Peach_Braxton

I've always been intrigued by accounts of celebrity stalkers, particularly ones who have convinced themselves that they are in actual relationships with their targets. "I Think We're Alone Now" documents two of them in the grip of their decades-long obsessions with a flash-in-the-pan pop singer. Most folks have never heard of Tiffany, because she was famous for about 15 seconds in the late 80s and then disappeared completely from the limelight. That's why it's quite remarkable that she still has a throng of fans 30 years later, but it's just disturbing that her momentary stint in the spotlight was long enough to attract not one, but two scary-obsessed fans.

The first is Jeff Turner, an Aspie in his mid-to-late 50s who has been stalking Tiffany since she was 16. The documentary begins with his erotomania in plain view: he actually believes that Tiffany is in love with him and repeatedly refers to her as a close, personal friend. He proudly displays the restraining order that she issued him in 1989, and the newspaper clippings of his detainment after attempting to approach young Tiffany with a Samurai sword (it was to be a gift). Often, Jeff resorts to lying about himself and Tiffany in a sad attempt to impress strangers; he tells an O-faced fan at a concert that Tiffany had once called him at his house to tell him that she was his "friend, mentor and protector."

In addition to his delusions of having a close relationship with the singer, he's also a great believer in the silliest of conspiracy theories and junk science. The scene that will convince any viewer that Jeff is totally out to lunch is when he dons his "radionic" bicycle helmet that he believes allows him to communicate with Tiffany telepathically...

And then there is Kelly McCormick, who, in my opinion, was a far sadder and more sympathetic character than Jeff. Kelly is a thirty-something lesbian from Denver who has never had a romantic relationship. She identifies herself as an intersex individual in the documentary; however, in the DVD commentary, she admits that she is not intersex and is, in fact, transgender. The only relevance that this has are the portions of the documentary in which she lies about her false condition; in one scene, she claimed that her father had been exposed to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War and insinuates that this may have caused her nonexistent condition. In another scene, she stated that she has a menstrual cycle; obviously, that's not possible if she's not genetically female.

Kelly may not be as scary as Jeff, but she is certainly no less delusional in her expectations. She's convinced that she and Tiffany are destined to be together. She claimed to have had a vision of Tiffany -- whom she alleged to have never seen nor heard of beforehand -- after being comatose from a bike accident. Since then, she has made it her life's mission to fulfill her premonition. Her sparsely-furnished apartment is covered with photos of Tiffany, along with a full-length poster of the famous "The Kiss" photograph with Kelly's handwritten captions "Tiffany. Me. This will happen very soon!"

And how do Jeff and Kelly deal with the reality that Tiffany is married and clearly has no interest in people she doesn't know? Quite differently. Jeff seems to have no problem adjusting his delusions when confronted; he shows the audience a photo of himself, Tiffany, and her husband Benn George, whom Jeff laughingly declares is jealous of him. Kelly, on the other hand, becomes sullen and depressed, as she interprets Benn as deliberately blocking her from accessing her true love. "My destiny is I'm supposed to be with Tiffany! I'm not kidding you! I am sick and f**ing tired of this bullsh*t of being pushed out of Tiffany's life when I'm supposed to be in it!"

Eventually, the two meet in Las Vegas to attend a Tiffany concert together, the first for Kelly. At this point, we are quite interested to see how the two obsessed fans can get along. Surprisingly enough, they get along well enough, but their pitiful delusions do not become less painful to watch and eventually they do clash. Jeff rambles about using his "best friendship" with Tiffany to put in a good word with her for Kelly. Kelly tells the audience privately that between her and Jeff, she's got the better shot to win Tiffany's heart, as she shakily applies makeup in the hotel bathroom.

Erotomania is when a person has the delusion that someone else -- usually a high-profile stranger -- is in love with that person. What is especially scary is that there is generally no amount of rejection that will convince the sufferer that their beloved is uninterested. They tend to cook up stories about how their relationship is being hidden from the public, or that there are forces in their sweetheart's life that are trying to keep them apart. Jeff believes that Tiffany never filed the restraining order against him; it must have been the doing of her then-handlers. And Kelly leaves the concert believing that a momentary encounter with her beloved at an autograph-signing formed an "everlasting friendship." What is truly astounding is that both of these individuals have real-life friends, and yet they never compare their actual friendships with their imaginary distant "relationships" with Tiffany.

