The Pleasure Drivers (2006) User Reviews (16)

Some Excellent Build-Up, But A Hollow Candy Center

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 23 March 2007]

A nurse and her patient, a professor and his nymphomaniac student, Meat Loaf, Billy Zane and a showdown at the Big Cock Inn. Just another day in the lives of our hapless heroes.

I like films and stories that have multiple story lines that converge into one connected plot. Tarantino does this well. I myself wrote a novel with four interwoven plots. "Anna Karenina" did this very well. This film did not pull off the magic as well as we could have hoped.

A professor leaves home when he finds his wife has a lesbian lover and along the way picks up a sexy escort (played by the ravishing Lacey Chabert). But this plot is full of such annoyances -- every time something cool is about to happen, it is stopped.

A nurse takes her patient away and kidnaps a girl to raise money. She even involves Meat Loaf (who, like his character in "Pelts", likes to kill raccoons). This has some potential, but is plagued by the fact it just doesn't make much sense. A nurse kidnapping someone? I guess, but it seems extreme.

The worst part is that the best character is the priest played by Billy Zane and Zane only shows up for a brief time (delivering some great lines). Had he appeared more often, the film would have been significantly improved. But we are left wanting.

And that's what it really came down to: a teaser with no satisfaction. Not enough Zane, not enough sex (especially with as much as they hint at) and a plot that ultimately seems more forced than fluid. I enjoyed the movie, but it was nothing special and certainly doesn't warrant a second viewing on my part. Maybe I missed something deeper, but I really doubt it.

Be afraid, be very afraid

[cappaccinodagreat · 4/10 · 3 March 2007]

OK, ummmm. Well, I got an advanced copy of the film and all I can say is that it was a pretty strange flick. The whole vibe was weird. Maybe I just couldn't relate to the characters. I feel like there was quite a bit of over acting and exaggeration. I don't was to get into specifics because some people may read this before seeing the movie. I gave 1 point for each hot chick in the movie, and 1 point for the movie being "different". If it wasn't SO weird, I would just say it was a terrible movie, but it was so strange, I had to keep watching to see how it ended. But NOT a good movie by any stretch, The person above who rated it "excellent" MUST somehow be connected to this film. Go ahead, watch the movie, then tell me who is closer to YOUR opinion.

A Mess...

[tarbosh22000 · 3/10 · 12 May 2010]

"The Pleasure Drivers" is a mess.

The plot: What I can gather is that Daphne (Holly) kidnaps a woman who is connected to a powerful church run by Marvin (Zane). There's also a subplot involving a pretentious professor (Angus Macfadyen) and a sex addict (Lacey Chabert).

The biggest problem with the movie (and it's HUGE) is that absolutely nothing makes sense. The plot should've been laid out in a linear form. It's trying way too hard to be cool and "weird". The acting doesn't help either. Holly has a speech in the beginning of the movie that so off-key and overacted, you'll beg her to stop. Billy Zane has one scene, and it's the only good one. Meat Loaf, usually is fun to watch but his character is a big cliché. The movie moves at a glacial pace, with no snappy dialogue and even music to move it along.

One of the biggest bombs I've seen in a while, "The Pleasure Drivers" is a must-avoid.

For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Edgy.

[Masticator76 · 2/10 · 24 May 2007]

The Pleasure Drivers is awesome in the way that only a movie featuring Angus Macfadyen having a large handgun repeatedly inserted in his bottom could be.

Lauren Holly looks after Tom, a young man who suffered head trauma in a car accident as a teenager. As a brittle, unhappy recovering crack addict, she is the ideal candidate to care for Tom. She knows Tom's father is withholding money from her, so she goes to confront him - except he turns out to be Billy Zane, who isn't his father, but is a famous actor who can channel Marlon Brando! Yes, repeatedly rubbing your hand over your bald head counts as a performance.

Anyway, Billy tells her she can't have any money, so Lauren decides to kidnap Tom's twin sister Casey. She does what any competent kidnapper would and takes her to see Meat Loaf, who gives Lauren the details of a desert motel where she can go and the key to Room 2. That's Room 2. This may be significant. The motel is called, and I am not joking, The Big Cock Inn.

Meanwhile, in a storyline that is NOT CONNECTED IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER TO THE KIDNAPPING STORYLINE, Angus Macfadyen is an oddball psychology professor who is germ- obsessed, anally retentive and about to be kicked out by his wife. Did I mention he is anally retentive? This may be significant.

