108 - Lucky

Connection To INTERSTATE 60 - Ann-Margret.

On paper it was intruging premise, a black comedy about a serial killer winning a huge amount on the lottery and getting the girl of his dreams (who all the victims look like) but seriously a black comedy needs to be funny - which this is only in spades (unintentional pun related to the chosen picture).

To be fair the lead pair - Colin Hanks and Ari Graynor - really do try to work with what they've got, the performances show there is potentially a better film in there (and the pair would be up to it to star) but it's really hard to know who we are supposed to root for - the serial killer or the money grabber - and the movie never really decides. I know you could say that you don't after always root for the character but in the case of the movie I believe it's down to the film's writing.

I thought the ending was quite predictable, I'd predicted it pretty accurately including a character's death, though Graynor's performance in the later scenes do deserve mention - she is genuinely a talented actress who has not found her true role yet in my eyes.

Overall, count yourself lucky if you haven't seen this (thanks I'll be here all week), a sad example of talented actors stuck in a film that simply doesn't work, a film that lives up to none of it's potential and there is so many better black comedies out there. 

107 - Interstate 60

Connection To SMALL APARTMENTS - James Marsden.

Sneaking onto DVD - bypassing the cinema completely - with very little fanfare despite a decent cast - and never growing any sort of following, Interstate 60 is an hidden gem of a movie.

Written and directed by Back To The Future co-writer Bob Gale, the movies problem could be that it was hard to explain without it sounding a little bit odd or even pretentious, the film is basically a metaphysical road movie.

James Marsden meets Gary Oldman who grants exactly one wish to each person, and he ends up wishing for answers, which sees him travel to the non existing Danver alongside the also non existing Interstate 60, which includes hoping to meet the girl of his dreams he finds himself on many little adventures.

A lot of these little adventures are very enjoyable from the museum of fake art, to a town obsessed with suing because everyone is just about a lawyer to a town that every inhabiting as on a particular drug to Chris Cooper who is a hitchhiker but would rather employ somebody per mile as in enter a boss/worker relationship.

Marsden carried the film really well I thought, you feel like he is a guy who deserves good things to come his way, at the time it was also unusual to see Oldman in a American film and not be the film's villains, BTTF alumni Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are in this too, but Fox is more of a fun cameo - other people who pop up include the Pink Power Ranger, Kurt Russell, Ann Margret and Amy Smart as the girl of his dreams.

Overall, such a cool little movie, this is about my third time seeing it and still enjoy it as much, I recommend it because I do think you would be in for a treat if you watch it.