At the end of the documentary, Jeff reveals his latest obsession: actress Alyssa Milano. In a classic case of history repeating itself, Jeff was slapped with another restraining order, this time by Milano, shortly after the release of the documentary. In follow- up videos on the documentary's Youtube channel, Jeff states that Alyssa Milano "betrayed" him and "set him up" by issuing the restraining order; he doesn't seem to understand why a stranger cannot creep around someone else's backyard. In one video, he calls Milano "a bisexual, nymphomaniac, statutory rapist, socialpathic (sic) serial killer! Psychotic!"

Wow... just wow...

What can you say? Gary Oldman did the best with what he had. But what he had was a script that was derived from a story based on hearsay... and not from the Pistols themselves, but from The Clash! This is NOT the true of story of Sid and Nancy; the real people were far more pathetic and depressing than their on-screen counterparts. Alex Cox got the basic details correct: Sid and Nancy were low-life junkies; Sid was a replacement bass player for the Sex Pistols and couldn't play a lick; everyone hated Nancy; they lived in squalor; Sid ended up on Riker's Island, and Nancy ended up dead on a bathroom floor.

Nearly every other detail in the movie was terribly inaccurate, everything from Sid and Nancy first meeting to how Nancy was positioned when she was found dead. Also, some of these people were too old to play the characters; it's easy to forget that the Pistols and their contingent were all teenagers. Chloe Webb looked about forty, yet Nancy died when she was just twenty years old. Not only that, but the movie portrayed the rest of the Pistols as being mildly retarded, and seemed to enjoy and even opted to live like bums. In reality, even at the height of their success, the Sex Pistols were still very poor and unhappy with their surroundings. In John Lydon's autobiography, he remarks about one of the opening scenes that shows Sid and Johnny eating baked beans and champagne for breakfast. Back then, he couldn't even afford champagne. "Details don't matter; this movie is about feeling." Oh really? Tell that to the people who actually lived through this.

Go ahead and watch this movie for its cinematic enjoyment, but not as a biographical piece. It's been nearly thirty years since the train wreck called Sid & Nancy did themselves in... it would be nice if someone could make a new Sex Pistols movie that's based on facts, instead of some silly director's notion of who and what they were. And this time, no more romanticizing their story. What they had together wasn't love, but a very twisted co-dependent relationship. The silly cab ride to heaven somehow made Sid & Nancy some kind of a punk Romeo and Juliet, but they were just a couple of losers.

Billed as the English-language version of a telenovela, I must assume that the over-the-top acting is deliberate. Either that, or the pretty faces on this show have no idea that they truly cannot act. I have never been a fan of soap operas, daytime or primetime. However, I was more than eager to tune in once I heard that the legendary Tatum O'Neal had steady work again. Plus, MyNetworkTV has employed a unique way of promoting this show by airing new episodes five times a week, with a narrated highlights show on Saturday nights. I must admit, I've become hooked.

This is the age-old tale of a woman scorned. Blythe Hunter (O'Neal) is a woman seeking revenge on the former love of her life, Theodore Crawford (Clive Robertson), who once cruelly jilted her and married another woman. Twenty-five years later, Theodore Crawford is the very wealthy owner of The Tides, a popular gambling horse race track he inherited from his wife's family. His wife has since died, leaving him with two lovely daughters -- Emma (Jessie Ward), a college student engaged to a philandering but jealous man who works for her father, and Brooke (Kate French), the show's answer to Paris Hilton. Theodore is now set to marry his daughter's former nanny, Hope Lorca (Debbie Dunning). Under the seemingly tranquil household, the Crawfords are as dysfunctional as only network television can deliver. Unbeknownst to them, it turns out that Emma and Brooke are not Theodore's biological children, even though he loves them as though they were. Their late mother, Anna, had them with a stableman whom she had been in love with. Anna's father would not have his daughter marry a man with such a meager income, and pushed her to marry Theodore instead. Not only that, but Anna had stated in her will that one or both daughters will inherit The Tides only when they turn 25, married, and have earned a college degree. Neither one of them is aware of this, but it seems that Emma is on her way, while Brooke is just in the way.

Then, in walks Blythe after more than 2 decades. Over the years, she has become a cold and calculating businesswoman. She has a set of twin sons: Aaron and Josh. Aaron takes after his mother and shares her delight in unmerciful cruelty. Josh, on the other hand, has become estranged from his wicked family, and is a good-natured doctor, who, coincidentally, has fallen in love with Emma Crawford. Josh does not know of Blythe's and Theodore's past, and is kept in the dark as Blythe and Aaron plot their revenge. Blythe wants to destroy Theodore completely, and starts by going after his business. She hatches a brilliant scheme by encouraging Josh's pursuit of the betrothed Emma, works to corrupt the dimwitted Brooke, and sends Aaron undercover as a new employee of The Tides. Will she succeed? God, I hope so!