After his wife kicks him out because she is in love with another woman (edgy!), he wanders around a bit and then meets a young woman who pretends to be his student, then pretends to be seducing him, then says she is a sex addict, then says she is an escort (and has the documentation to prove it), then tries to have sex with him for free, then it turns out she's just a sad, scared girl who wants a better life. This woman is possibly the most ridiculous character ever to appear in a film. She is played, heartbreakingly, by Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls.

Anyway they end up at - have you guessed? - The Big Cock Inn. In Room 2. The Big Cock Inn turns out to be the least appropriate place Angus could be. Gretchen gets very cross with him because his penis is small and doesn't work, and because he's - I cannot stress this enough - a total idiot. She leaves, but then for some reason she doesn't. This is bad news, because they're in Room 2, and the lesbian hitwoman Billy Zane sent after Lauren goes to their room! D'oh!! (Lesbians, again, are edgy.)

But rather than try to find the kidnapped Casey, the lesbian hitwoman - because lesbians are so edgy - takes her gun and puts it up Angus's bottom, again and again. Angus loves this; it makes him sing a song. He keeps singing for ages, just in case you thought this film wasn't ludicrous enough.

There's a big shootout and all the women (except Gretchen) are killed, because women deserve it, those bitches, except for the sex-addict prostitute ones because they have hearts of gold. Tom saves Gretchen and they head off to Portland, Maine, together because Tom always wanted to go there. Hooray!

Angus goes home and enters his lesbian (edgy!) wife's bedroom where she is lying with her lesbian (edgy!) lover. He is naked and has a gun, and that's the end. You never find out if Angus was going to shoot his wife or get him to penetrate him with the gun, because ambiguity is super-edgy, especially when it involves lesbians.

I highly recommend this edgy film.

Made by folks who didn't know a good thing when they saw it

[MBunge · 5/10 · 7 October 2010]

This is one of those bad movies that has several good things in it, but the filmmakers obviously never recognized what those good things were. So, it has roughly the same effect as that hot 16 year old in high school that was always flirting but never went all the way. It teases you just long enough to make your eventual disappointment all the more frustrating.

Daphne (Lauren Holly) is a woman who looks like she's been ridden hard and put away wet. She's taking care of Tom (Angelo Spizzirri), a younger man with very debilitating medical problems. Tom's father, the Reverend Ethol, is supposed to be paying for Tom's care…but he's not. Daphne goes down to the Reverend's church/cult to demand some money. She only gets the brush off from the Reverend's right hand man (Billy Zane, who really should be acting in better movies than this. The guy was in Titanic, for Pete's sake!) So, Daphne takes an aluminum baseball bat, clonks a couple of guys in the head and kidnaps Tom's sister Casey for ransom.

While that's going on, we also watch the marriage of Bill (Angus MacFadyen) and Alexis (Deena Dill) blow apart. Bill is one of those stereotypical psychology professors who is so emotionally repressed, his wife has an affair with another woman. Not because Alexis is actually gay, but she's just so desperate to get some sort of reaction out of Bill. She doesn't get it, and Bill ends up meeting Faruza (Lacey Chabert). Faruza has been attending Bill's classes and is so infatuated with him that just listening to him talk gets her sexually excited.

It turns out that Daphne, Tom, Casey, Bill and Faruza all end up at the same hotel in the middle of the desert. There they are joined by Marcy (Jill Bennett), a raven-tressed, lesbian hitwoman who just got dumped by her girlfriend and has been hired by the church/cult to take care of their little Daphne problem. Wacky hijinks ensue, like an episode of Scooby-Doo mixed with Reservoir Dogs.

There are a couple of good things in The Pleasure Drivers, but you'll miss one if you blink and the other just goes completely off the rails. The first good thing is a flash of genuine depth in Daphne. Before the character becomes a complete moron to serve the Almighty Plot Hammer, Lauren Holly is able to show some real inner conflict in this woman. She truly does want to take care of Tom and needs money for that, but she also wants a lot of money from the church/cult because she just wants a lot of money. There are instances where Holly lets us see primitive greed struggling with idiotic nobility in Daphne and it's somewhat entrancing.

