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The Salton Sea

The Salton Sea

List Price: $14.97
Your Price: $13.47
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Val Kilmer
Review: Although, at times, this is a difficult movie to watch because of the subject matter, it is one of Val Kilmer's best performances since the Doors. People should be aware this movie is only for adults as it vividly portrays the drug scene; but if you can gets past that, it is a very informative movie about drugs (a whole new vocabulary), and the acting is superb.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tarntiono's style is finally captured
Review: When I walked into the thearter after buying a ticket for the salton sea I was excited. The Salton Sea had already recieved some good underground buzz that I checked in w/before deciding to go see the movie. I was prepared to be blown away and I was. Although the Salton Sea was an amazing movie anyone who sees it should have their head checked at the door. Some of the movie's content is so filthy that I wanted to take a shower after seeing this film. The story is centered around val kilmer or danny parker who is disguised as Tom Van Allen a police informant disguised as a speed freak. Danny is looking for revenge for the murder of his wife and becoming a man that he dosen't recognize (Tom Van Allen) is his only escape to seeking revenge. The Salton sea is brutal,druged up, and worse it makes you think which what I have herd is something that many audiences are not willing to grasp.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Story
Review: This is an entertaining dark Greek tragedy with a twist. Similar in flashback form to Momento, we are draw into this world of the character played by Val Kilmer (Tom Van Allen). The plot is intriguing as we are trying to decipher the reason Val Kilmer is in a burning building, seeming uncaring to the danger of the flames. What events have brought this character to such despair? We follow back in time as we see the path unfold in this suspense thriller.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic Movie
Review: The story, the writing, the acting, the plot, the filming, the music, the sound, the editing--first rate. This is one of the better movies I've seen in a long time. Val Kilmer was absolutely perfect, as were all the other players. For a change, a script that doesn't pander to the audience. A movie with quirks that actually SUPPORT the movie. I've not read an accurate review by any of the "pros". It's not "Memento". It's not Tarantino. If it reminded me of anything, I would say "The Limey", by Steven Soderbergh. A fantastic movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Val Kilmer's great comeback movie!
Review: The Salton Sea is one of my favorite movies this year(2002), and it's very unfourtanate that it didn't get the wide release that it deserved. This truly is the best Val Kilmer movie I seen, equaling his portrayal as Jim Morrison in The Doors. I enjoyed the movie because it was able to succesfully combine various styles(Black Comedy, Tragedy, Revenge, Violence, and coolness in sleek hip film making.) Now many would say that looking at these elements it can be seen as a simple Quentin Tarantino knock-off of Pulp Fiction,but that isn't the case. While there is Tarantino like-style in the movie, by no means is it a cheap rip off, Director D.J Caruso said himself that he Tarantino is not an influence. By the the last portion of the movie, many would argue that it ripped of Taxi Driver, but is it really fair to justify that claim? I think not. Just like it's not fair to say it ripped of Pulp Fiction. Hats down to Caruso, he and the cast did a terrific job of making this movie come to life. I recommend this to anyone with an open mind,likes stylish-thrillers, and likes the styles I mentioned earlier. However I wouldn't recommend this to anyone that is easily offended,closed-minded, and that does't like to sit in run down select theaters like I was forced to.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A More Hipper Version of "Memento"
Review: This movie rocks, its great.It has the same feel as memento but it goes foward and its funny. The movie is also so beautifully shot. So all in all its a great film if you have a chance go see this film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Kilmer's best since "Tombstone"....
Review: Val Kilmer and Vincent D'Onofrio shine in this exponentially bizarre yet entertaining cinematic digression that starts slow but ends in being a potential cult classic. A dark horse for the next Oscar, Kilmer is back in easily his best performance since "Tombstone". His character's introverted and restrained quality plays well against the storyline.... but please do not take my word alone....

