Wonderland

Rating:
Summary: Gritty look at the life of John Holmes
Review: Val Kilmer, even more dazed here than he was in Oliver Stone's The Doors, plays porn king John Holmes in this gritty, documentary style approach to the infamous Wonderland murders in the summer of 1981. Director James Cox allows the viewer to see the events unfold through different perspectives before leaving the decision up to the viewer as to whose story to trust. What makes Wonderland unique is that it doesn't deal with Holmes' career, it deals with his life when his career seemed to be on the downhill and his drug raddled involvment with the people associated with the crime. Kilmer is solid as Holmes, while the standout performances go to Lisa Kudrow as Holmes' estranged wife and Josh Lucas as an ill-fated drug peddler. The rest of the ensemble cast includes Kate Bosworth as Holmes' young girlfriend, Tim Blake Nelson, a near un-recognizeable Dylan McDermott, Christina Applegate, Eric Bogosian, Carrie Fisher, Janeane Garofalo, Ted Levine, and Paris Hilton in a blink and you'll miss her cameo. Included with the DVD is actual police footage from the crime scene, which can be either worth watching for some or just too much to handle.

Rating:
Summary: Your basic episode of "Police Story" with a touch of grime
Review: Val Kilmer has played a variation of the John Holmes persona - strung out, teetering, past all kinds of primes - for half of his career, so it makes sense he plays the man in "Wonderland," a "Rashomon"-style retelling of the brutal 1981 murders in Laurel Canyon to which porn star Holmes is forever linked.

Writer/director James Cox fashions a straight police procedural, fixated on the murder of drug addicts like it's a Tuesday night cop drama. Consider that the climax of the picture involves Ted Levine and M.C. Gainey, of all the pairs, hashing out their theories on the crime, and you begin to understand the characters serve as pawns in Cox's conspiracy theory flick.

Though it took years to put anyone in jail, the court of public opinion knew at the time that the victims at Wonderland Avenue were drug addicts and second-rate crooks who, with help from Holmes, stole a pile of drugs and money from nightclub owner/gangster Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian). Nash ordered their deaths execution-style. Of the thieves only David Lind (Dylan McDermott) wasn't at the apartment; he initially fingered the coke-addicted Holmes for the crime, and the first half of "Wonderland" is, essentially, his testimony. Holmes rebuts in the second half, and it's striking to see how little of a difference resides in their stories.

The question was this: Was Holmes forced to show Nash's gangsters the hideout after Nash discovered Holmes's role in the robbery? Or did Holmes willfully lead the hitmen to their prey, then participate in the crime?

Padded around these interviews are small details of Holmes's life, including the odd arrangement where he remains estranged-yet-married to a woman entirely outside his scene, Sharon (Lisa Kudrow), while living with a nubile, teen surfer girl Dawn (Kate Bosworth). The best scenes of "Wonderland" are Kudrow's, where she calls her husband's every bluff and kindly warns Dawn of the trouble to come. Dawn, strung out and turned out by Holmes, is a good change of pace for Bosworth, a smart, genial actress who alternates vulnerability, nurturing and extreme stupidity in this role with some skill.

Kilmer, shaggy, bloodshot, alternating between mumbling and manic, convincing in his interview, delves deep into Holmes, but Cox breaks the performance into a series of flashbacks and reenactments, filtered through the lens of two different recollections. Which performance do we trust? The real center of "Wonderland," when he's onscreen, is Josh Lucas as Ron Launius, the guts and bravado of the robbery. A paranoid bully with charm and ambition, Launius likes to shame Holmes, and maybe short Holmes his take of the cash and drugs. His performance is reminiscent of Thomas Jane's work in "Boogie Nights."

In fact, "Wonderland" aspires to the entirety of "Boogie Nights," - which is itself is a riff off of Holmes's life - with its close-ups of newspaper headlines and attempt at PT Anderson's camera virtuosity. But there is no sly humor in this movie or, for anyone remotely familiar with the crime and its various trials, mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Not to Bad
Review: Val Kilmer gives one of his best performances ever as porn star
John C.Holmes who in 1980 was accused of 4 murders commited at
Wonderland Avenue.The movie starts off showing John and his girlfriend Dawn (Kate Bosworth) going to a motel,John leaving,and coming back dazed directly after the murders.Then we have a junkie named Dave (Dylan McDermott) telling the police all of the events leading up to the murders.After that we have John telling his story of what happened leading up to the murders.The movie drags for a while in the middle because we're basically hearing the same story all over again.But this was a terrific movie with great acting,with Lisa Kudrow co-starring as John's estranged wife Sharon and Paris Hilton even has a cameo appearence.B- for the movie.Enjoy!!

