Unconvincing handling wipes out the potential of this piece with high schooler Sparks finding the mob loot and picturing a better life than his missile making dad has achieved. The run down Grand Canal community sharply filmed in black and white is the one surviving asset.
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Mozjoukine18 January 2002
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scsu197526 November 2022Randy Sparks (yes, he of the New Christy Minstrels) plays a too-old-for-the-part delinquent high-schooler who thinks he's found his ticket to the big time (and trust me, it ain't his singing). Sparks and girlfriend Venetia Stevenson are strolling along a bridge one evening when a getaway car comes roaring by. The occupants throw something in the water (not the script, unfortunately). A few moments later, there is a gun battle with the cops, in which the bad guys manage to stand out in the open so they can get gunned down. Detective Paul Langton, in charge of the mayhem, orders a search for the 200 grand that the robbers copped. Sparks overhears this, and comes to the brilliant conclusion that the money must have been what was thrown into the water. Instead of informing the cops (which would have taken even more intelligence, and shortened the movie to about 8 minutes), he decides to find the moolah and stash it somewhere. He finds a valise floating around, and hides it in a junkyard, where, coincidentally, this film should have been stashed as well.
The next morning, Sparks is reamed out by his dad (Dick Foran) for coming home late, messing up at school, and acting in this movie. Foran likes to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and walk around in suspenders. He also likes hamburger meat, since there is an extended scene where he i) reminds Sparks to pick up some hamburger meat, ii) yells at Sparks for forgetting to pick up the hamburger meat, iii) goes out for the hamburger meat while Sparks is being lectured by school counselor House Peters (sorry, that name always cracks me up), and iv) returns with one pound of hamburger meat.
Stevenson wants Sparks to return the money. Instead, he tells her about something he learned in history class regarding William the Conqueror taking England. "But he didn't steal England," Stevenson says. True - and he also doesn't deserve to be mentioned in this film. Let's move on.
Stevenson's mom (Anna Lee, who was Stevenson's real-life mother) thinks Sparks is from the "lower strata" - you know, like he is somewhere on the evolutionary scale below a gibbon. Part of the reason is because Sparks wears clothes that haven't been washed since Dick Foran was singing in westerns. But remarkably, Sparks decides to turn it around, getting a job at a gas station, passing a history test, and sporting some new duds he apparently bought from Wal-Mart.
Meanwhile, a few suspicious characters (Jesse White and Dick Contino) arrive on the scene. White pretends to be an insurance salesman (I guess that appliance gig didn't work out) and Contino pretends to be an actor. Eventually, they both realize that Sparks knows something about the loot.
In the semi-ridiculous climax, Sparks decides to retrieve the dough, and is followed by White and Contino. Contino offs White. Then Contino shoots at Sparks six times from about ten feet away and misses every time. Sparks escapes, but Contino eventually catches up with him at the gas station. The cops arrive just in time to riddle Contino with bullets, whereupon Langton asserts "This one won't tell us anything." Apparently Langton's motto is "shoot first, so you can't ask questions later."
This film has its moments, mostly when Stevenson is on screen, because she is such a cutie. I'd only seen her once before, in "Horror Hotel"; unfortunately, she never checked out of that place. Sparks is okay, but he reminded me of Kevin Bacon with a v-neck hairpiece. He warbles the title song, which stinks. The music score isn't bad, although the jazz riffs made me think I was watching a Courageous Cat cartoon. I have to admit that Contino surprised me with his acting. Of course, the bar was low to begin with, but he is fairly convincing as a hood. Langton, as the stoic detective, saunters around like he has jock itch. -
mark.waltz8 July 2022A violent and ugly film about what happens when teens find lost mob money and the criminals on their trail determined to get it back. The producers of this film found the seediest locations they could, some post-teens with high school drama club experience and a few veteran actors much in need of employment.
The actors playing the teenagers definitely look way past high school age, are directed to sneer a lot and not much else, and grumble cliched dialog as they deal with the dangerous situations that occur with overlay dramatic music in the background. Dick Foran, Jesse White and Anna Lee obviously needed to work at least for their union insurance because nothing else explains why they would take this obviously cheaply made drive-in style movie. Just looks like it was filmed for TV and deemed too violent which is why it ended up in theaters.