I have vague memories of "House of Buggin," but I remember it kept me in stitches throughout the whole show. What I do remember is what I believe was the pilot episode: a skit about a modern day Latino gang rivaling against The Jets from "West Side Story." I about lost my mind when John and the rest of "the Jets" came sneaking up, snapping their fingers and threatening to "rumble" with switch blades... the modern gang had guns.

Throughout the years, Fox has had a mean habit of cancelling really promising shows prematurely. I believe this show was one of the few that could have stood the test of time. It was NOT an "In Living Color" ripoff, anymore than "In Living Color" was a rip off of "Saturday Night Live," or "Saturday Night Live" was a rip off of "Laugh In," and etc. But perhaps, America was not ready for John being incapable of saying the word "regularly" and other Latino stereotypes that are now systematically mocked on "Mind of Mencia." Come on, Fox! Dig this one out of your vaults and put it on DVD already!

Yes, back in 1985, I was selected by Miss Molly herself to be on Romper Room which filmed in Secaucus, New Jersey. I was only 4 years old, and I remember watching the show all the time. Miss Molly was a genuine sweetheart, and displayed incredible patience with some of the brattier kids on the show. I still have my one and only appearance recorded on VHS. Such a pity that most of the episodes are long gone. Will we never see Romper Room on DVD?

Romper Room and Friends represents the truly clean-cut children's programming that I remember from my toddler days. It also made little kids stars in their preschools and kindergarten classes everywhere. Far better than the blabbering nonsense we see on The Wiggles and Blues Clues of today.

Everyone else is in this movie (save for Wylie Draper) were either miscast or dead weight in this 5-hour snoozefest. For starters, most of the actors bore no resemblance, physically or characteristically, to the actual people. Also, the inaccuracies in this movie are mind-spinning, considering that it was produced by Suzanne DePasse and Jermaine and Margaret Jackson. It begs to ask the question: what is the point of making a biographical movie if it is not accurate or even true?

1. The discovery of Joseph's infidelity towards the end is laughable, as it implies that this was an isolated event. It's common knowledge that Joseph has never been faithful to Katherine, even before they married. The fact that he had a daughter out of wedlock with a Jackson 5 fan in 1974 was also omitted from the movie. Katherine filed for divorce shortly thereafter, but later reconciled.

2. Michael's birth date is shown as having been born in 1959. He was born in 1958.

3. Marlon was a twin. His twin brother having died shortly after birth was never mentioned.

4. The Jackson 5 did not record "Kansas City" for Steeltown Records. Their Steeltown single was an original called "Big Boy."

5. Berry Gordy was not present during the Jacksons audition for Motown, as depicted in the movie. The audition was recorded on video and later mailed to Berry Gordy.

6. Most of the choreography was nowhere near the actual dance routines performed by the Jackson 5, which was part of what made them so popular in their heyday. Also, the movie did not include many of the Jackson 5's songs, including their #1 hit "The Love You Save." Jacksonmania was really downplayed in the movie, giving only one reenactment of the boys being chased off the stage by crazed fans. In reality, Jackson 5 fans were such menaces that the riot shown in the movie would have been considered a good day in real life.

7. In the movie, it is depicted that the rumor of Diana Ross having discovered the Jackson 5 was unintentionally started by a slip of the tongue on "The Hollywood Palace." This, of course, is far from the truth. Motown purposely linked the two acts together, and the Jacksons were quoted many times during this time period as having said that they were discovered by Ross. In fact, the first J5 Motown album was entitled "Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5."

8. The Jackson 5 had numerous television appearances, including their famous stints on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "American Bandstand." They also had a Saturday morning cartoon - the first black animated series ever - and their own television specials ("Diana!" "Goin' Back To Indiana") and variety shows. None of these landmark TV appearances were included in the movie.

9. The romance between Jermaine and Hazel was highly fabricated. It has been revealed that Jermaine was a womanizer, even as a teenager, and was sleeping regularly with groupies. Many wedding guests later described the event as more of a business merger than a ceremony of love.