Rating:
Summary: Val Kilmer shines (for a change)
Review: Val Kilmer has a reputation for being a difficult-to-work-with jerk with debatable (in my opinion) acting ability. But he is outstanding in "Wonderland", giving us what is easily the best performance of his career. He excellently handles a couple of very difficult scenes. Maybe he's a self-obsessed creep, and is only "playing himself" in this movie, but nevertheless, I was impressed.
John Holmes was indeed a self-obsessed cretin, as proven by the in-depth documentary included on the DVD. But he makes for a fascinating character. The movie wisely does not focus on his porn career, dismissing it with a very revealing (no, not THAT kind of "revealing") scene which shows how Holmes's once legendary anatomy has been reduced to a pathetic novelty item. Instead, the movie plumbs the mysterious depths of the Wonderland Avenue drug-related murders and what role Holmes may have played in it. It's a gruesomely fascinating case.
The movie is capably directed, tightly scripted, and excellently acted with a strong supporting cast which includes Lisa Kudrow, Tim Blake Nelson, Christina Applegate and Jeneane Garofalo, to name a few.
My only real complaint is that we're never really sure how we're supposed to feel about Holmes' character. Does the movie want us to have sympathy for him? This is not only unclear, but unlikely as well, since he was a pathetic drug addict who pimped out his underage girlfriend for drug money and certainly played SOME kind of role in a brutal robbery and/or multiple homicide. The movie's last scene is the one that bothered me: Holmes and his girl gleefully driving off into the sunset to escape prosecution. Is that commendable? Are we supposed to think of him as some kind of hero? Anti-hero? Loser? Jerk? Wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time? We're left to wonder. But I blame the script, not the actor. Kilmer acts the hell out of the role, and viewers who are interested in a morbidly fascinating true story could do far worse than check out this movie, which is all in all pretty darn good.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting "real life" crime drama
Review: Very interesting film for any that enjoy "real life" crime flicks. I've spent plenty of hours watching those tv specials based on real life crime drama, so of course, I really enjoyed this movie. One of the interesting aspects of it was that the story was told, and done quite well for that matter, from two different perspectives.

One note, for those that might care, this movie, while based on a porno star, isn't about that industry (it bares no resemblance to "Boogie Nights" in other words). The famous adult movie star was also a drug addict and his involvement in drugs and crime lead him to him getting caught up in a gruesome quadruple murder. Val Kilmer's acting was very superior in this film as well, he's hardly recognizable as the normal "action" actor.

Now, as to whether it's worth owning or not. It's a hard call here. The movie is pretty gruesome and in some parts very violent. There is a lot of cussing, yelling and drug use so it's not a "fun to watch" action/adventure type that you can pop in and watch every once in awhile for enjoyment. There is also the fact once seen, the outcome is known and the surprises are gone.

It's definitely one to rent and for the hard core fan one to own.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Performance by Val Kilmer
Review: "Wonderland" deals with a quadruple homicide known as the "Four on the Floor Murders" in the Laurel Canyon area of L. A. back on 7/1/81. One of the chief suspects in the murders was the former "Porno King" of 1970s "XXX" movies namely, John Curtis Holmes. Back in 1981, John Holmes had been reduced to being a thieving, degenerate, manipulative cocaine user who had not actually made a movie in two years. Val Kilmer plays Holmes, at this point in his life, to the absolute hilt! Kate Bosworth is very good as Holme's girlfriend, Dawn Schiller, who also was one of the Executive Producers on "Wonderland." For those who may purchase or rent this movie without having a clue as to who or what John Holmes was, there's a bonus DVD titled "The Life and Times of John Holmes" featuring taped interviews with the original "Mister Big." They should watch the Bonus DVD prior to "Wonderland." The photography is frenetic, at times, but it seems to fit the content of this movie just fine. This is a movie that should have fared much better than it actually did at the box office. A truly excellent movie and kudos to Director James Cox!

Rating:
Summary: good movie, but i have a question
Review: i thought this was a great movie, but theres one thing i was wondering about. in the end they have a few things written about what those people are doing today. they mentioned that Dawn (Schiller) had ended up writing a book...i cannot find it. i was wondering if the book she wrote is about what she went through like in the movie or something totally different. if anyone can help me please do! feel free to email me at [e-mail] thanks.

