a birth defect, are you gonna blame a birth defect on somebody, are you that hard? Is this a horror movie about the poor woman doomed to have Jim Belushi's child? Is this one of those movies that tries to mean something but also not mean something? It's complicated. Las Vegas sucks by the way, it's not a fun or exciting place, good times are not had there. There are so many moments in this movie when I find myself cringing in embarrassment for whomever is on screen, like I 'm so sorry for everyone who had to be in this movie, man, like you didn't know, you didn't know. Ultimately I think we can all put this movie behind us.

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.

Good story that is fun to follow - 0 Stars

Memorable dialogue - 1 Star

Feel a pull to watch it a second time - 1/2 Star

Music/Score stands out - 1 Star

No noticeable plot holes - 0 Stars

Story gets resolved in some way - 1/2 Star

I personally like the story - 1 Star

Memorable likable characters - 1 Star

Most things about the story are believable - 0 Stars

Doesn't get boring - 0 Stars

Quentin Tarantino's acting is good and his character and demeanor makes the movie worth a watching for any QT fan!

After 3 years in prison, Julian Goddard (Dylan McDermott) is looking to get his share of the loot. He wakes up in the middle of the desert and gets picked up by Johnny Destiny (Quentin Tarantino) on his way to Vegas. He finds former comrade Thoreau who tells him that his ex Lucille (Nancy Travis) is gone and so is all the money after a supernatural lightning filled night brought forth Johnny Destiny. Lucille is besides herself after a positive pregnancy test with casino boss Tuerto (James Belushi).

Jack Baran is normally the AD but in this one, he tries his hand at being the boss. It doesn't work. He's definitely trying to do something cool but has non of the skills to pull it off. The actors are mostly top rate except for one and nobody comes off looking good. If Tarantino had done the directing rather than the acting, this movie could have had a chance. It's a mess. It's mostly bad. It's too ambitious. It's trying hard but it doesn't pull together.

i was talking with a friend who doesn't get QT movies at all .. while this, i've learned, is only a QT acting role, i really enjoyed it .. i'm surprised by the negativity of the comments by others .. seems this is either a love/hate movie or a sore point with QT aficionados .. whatever, i recommended it to my friend and do so to others who enjoy quirky little movies with a touch of magical realism together with a nice soundtrack .. i smile recalling the many scenes that entertained .. no deep meaning or message here, just a fun way to spend a little time while passing through an evening .. i'm no fan of Las Vegas, where the movie is set, but the little motel with its homage to film stars of the 1950's hearkens ones memory back to a time when the Strip was much less commercialized and overdone, a time when life seemed simpler, more magical, and just plain fun .. check out this little gem for yourself

The film tells a story about marginal people--people living in the interstices and on the edges of our system. Stories of this type allow writers and directors to concentrate on interactions among a fairly small group, and (usually) they create interesting, likable people for us. This film, with its bow to magic realism, is both amusing and surprising. Tarantino is not effective as an actor, I feel. Apparently he is too self-conscious or, perhaps, does not rehearse. Aside from his performance (and it is not actually bad), the performances are fine. Just about every actor in the film does a good job.

Quentin Tarantino has starred as an actor in many movies. Yes, really he did. Except for the movies he directed, NONE of the other movies he starred in as an actor are worth much. Great director, mediocre actor.

Is it worth watching just out of curiosity because Quentin Tarantino is starring in it (supporting role)? NO.

Is this movie worth watching anyway? NO NO NO.

It's a terribly cheap and lousy movie, with bad acting, bad script, full of cliches that give me headaches.

I don't know why this movie is always so poorly rated. From my point of view this is a fast paced movie with a little bit of everything: romance, car chases, music, crime, comedy, and a healthy serving of the surreal. I own a copy of this movie and I have watched it many times without getting tired of it - so why does the rest of the viewing community have it in for this little diamond in the rough?

The chemistry between Dylan McDermott and Nancy Travis sizzles and James LeGros makes a charming quirky sidekick. I could have lived without the Bobcat Goldthwait cameo, but when isn't that the case?

Here's a good acid test: if you liked Toys, L.A. Story or the Linguini Incident then you'll like Destiny Turns on the Radio.

One of the more obvious truths in show business is that, since people have different tastes in art, there are many different kinds of movies, and many different ways of talking about them. As my Uncle Al used to say, "Kid, that's why Mister Ford makes 'em in a lot of different colors now."

My late father was a lyricist back in the days of Tin Pan Alley; he sold his first song lyric before he was twenty, and he spent his entire life delighting in, and making his living with, his imagination. He treasured imaginative ways of telling stories, and I guess that's why I married a poet. I will forgive an otherwise uninspired movie if it offers an imaginative and unusual way of thinking about an idea.

Art, like religion, is a cultural universal; every society on earth makes art. In homogeneous cultures, and in all totalitarian societies, artistic orthodoxy is highly valued. The more diverse a culture becomes, the more tolerant it becomes of subversive art. The American film industry today is the most diverse in the world. Instead of an unchanging stream of movies glorifying the fatherland or the revolution, we Americans, or at least some of us, have been entertained by the animated fantasy of Walt Disney, the profound vision of Orson Welles, and even the as-yet-immature imagination of Jack Baran. Who's Jack Baran? I'm coming to that.

One of my father's favorite songs was Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen's "That Old Black Magic," which contains the line, "You're the mate that fate had me created for." And that's what DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO, directed by Jack Baran, is all about, a comedic fable about luck or fate or destiny, and the mythology that our culture has constructed around it. It's not a new idea, but it's an interesting idea, and it's more interesting to me than whether the good guy will get the bad guy before he blows up another building. The fact that young Jack Baran didn't quite pull it off is forgivable.

DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO was written by two young graduates of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute, which supports independent filmmaking, that is, movies not driven by the major studios and their commercial formulas for box-office success. Well, they certainly avoided formulas. They've also avoided box-office success. I saw this movie twice the week it opened, and I can say for a fact that at least four other people in my town also saw it because they were in the theater with me.

I found DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO to be provocative, witty and entertaining, but I surely can see why it's not everyone's cup of tea. Its theatrical colloquy and supernatural premise combine to create a script that probably reads a lot better than it plays. The incongruity between the theme and the characters demands an extreme suspension of disbelief, something most film-goers are simply not willing to do. So what's to like? Well, I liked this movie because it appealed to me like a quirky short story by P. G. Wodehouse, lightweight but clever. I liked it because James LeGros does a terrific job in a supporting role. I also liked it because Nancy Travis sings "That Old Black Magic" in a scene that had me tripping over my tongue.

I guess what I'm saying is that I liked DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO because I think my father would have liked it. It is an imaginative first effort from a bunch of young filmmakers, and investing in it was an act of courage. And evidently, for many people, so was sitting through it.