The other good thing in this film is the relationship, such as it is, between Bill and Faruza. The repressed man and the liberated woman is one of the all-time movie clichés, but it really works here. Primarily that's because Angus MacFadyen goes beyond cliché with Bill. He creates a man who looks attractive and functional on the surface. It's not until you get to know Bill that you find out he's so alienated from his own emotions and his own life that he's constantly analyzing himself and others into a tape recorder he keeps with him. MacFadyen really captures the disturbed unwillingness to interact with others that fools women into thinking it's niceness and vulnerability. Lacey Chabert also hits the mark with Faruza being willfully blind to how she uses sexual aggressiveness to wall off feelings she doesn't want to deal with.

But we never see enough of Daphne's depth and the story basically abandons the Bill/Faruza dynamic so it can get to the ironic and nihilistically hip violence. The movie also treats lesbian assassin Marcy as though she is a lot more meaningful than she actually is. She's much closer to plot device than human being, but the filmmakers seem to think there's something significant about her without ever doing anything significant with her. Tom is also wildly inconsistent throughout the entire film. He goes from being mentally spastic to acutely aware, physically weak to personally capable, emotionally crippled to stoicly resolved and back and forth for no reason except the script requires it. Throw in a plot that's not much more complicated than See Spot Run, Daphne having a handgun that must have come from an old time Western because it never needs to be reloaded and a double ending that pathetically clutches at seriousness, and you've got a movie that thoroughly crushes any hopes that might have been raised by its few good qualities.

We also get to see Angus MacFadyn naked. Now, anyone who watches movies with a critical eye can recognize the terrible way actresses are exploited when it comes to nudity. And while I'll admit I can enjoy some gratuitous disrobing, I appreciate women who don't want to do that and applaud filmmakers who resist it. But the modern conceit of not having naked women and instead splashing bare man ass across the screen has got to stop. Maybe at one point it was funny and a bit subversive, but now it's so played out and artificial. It's become something that independent movies do only because it's something that other independent movies have done.

The Pleasure Drivers does turn awfully stupid toward the end, with two final scenes that are so misplaced it's as though pages from two other movies got stabled to the end of this script. Aside from that, it's not altogether horrible. If you give it a look, it might click with you. But if you've watched the first 15 minutes and you're not enjoying it, you can go ahead and turn it off because it won't be getting any better.

But there's one saving grace!

[mbrown118 · 2/10 · 2 April 2007]

I'll level with you...this is a lame movie with mediocre acting & totally uninteresting characters. It starts out strong & shows some promise but, just give it another 10 minutes....your thumb will find the eject button. HOWEVER, there is one saving grace....her name is Lacey Chabert! Trust me, guys (and girls who like other girls), you should really rent this flick just to see the delicious Lacey in rare form! This adorable morsel (who was age 23 at the time of filming in 2005), absolutely has one of THE Best figures I've ever seen!! Unfortunately, we don't get to see all of her (which is seriously weak for an unrated film!) but, our girl does juuuust fine. Skip to chapters 9 & 10, and see if you agree. ;)

Just a mess

[savage_lucy · 2/10 · 19 June 2007]

This is a really, REALLY bad movie that thinks it is absolutely amazing. To all those people who say that it is a brilliant piece of art cinema and should be judged accordingly - it comes of much worse by those standards than if it is judged as a cheesy action thriller. Complex inter-related plots are all well and good, but these plots are not complicated, and they are only related by the most token gesture at the end. The nurses's patient's mental health oscillates wildly - depending on the needs of the so-called plot, he's a semi-comatose mess or a lucid if troubled young man. The college professor is NOT an amazing, brave role, it's pop Freudian psychology at its absolute worst. I thought he was introduced as a caricature who would be the butt of some joke (see what I did there?), but no, his stupid clichéd ways of thinking all prove to be insightful and accurate - riiight. Chabert's character, while being completely pointless, is indeed a hot nympho - the only reason to watch this movie is to enjoy hot nymphos and lesbian assassins.

Not the best that it's advertised to be (spoilers)

[Xex-Arachnid · 5/10 · 30 July 2007]

but then again, so is most of everything now a days. The version that I'd picked up had said Billy Zane as the Assassin on the cover-such lies! The movie in my opinion wasn't bad but it could of definitely been better. There are many unexplained things in the movie beyond the obvious unexplained parts.

I'm confused on some things and I have issues with the characters and I will mention what they are: 1. What was Casey on for her to seem like all blissful that she was going to die? No holy visitation nowadays could pull that mood upper on.