* "A cool groove of a movie" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone)

* "Kilmer gives one of the best performances of his career." (Stephen Farber, Movieline)

* "Savage and haunting." (Rex Reed, New York Observer)

* "A Terrific, twisty thriller." (Karen Durbin, Elle)

* "Vincent D'Onofrio may well be the spookiest villian of the year". (Joe Leydon, San Francisco Examiner)

* "The dizzying tale stays engrossing... tight and nasty." (Glenn Kenny, Premiere)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Coming soon to a video store near you...
Review: I was astonished to see the high marks and strong reviews for this movie. It gets a single star because there is nothing lower offered. Pulp Fiction & Memento? I don't see the connection. This was a slow and tedious movie to watch. Several of the plot lines were inane and this was a struggle to sit through. It was obvious the movie tried too hard to be cool - Sexy Beast, Snatch et al are much better movies. I wouldn't waste your time (or money) to see this (even at the $ movie).

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Haphazards of fortune
Review: This scattershot film tries to fuse elements from various recent movies in an effort to outhip them all and succeeds only partially--and only because of the acting. With a gorgeous opening image of a lone man playing trumpet surrounded on all sides by an inferno, it flashes back to a part jump-cut, part time-stretched series of voiced-over sequences all describing the life of heavily tattooed, spike-haired, nose-ringed druggies, all too old to sport their punky accoutrements, all too zonked to care.

One of them is our lone trumpet player, Tom Van Allen, self-renamed Danny Parker to bury his monumental grief at the loss of his young wife, previously shot to death by a masked holdup man. And the drugs is similarly what he's sure will obliterate that sorrow. In thrall to two nasty cops who use him as a street rat, Danny reveals his story bit by bit, while simultaneously searching for his wife's killer.

On this dark road he comes across Vincent D'Onofrio's Pooh Bear, one seriously nasty piece of work--a noseless drug dealer with a Southern accent thick enough to fry corn pone right in your face. D'Onofrio here has one of his juiciest, meatiest roles and he serves it up real fine. You can practically taste his wicked glee as he proffers Danny a voracious badger in a cage whose door is about to open--while Danny's forced to take down his trousers.

An early scene with one of the druggies--Adam Goldberg's hyper-maniacal Kujo--outlining a truly hilarious heist only adds to the confusion that is this film. Yes, that's a very funny sequence--but in retrospect, why? To show druggies are people too? No doubt.

Val Kilmer as our anti-hero does a fine job, as does D'Onofrio, Debra Kara Unger as a put-upon neighbor, the always reliable Luis Guzman, and Anthony LaPaglia as one of the cops. But while the actors all get their characters down to a Tee, so what? The script moves too fast for its own good, kinda like it too is on the drug of choice here, speed, and when it does settle down--of sorts--it flops into a fairly formulaic, thin-skinned group of events that's long since defined the "thriller" genre.

Without D'Onofrio, the skin would wear even thinner and a whole lot faster. Without both him and Kilmer, no skin--just transparent 'stuff'. Yep, the actors save this film and it's a good thing.

There is such a thing as being TOO hip. Maybe the filmmakers didn't know that. On the other hand, it's the millenium. Time for whatever will sell.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Intelligent Alternative to the summer movie hype machine
Review: Take two thirds Pulp Fiction and one third Memento, put them in a blender and you would get something like the Salton Sea. In this film we find Danny Morrison (or is he Tom Van Allen) a methamphetamine junkie played by the consistently underutilized but none the less brillant Val Kilmer.
Danny is on a familar mission as far as most film noirs go. He's out to avenge the death of his wife. His revenge mission some how gets lost along the way however. In order to catch the killer Danny has to go undercover and assume an new identity. It doesn't take long, however, until he becomes confused as to which one is the true him.
This is a thriller that takes numerous twists and turns, in a time when thrillers try to find out how far their audiences will bend. What sets the The Salton Sea apart is it's energetic pace, and it's incredible sense of humor. (At one point a couple of junkies decide they're going to steal Bob Hope's stool sample from a local hospital and sell it on Ebay.)
The fact that the supporting cast is anchored by Vincent D'nofrio and Peter Saarsgard (Boys Don't Cry) hardly hurts. The Salton Sea guides itself with it's sincere performances, and doesn't become overly enamored with it's own sense of style like so many Guy Ritchie movies. (Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrells, and it's remake Snatch). It's an incredible entertaining film for those who want to take a ride, but don't want to wait in line for Spiderman.


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