Reviews

Tonight I suffered the great displeasure of seeing a free sneak preview screening of the movie "Bobby".

I walked into the movie with only the vague knowledge that the film was an ensemble piece about people that were in the Ambassador Hotel on the night of Bobby Kennedy's assassination.

As the movie started, I was very impressed with the casting. I couldn't help but think that the writer/director Emilio Estevez has a LOT of friends in show business.

Unfortunately, absolutely none of these characters were compelling or interesting in any way whatsoever and very hard to really care for. Furthermore, there was little in the way of a cohesive story or narrative. Scene after scene started to play like a vignette in an acting class and the vast majority rang falsely due to the atrocious writing.

I found myself waiting for Bobby Kennedy to be integrated into the story in some meaningful way, but that never happened. Whatever you do, don't go to this movie thinking it has much to do with Bobby Kennedy.

Finally, towards the very end of the movie when Robert Kennedy, the great orator and only charismatic character in the movie, starts to speak – the director decided to mute Kennedy's voice and play the Simon & Garfunkel song "The Sounds of Silence" over his speech! The last movie that Emilio Estevez wrote and directed was "Men at Work", an unsuccessful comedy about garbage men. He is completely out of his league with this material, and misses the mark by miles. I contemplated walking out of the theater several times as this mess unraveled on the screen.

Bottom line: avoid at all costs.

Recently I had the privilege of viewing a poor quality bootleg videotape of this film. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

For starters, I'm not one to typically enjoy cult classics or films that are in the "so-bad-they-are-good category." My initial attraction to this film was based on one thing - Timothy Carey.

I first learned of Timothy Carey when I purchased a Stanley Kubrick DVD of "The Killing". Carey has a small but important role in this film, and the minute he first appeared on screen I knew there was something special about this guy. There was a magnetic bizarreness to him that simply transcended the role. The character he played didn't have to be creepy, but Carey _was_ creepy. The weird way he looked with his eyes almost always at half mast, the way he spoke with his peculiar voice and heavy New York accent, and his unconventional looks (like a bizarro version of John Turturro) all worked together to really pique my curiosity about him.

Well, onto the Internet I went. I found out more about him. He made a living generally playing seedy characters in supporting roles in all movies he appeared in, except for one. "The World's Greatest Sinner" would be not only his sole staring role, but also the only movie he wrote, produced, and directed. And never released.

Once I got a chance to watch the bootleg, I could see why it never received a proper release in its day.

Carey plays an insurance salesman that is seemingly depressed and bored with his job and life and decides to change. He gets inspired by rock-n-roll, becomes a rock star of sorts, a preacher, a politician, and finally sells himself as God to his cult of followers.

This movie has some pretty dark humor, at least one shocking scene (even by today's standards, never mind 1962), and takes some potshots at organized religion.

Maybe the thing that struck my the most about this movie is it's vitality. It feels fresh, which is so different than how many older movies hold up. This is because this film was and continues to be so far ahead of its time.

If you are a fan of cult movies, I urge you to track this film down. If you are a fan of offbeat actors, ala Dennis Hopper, Crispin Glover, etc., I urge you to track this film down.

It certainly is a sin that this wonderful movie is not available through normal channels.

This movie is about a young man, played by Scott Leet that accidentally kills a woman while he is in the act of a one-night stand. Unfortunately for him, the woman he kills is married to a crazed cop, played by Mickey Rourke. After Leet gets released from prison after serving seven years, he meets up with a married couple and he gets involved in a love triangle of sorts. As a subplot, Rourke is hell bent on getting revenge on Leet. I could go on, but it's really not worth the effort.

In all fairness, the above synopsis actually sounds better than the film plays. Two words that come to mind while watching this movie are "stupid" and "amateurish".

This movie was written, directed, and produced by Scott Leet and Bojesse Christopher. And as if their talent was still not being fully tapped, they also play the two main characters in the film.

Well, the story isn't very compelling, and they make the film worse by their horrible acting.

I guess Leet and Christopher raised enough money to hire a few professional actors that are "guns for hire" at this point in their career. This includes Mickey Rourke, Christina Applegate, and Peter Greene. All of them have minor roles (fortunately for them, unfortunately for the viewers).

Although Mickey Rourke has top billing in this production, he is merely a supporting character. In spite of the thin material he has to work with, Rourke delivers a very good performance.

The only thing of interest is to see how striking the bad acting is relative to the good acting in the film. Amateurs and professionals should really never mix.

Bottom-line; avoid this movie at all costs. I would give this a solid 2 out of 10.

Fans of this film have no problem quoting the dialogue word for word. The acting by the entire cast is brilliant. Mickey Rourke gives an outstanding performance, and I'd put his acting in this film up against any other performances by great actors.

If you haven't seen this, you've got to rent it. I think it's become an overlooked film.