This movie is hard to pin down as to exactly what it is, but I liked it. I saw it at its world premiere in Las Vegas at the Gold Coast Hotel's theater, and the house was packed. The filmmakers and actors were there, they spoke before it, it was pretty cool. Afterwards, talking to the people in the audience, it was clear that what we saw was definitely different, but there was a lot of laughter and everyone had a great time.
In a nutshell there's two primary stories - a guy who has everything but is a mean S.O.B., (Richard Kane) and a guy who tries to come to Vegas to make it big on a stage show (Larry Rich). The stories are pretty much unrelated except in their contrast - one guy's a real "have" and the other's a total "have-not." Their storylines only met one time, when Richard nearly kills Larry with his car in a nice bit of foreshadowing.
Sprinkled throughout the rest of the film are some totally out-of-left-field storytellers. They had absolutely *nothing* to do with the rest of the picture, but they told the wildest stories, and they were all true (the filmmakers said so). One guy, a rough-looking biker type, told a story about his misadventures while getting a double enema at the hospital that was so funny it brought the house down. Another guy told a long story about when his friend got shot by a gang member at a party and basically died in his arms. It was obviously hard for him to tell the story, he choked up a few times, and it was riveting to watch because it was *real*.
The concept of the two unrelated stories mixed in with the storytellers is hard to explain but was fun to watch, in a quirky, indie-film kind of way. I wouldn't compare it to Pulp Fiction because it wasn't anything like that - it was its own style. It bothered some people in the audience because it was out of the ordinary, but most of us just settled in and enjoyed the ride.
The picture had its rough edges, but when you consider how little it cost - they said the budget was $7,000 cash, for a 91-minute movie! - it was really commendable. They said almost everyone worked for free, and Joseph Kucan was outstanding as the bad guy Richard.
If you see it in a video store, check it out. You might love it, or you might not, but it's definitely different and you probably won't have seen anything quite like it.