2. Tom was this mentally damaged fraud that got cheated out his cut of the churches scam. So one moment he can't do anything for himself like finish cutting his hair and goes into seizures and is oblivious to many things but seems to pull it together when he finds out that his nurse kidnapped his sister.

3. The female assassin who likes to sodomize men with the silencer bit of her gun has no real history or character line to her except that she's ruthless looking, a great shot and her girlfriend left her and after seeing what she does to "the professor" I can only guess why.

4. Back to Tom; how can he (being a brain damaged tard) drive off with a very perfect, desired, nubile nymph towards Oregon to have a child in the future with this woman who eventually saves the world? How can he even drive if he can't even cut his hair????????? 5. Did Meatloaf die from his Hepatitus sickness or pass out from the fear of death with a silencer at the nape of his neck.

6. If the Professor who seems to be so involved with himself and his thanatos/eros theories couldn't care less about his wife leaving him for a woman, why would he care in the end to finish them off butt naked might I add? Was this summarizing his research or deception to the viewers? 7. The church cult people that was lead by Billy Zane. I've never been out to LA and it looks like I'll never will but, despite hearing how whacked out it is out there, can clergy and other men of the clothe carry guns? 8. Where were the two henchmen taking Casey? 9. If the underlining story of Tom and Casey were that they were two kids in a big scam involving being gifted in seeing theological revelations turned real gifts, did some how Billy Zanes character (Marvin?) seen this, what this all a plot by this church cult to bring the neo-messiah? So many questions, too much for my moneys worth. There were some funny parts as in "Madame, I think you have the wrong room" and the femme fatal was really giving it to the Professor. I'm confused about this scene too because obviously she sodomized him to be cruel but in a way introducing the professor (who's repressed and self-involved) to a hidden pleasure of his so in a way they've connected? I don't know. This is something I would not watch again but the best part of the movie for me besides the professor and the nymph's story line is that of the Nurse's character (Holly Davis?)which shows a tortured woman who's brought down by the corruption of it all who decides to take matters in her own hands literally, ending up being corrupted which led her to a very tragic death in my eyes. But again there raises another question, did the Nurse try to really ransom Tom's sister for money for Tom or for herself????

Pretty Good...

[not_getten_any · 6/10 · 14 June 2007]

When I started watching the movie, i was very confused and slightly weirded out by the whole lesbian thing. But after the movie dragged on, I realized good qualities to it and its similarities to many of my favorite movies (pulp fiction, kill bill, et). It has a lot of twists and some of the characters are rather interesting. Not to mention the movie has pretty good acting for an Indie flick. The movie was slow at first, but sped up towards the end. It would have made a worth watching movie to begin with, but Lacey Chabert was just what i needed to make me keep on watching. She is super hot and sexy, and an amazing actress too. Not to mention the part she plays in this is a rather seductive one. The movie is worth watching for many reasons, and although not the best I've seen of the genre, it does have its perks...

It might be called Sophomoric - if it were LESS derivative & puerile

[drear-malpais · 17 July 2008]

FIRST, these commentaries on IMDb are of course subject to padding by interested parties, people whose egos are invested in a piece of dreck like "The Pleasure Drivers." There's no other explanation for the mildly favorable comments to be read here regarding this ... thing.

SECOND, it would be too easy to blame the writer--though to be sure he must be an abysmal sycophant and scrotum-lapper to Taratino and others, not to mention an abject adolescent (despite the pock-marked age visible in his photo). The question one must confront is: HOW DID OTHERS--DIRECTORS, ACTORS, ET AL.--SWALLOW THIS SCREENPLAY? I read better scripts back in Junior High School.

THIRD, the answer to #2 is that the people with access to the money, incapable of paying protracted attention to anything at all, thought they saw a vague resemblance between this script and the work of Tarantino and a gaggle of other fleeting fads, and gave it a go.

FOURTH, despite what I said in #2, the writer must be the focus of blame here. Self-conscious "quirkiness," dialogue that could only be mistaken as clever by LA bimbos & gym bunnies.

The Worst Film Ever!

[ceylonic · 1/10 · 16 February 2007]

I don't remember having ever seen such a bad movie and I've seen a lot. The script is bad, the scenes are incredibly exaggerated and pathetic.. and they take no end; even if you press the fast forward button it's still too long. the film is so incredibly bad it's unintentionally funny! Wouldn't recommend it. Wouldn't recommend it.. even my worst enemy..