10. This movie did an unforgivable disservice to Randy Jackson. First of all, he did not replace Jermaine in the Jackson 5. Randy joined the group in 1972 at the age of 11 as a conga drummer, and the group toured with him unofficially as The Jackson Five Plus One. When Jermaine did leave the group in 1975, Randy was only 14-years-old. However, the actor playing him looked about 30. At 18, Randy nearly lost his life in a car wreck and was told that he would never walk again. He was back on stage with his brothers after only 6 months. This incredible story was never mentioned, however, Michael's hair going up in flame was depicted as a life-threatening accident.

11. The film made no mention of any of the other siblings' solo careers, even though Maureen (Rebbie), Jackie, Tito, LaToya, Jermaine, and Janet had all released solo albums by 1984. There was also never any mention of the hidden scandals concerning the family long before Michael's run-ins with fouled plastic surgery, Neverland, Emmanuel Lewis, Macauley Culkin, and his child molestation circus. In 1980, the Jackson family settled with Joe Jackson's ex-secretary Gina Sprague, who suffered injuries after being assaulted by Katherine, Randy, and Janet Jackson, because they believed she was having an affair with Joseph.

12. The infamous Pepsi commercial in which Michael went boom was not his father's idea. That was set up by Don King (the boxing promoter), whom the family had hired to promote the Victory Tour. It seems that Joseph was picked to be the villain of the movie, and to portray Michael's injuries as his fault was just another way to demonize the man.

And there are many more. All in all, this movie is a boring waste of time and shows that shady families should not make movies about their own lives. This film only provided Jason Weaver and the late Wylie Draper a means to showcase their acting, dancing, and (Weaver) singing talents. Everyone else was rather horrible, which is sad considering all the big names in this movie.

The last installment in the Dracula 2000 series is definitely well worth the wait. We are finally spared the ultra-hip, too-pretty young characters who, one by one, turn into short-lived vampires. For once, we get right down to the nitty gritty... classic Dracula. Although I was disappointed that Stephen Billington was merely a flashback in this movie (Dracula's face keeps changing, so we are constantly being reminded), the final and least attractive Dracula shows us just how evil his nature truly is. Before he was seductive, inviting, and almost a sympathetic character. You couldn't help but feel sort of sorry for old Judas Iscariot being cursed by God for all eternity for simply fulfilling prophecy. But we don't feel sorry for him anymore, not when he has human minions kidnapping Romanian villagers for his private suckfest, or the fact that he keeps a pathetic "harem" of vampire women constantly feeding on local girls, of which he has thrust poor Elizabeth into.

The best part is definitely Jason Scott Lee as ex-Father Uffizi, the mortal vampire killer infected with the Nosferatu virus. His character actually gets a love interest, an EBC reporter played by Alexandra Westcourt. Their flirtation is rather cute, almost like puppy love, especially when Uffizi cracks his rock-hard face to smile at her. The relationship between Luke and Elizabeth at the end is just as touching. Although Lizzie is now a vampire, she is amazed at how devoted Luke has been to her throughout the whole ordeal.

All in all, an excellent film. Far too good to be a direct-to-video/cable movie.

I, like many others, watched this movie because I'm a big Jeremy Sumpter fan. After giving incredible performances in "Frailty" and "Peter Pan," one has to wonder why he even bothered with this useless piece of crap. The script was lame, the story was unoriginal and unrealistic, the acting was atrocious, and the movie as a whole was just another vehicle to make young people feel ashamed to like sex. I've heard many arguments about this movie not being about masturbation, but about the horrors of addiction. If that were true, it would have helped if the writers had picked a real addiction, like some kind of chemical dependency. Being "addicted" to porn is like being addicted to a TV show: not an addiction at all, but a learned behavior that can be changed.

So what was wrong with this movie? Well, it started off with a very emotional scene of a teenage boy, bloodied and bruised, jumping into a pool, giving us the impression that his porn compulsion has led him to commit suicide. Right away, I knew this was going to be a Bible-thumping propaganda movie. Then we are introduced to 16-year-old Justin in happier times, as a rising swim star with a beautiful family, and an equally beautiful (but irritatingly religious) girlfriend. The unsuspecting dolt falls prey to the dark side when a swim mate sends him the link to a girlfriend's website, which displays her flirting to the camera and taking off her clothes. Intrigued, he starts exploring adult-oriented websites. Suddenly, he is in the throes of a full-blown obsession that quickly takes a toll on his schoolwork, swimming, and relationships. He becomes so consumed that he can't even sleep at night and relies on energy drinks to rejuvenate him.

