Sunday, July 16, 2006

A funny thing happened in beautiful Wyoming....


So there I was in my local grocery store, shopping for this and that, when I spy a display of discount DVDs. Now I figured it would be all crap, and that was almost true. In amongst the junk was a single copy of Red Rock West, directed by B movie king John Dahl - for a mere $3.99. I saw this movie years ago (I believe it was made in the early 90s) with Candy Minx. It stars Nicolas Cage and Dennis Hopper and Lara Lynn Boyle, about a nice guy (Cage) out of work who hears about possible work opportunities in the sleepy Wyoming town of Red Rock West. He shows up at the local bar and the bartender asks him if he's here about the job - the bartender, who is also the sheriff, thinks Cage is a hit man the he has hired to off his wife. The real hit-man is Dennis Hopper, who plays his usual charmer. Lara Flynn Boyle gets to play one nasty woman.... not quite as nasty as the Linda Fiorentino character in Dahl's The Last Seduction, but nasty still.

It has been years since I first saw this flick, and while I remembered thinking it is an excellent film, and I remembered why, it turns out I forgot a lot of detail, so it was great to see it again on the big 13 inch set (we call it the media centre) with Tuffy P. Now I think I'd like to see another Dahl flick, Kill me Again (starring Val Kilmer) one more time. I've never seen Rounders....maybe that should go on the list too.

John Dahl is usually described as a "neo-noir" director, and I guess that is accurate enough. I like his films a lot, and recommend this one to anyone who hasn't seen it or hasn't seen it in a while.

8 comments:

greatwhitebear said...

The only John Dahl movie I remember seeing is Rounders, and I like that a lot. I'll have to put this one on my Netflix list.

mister anchovy said...

If you haven't seen The Last Seduction, you MUST see it. Linda Fiorentino is brilliant as the most evil bitch you could ever, ever imagine.

Val Kilmer is also fabulous as a loser private eye in Reno in Kill Me Again.

* (asterisk) said...

I like Dahl. I've seen Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Rounders, and Joy Ride. I enjoyed them all in different ways. Joy Ride was certainly the least satisfying, but the others are classics, for sure. One thing confuses me, though, Mr A: Your big screen is 13 inches? That seems quite small. Perhaps I didn't see the tongue in your cheek!

mister anchovy said...

Well, yeah it really is 13 inches and really old, and we don't have cable either. Remarkably though, if I watch a film on it (the brother-in-law gave us a DVD player a couple years ago, so we reluctantly joined the 90s)I don't feel like I'm missing a lot seeing it so tiny...but then again, we live in a pretty small house. So, if the question is why don't we get the big TV, the answer is that it just isn't that important to us. Tuffy and I are both painters and when that's going well, we hardly watch TV....as well, I play squeeze-box and accordion and I put in a lot of practice time, and once or twice each week I play Go with a friend. Tuffy watches a couple shows regularly, and we do watch an occasional DVD. I'll bet we spend more time in front of the computer screen than in front of the television....for me, I have this blogging addiction, see....

* (asterisk) said...

Okay. I'm glad we cleared that up! Certainly enormous TVs in small houses just look plain silly, so, good for you.

Addiction? Blogging? It's like the love that dare not speak its name...

Candy Minx said...

Oh Asterisk, the love that dares not speak its name, beautiful!

I love this movie Red Rock West. I recently watched Rounders and enjoyed it. It is missing an edge, that I would say is missing in Dahl's last few movies. I don't know what happened. either he needs to loosen up, or he needs to get out more and meet people to get some crazy characters. But still, I will always watch one of his movies because he had me by those three excellent fun ones. Kill Me Again( a Jim Thompson novel) Red Rock West and The Last Seduction. Once a director makes three movies I love I will always stay with them. It's a pact I made. He made another movie that was very high concept with Ray Liotta and time travel...can't remember the name of it now, it had quite serious problems.

Mr.A. You should see Rounders sometime because its about card playing. Plus, you might want to point out to Asterisk that who cares about your tv...you two must see a movie in the theatre at least once a week you active movie goers you! Movies in the theatre can't be beat. It is a the cahpel of image and community experience in imagination!

* (asterisk) said...

I don't care too much about your TV, Mr A!

I lived with a tiny one for many years. Probably about 13 or 14 inches. And I still remember how much joy I felt watching a widescreen tape of Star Wars on it.

The height of the actual image can't have been any more than about 5 or 6 inches! But it was still great.

mister anchovy said...

Ok, I saw Rounders tonight - nice little film.