Rating:
Summary: ALEXS CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEWS
Review: Highlights: Decent performances from the cast led by Val Kilmer; several brilliant, genuinely poignant scenes; sustained grim atmosphere that aids the plot.
Lowpoints: Sketchy, amateur editing; strained direction; plot provides no resolution.

Conclusion: From the director of the inspired-but-uneven road-flick "Highway" (with Jake "Darko" Gyllenhall tripping on acid "Hunter S. Thompson style")comes a gloomy overview of the notorious life of 1970s pornstar John Holmes. While the topic has been handled in a more general (and much better, at that) matter by P.Anderson in "Boogie Nights", "Wonderland" focuses on the specific day that the infamous murders were committed. The story is told good-ol' "flashback-style", letting us in on the main characters' versions of what actually happened.
The film's topic is a little to grand for the director to handle, which becomes obvious in choppy editing that cuts away from some crucial moments, the uneven narrative, and the lack of conclusion - what DID happen? Unfortunately, "Wonderland" does not convince us that it doesn't matter who, it's about how - we enjoyed 'how' but we still want the 'who', and the film leaves it up to us to guess.
Despite all that, nowadays movies have to be reviewed on the 'contrast' basis: in contrast to most of the other fluff nowadays, "Wonderland" manages to enthrall with quality acting (the ever reliable Val Kilmer carries his scenes, while Kate Bosworth as his girl and Lisa Kudrow as his wife impress with unexpected poignant performances), some gripping moments (don't expect much sex, but do expect much violence), and an honest approach. Worth a rent. If you're into that kinda thing, that is.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderland is wonderful
Review: I like this movie more than I thought I would. Some of the reviews have not been very positive but I actually think that the movie in general was well done.

Val Kilmer gives a staggering performance as porn legend John Holmes and he engulfed the charater of the drug addicted and doomed porn star completely which made it totally believeable.

The film does not discuss Holmes career as the biggest male porn star of the 70's or the adult movie industry for that matter, is all about the quadruple murder that shocked Los Angeles on July 1, 1981 where Holmes was a suspected to have been involve in. His name was eventually clear of all possibility linking him to the murders.

The cinematography is often dark and some of the scenes are somewhat difficult to really see and understand what is going on since about half of the movie was filmed at night. The rest of the cast does a good job especially Dylan McDermott who plays an informant(and heroin user) to the police about Eddie Nash a notorious drug dealer with possible ties to the mob but who strongly believes and confesses to the police that Holmes was the one that radded them out.

Lisa Kudrow who plays Holmes estranged and separated wife (they're not officially divorced) is pretty good considering her small role. Holmes mistress Dawn is also good as the the other woman involve in his rollercoaster life who sees her own life spiraling out of control.

The DVD also brings and added bonus: a second DVD that chronicles the life and times of John Holmes from his childhood to his ultimate stardom in the adult industry and eventually his untimely death of Aids in 1988 at the age of 43. WONDERLAND, the movie and the documentary which narrates Holmes life is a good way to spend an evening especially if you have nothing better to watch on television.

A good movie with a raw edge to it. Val Kilmer's mesmerizing performance makes this film worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderland Fails To Deliver
Review: The Wonderland "4 on the Floor " murders is one of the most fascinating and bloody true crime stories I've ever heard of. It has everything- sex, drugs, murder and washed-up porn legend John Holmes as the lead character. Yet, still the screenwriter and director completely blew it. You don't really get to know the characters at all and with the jarring editing the story lurches around pointlessly at a breakneck pace like a bad rock video. Kate Bosworth is bland, one dimensional and hoplessly miscast as Holmes underage girlfriend. Dylan Mcdermott hiding behind a wig and fake facial hair is unrecognisable and also miscast as one of the Wonderland coke fiends. Val Kilmer is good as Holmes but is actually too sexy and charismatic to play the gangly, goofy
unsexy porn star. Someone less glamorous could have been better cast, but as always Kilmer is good. He seems to have made a career of weak movies in which his performances are the saving grace. Much of the movie and the people in it look way too contemporary for the early 80's time period in which the story took place. I gave this DVD 3 stars because it does have some effective scenes such as the actual murders and for the bonus disc, the John Holmes documentary Wadd which is way better than the Wonderland movie. There are cable documentaries about this case which are much better than this. There is a great movie to be told about Holmes and the Wonderland murders, unfortunately, this just isn't it.