It is hard to take a movie like this seriously, especially when our "victim" never once touches himself, and seems to be viewing rather tame material (except for the bondage, which was merely represented by leather/latex clad people). How can you even have a serious film about pornography on Lifetime anyway? Not only that, to expose the evils of smut peddling in the 21st century seems about 20 years out-of-date. Justin's mother freaking out and overreacting to finding her son looking at pictures of naked women was just hysterical. Imagine if she had caught him looking at pictures of naked men. Of course, that would have been a whole different movie.

There were also some unintentional, but very disturbing moments in the film: one is when Justin is watching his mother swim. By the way he's looking at her, it almost appears that he's checking her out. And two, the Grand Theft Auto reference. Justin's little brother sits at the dinner table, wide-eyed and catatonic after his first "porn" viewing. When the mother inquires about his behavior, Justin chimes in that he had just gotten a high score in Grand Theft Auto, to which the mother does not seem to mind at all. But, she'll be damned if she's having bikini clad girls on her son's monitor.

This movie is largely reminiscent of the early 20th century "scared straight" propaganda films renowned for being chocked full of misinformation. One that comes to mind specifically is "Reefer Madness." (Exchange marijuana for Internet porn.) Young boy was good until he became addicted to a powerful scurge (then=pot, now=porn). He ditches his uber-Christian girlfriend and hooks up with a crazy slut. Half the time, I was expecting to hear references to wild kids axing their parents to death while high on... paid porn sites.

It's rubbish, children. The fact is, porn is mainstream now. In fact, this WAS a porn movie. Jeremy spends about half of his on-screen time topless, soaking wet, and on top of two different girls. This was definitely porn for 15-year-old girls and 40-year-old pedophiles.

Even people who have never liked Hanson will find this piece riveting. The long-awaited "Strong Enough To Break" details the 40-month battle between Hanson and their then record company, Island DefJam. After years of their fans complaining about the length of time it takes between the release of albums, this documentary reveals why as it showcases the faithlessness and muck that the music industry feeds on and continuously feeds to the public.

This is the story of Isaac, Taylor, and Zac, the three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma who became superstars a decade ago seemingly overnight. If you thought that they were just some out-of-date fluff piece, you couldn't be wronger. Their ambitions were to become a great rock band; unfortunately, they were also young and cute, and ended up being marketed as some throwaway teen idol act. In reality, these are three hardworking musicians who have fought tooth and nail to record the kind of music they wanted, instead of giving in to their former record company's pressure to make another "MMMBop."

The documentary is narrated by youngest brother, Zac Hanson, and begins in early 2001, shortly after the end of their second major tour "This Time Around." It catalogs, step by step, the long and painful journey they made just to record one single album, the critically acclaimed "Underneath." From the beginning, they were ridiculed and patronized by those who were supposed to have been their staunchest supporters. In between their recording sessions and well-documented (and sometimes downright insulting) phone conversations with Island DefJam, we get a good look into the guarded lives of the Hanson brothers, getting glimpses of their house and family. (In case you didn't know, all three brothers are now married and middle brother Taylor is now a father of three.) The documentary ends with a (somewhat) happy ending, when the brothers receive word that their album, released in April 2004, debuted at #1 on the Billboard's Independent charts.

I was fortunate enough to see this movie during the late-night viewing in Tulsa in May 2005. It was absolutely unsettling to see that the former squeaky-clean teen idols were a legitimate rock band trying desperately to shake off the shackles of the music industry's cookie-cutter pop filth. I dare any skeptic to see this film and still think Hanson is lame.

As B-grade movies go (or straight-to-cable/video, as they are now commonly called), Teenage Caveman deserves more credit than it gets. However, if you are not into bad movies, I definitely do not recommend viewing this at all.

Andrew Keegan, of "Ten Things I Hate About You" fame, stars as David, the son of a hypocritical egomaniac who has a small tribe of apocalypse survivors believing he is some kind of messiah. However, like most fanatical evangelists, he is actually just a pervert using his status to get teenagers into the sack. (Sounds like this guy is the director's alter-ego.) His taste for young flesh compels him to prey on David's girl friends, Elizabeth and Sarah, and even hinting at some pederasty with his friend Joshua (played by Shan Elliot, the prettiest man in the movie). When David's father tries to rape Sarah, David kills his father by stabbing him in the eye. As punishment, he gets crucified to a tree for a few days until his loyal friends cut him down and flee the caves.

The small band trek across empty grass land until arriving at the ruins of Seattle, where they get caught in some kind of a sandstorm (doesn't that only happen in the desert?) and wake up clad in underwear in a biotech research lab that's been converted into some ultra-cool pad. There they are introduced to Neil and Judith, a 20th century couple who had been genetically enhanced to withstand injury and prevent aging. Over the next few hours, the hyper-repressed cavedwellers are taught how to skinny dip, get drunk, and get high on cocaine (which airhead Neil somehow learned how to grow and process from the cocoa plant). All the teenagers take part eagerly, except for David and Sarah, who retreat to an isolated room to fall asleep in peace. Then the remaining kids are taught how to have sex in a disturbing and uncomfortably long orgy scene. It reflects too well how the "first time" is awkward and... absurd. With the lack of any distinguishable dialog and the endless cackling laughter, this scene was probably completely ad-libbed by the actors. I'm sure it made for a fun-filled day of shooting.

While the cavekids think they have found their haven where they may do whatever they like, it turns out that that by having sex with them, Neil and Judith have infected the kids with their own genetic mutation. The first to morph is Elizabeth, whose body cannot handle the change and explodes while Neil and Judith look on. Later on, poor Joshua gets his chest ripped open by a jealous Neil who can't stand to hear boasts about doing his girlfriend. When David and Sarah catch on to the rouse, they plot to round up their remaining friends and escape Neil and Judith. Unfortunately, tom-boy Heather explodes before they can leave, the very unattractive Vincent has secretly changed and stops Sarah from running away, and David is tricked into having sex with Judith who disguises herself as Sarah. By this time, Neil and Judith have discovered how to keep the body from self-destructing and David survives the change. When he is told to infect Sarah, he distracts Judith, allowing Sarah to run away again, only to be tracked down by Vincent, who tries to rape her (how many times does this girl have to be sexually assaulted?) but then has his head ripped off clean by Neil. She gets dragged back to the lab to be changed, where David presents Judith with Vincent's decapitated head. Judith, who actually grew to love the unlikable Vincent, gets into a heated argument with Neil while David and Sarah make a run for it. Neil, with his bad temper and pent-up sexual frustration after being denied sex for 20 years, ends up ripping Judith's heart from her chest, then sinks to his knees crying over her corpse in some gross overacting.

Neil changes into a monster that looks like The Leprachaun and goes after David... by hanging him. Sarah runs up and hits him (like a girl) with a baseball bat, then runs away screaming the most ridiculous line in the movie: "You're a looner!" (whatever the hell that means) Eventually, David kills Neil and tells Sarah to go back to the tribe, telling her that if they stay together, she might die. She refuses, and has sex with him anyway. The next thing we see is David standing before his astonished ex-tribe in the gayest outfit ever assembled announcing that he is "taking the kids." We never know what becomes of Sarah, but we can only guess that she died laughing after seeing what David was wearing.

Brilliant, innovative, clever, and incredibly catchy, Reefer Madness is one of the best musicals I've ever seen. The entire cast was absolutely fantastic in their characters. The three that definitely shined the most were: stage-veteran Christian Campbell as the naive Jimmy, a dimple-faced angel who turns into a giggling sex addict after one puff of the demon weed; the annoyingly cute Kristen Bell as the doomed Mary Lane, the squeaky clean virgin who takes one hit and turns into a frighteningly sexy dominatrix; and the richly talented Alan Cumming in many roles, primarily as the instigating Lecturer, who represents the rampant fear and misinformation that consumed middle America for the whole of the 20th century, giving birth to all the famous political struggles concerning minority groups, the Communist witch-hunt, and the so-called War On Drugs.

Another favorite was John Kassir as the maniacal pothead Ralph, although he merely haunts most of the movie without much input until the unforgettable reefer den scene where he tricks Mary into smoking a joint to get her out of her petticoat, but unwillingly becomes her bitch instead.

Although the reviews have been mostly dismal, this movie is definitely worth seeing by those with a sense of humor. This is, after all, a movie with lots of dark comedy and controversial material. One scene that would surely raise hell is that of Sally selling her baby to the most stereotypical image of a China man ever cooked up, while two Asian women lounge on a bed in the background, smoking opium and making out. What people need to understand is that this is not a modern-day slam on Asians, but another example of America's own embarrassing stigmas they once had on minorities. Remember that little movie called "Breakfast at Tiffany's?" Need I say more?

The only thing they could have done without was the "Step By Step" chick playing Joan of Arc and her god-awful French accent.