The film has a good start until that odd chain-smoking nurse/psycho makes up her mind to go get some money for her ill boy and enters the church, starts talking to that priest played by billy zane. The dialog (or monologue?) she delivers stands for the whole film to follow: too many words, too much stagy emotion put on, too long... why wouldn't the camera find some other place to stay on!? that's what you keep asking yourself for the rest of the film.

quote: "I got beer in the fridge, but it's warm!" - "Why is it warm?" - "Because the fridge is broke!"

uhu yeah, right!

I think the apex is when that college professor (stunningly badly played by Angus MacFadyen) gets sexually assaulted by a female killer with a shotgun!

yeah, I think that's the only time the film gets funny.

fantastic movie

[logomito · 10/10 · 18 February 2007]

Too bad I haven't seen this movie earlier, I feel a bit like having missed something great before. The movie has everything I would expect from one of my favorite movies. An interesting story, craziness, action, surprises, good camera, convincing actors and finally music that fits to the story. There are lots of strange people involved into the story, all doing their part that the world of today appears egoistic, money orientated, brutal, sick and cruel. I like the camera work, there are plenty of nice pictures in the movie to internalize, and the melancholic synthesizer music fits perfectly the mood of the movie. I give this movie an excellent because for me it has something magical, something that causes me to see it over and over again.

Kudos to Lauren Holly

[fourthedinero · 7/10 · 22 March 2007]

Complex and convoluted, Pleasure Drivers, with its esteemed cast, carries you on a dark, yet comedic journey through different story lines. Despite her bad language and bad scrunchies, it is Lauren Holly's performance,(her best to date) with a raw,edgy, and intense portrayal, that immediately captivated me and kept me cheering her on, all the way to the end. I did not realize she was such an amazing actress. Lacey Chabert delivers an unexpected sexy portrayal. It is one of the better indie films I have seen recently. I really enjoyed the look of the picture,although it did move a little slow at times. Does anyone know if this movie was released in the movie theaters?

At least they were trying, but ... fail.

[astacvi-1 · 3/10 · 16 August 2012]

I was going to review this movie, but after reading Masticator76's masterpiece I really have nothing to add. I'm giving it one more star than he did, just because the movie is so gosh-darned edgy.

It's still a frustrating experience, even with the edginess. There are a great many scenes that nearly work, but nothing ever coheres into an actual movie with a believable plot. There are only a couple of characters written to have more than one dimension, and they immediately make you wish they would just shut up and let the cardboard characters take over.

Go read Masticator76. His review contains SPOILERS but trust me, you really don't care that much.

This Movie Saved My Life

[lahorrorlogic · 9/10 · 25 March 2007]

I had to post this because I've been reading all of these really bad reviews and I just can't relate to any of them. I think most of the people writing the reviews have missed something fundamental which is (I think) Pleasure Drivers is much more of an art film than your standard b-movie thriller. Lots of people have posted that the movie's too slow -- that's what I love about it. I think its strangeness makes it really unique and you get sucked in, in ways you don't understand and have to see it again. I think it's really too bad that this movie is being judged by what it isn't (a slick, stupid, fast paced thriller) instead of what it is, which for me was this really austere investigation of morals and motivation, or I don't even know, but it feels like it's doing a lot more than like say Kill Bill. I'm sure if it get released in Europe (if it hasn't already) it'll do much better. Why do we have to relate to the people in it? I had so much fun just watching all these trashy people get more and more messed up. The one thing I didn't like was the whole "lesbian" hit woman. That was really underdeveloped, but whatever,it's like this ultra cheap movie and they probably ran out of money or something. I don't know about you but when I see a movie that's this different it makes me feel alive and excited. Hopefully these people will get more money for their next project.

Not the typical vapid thrill

[leopolds_fate · 10/10 · 3 October 2007]

This is an interesting mixture for a flick; a few funny scenes, mostly subtle humor, throw in some action, odd theme-based characters , and enough intriguing content that you can think about it for a while. Not the typical vapid thrill.

A major theme of the movie is explained early on when the professor reviews the concepts of the Id, Superego, and Ego while he drives with the nympho. The description sets up the main conflict of the movie, between the Id and the Superego, which ends up affecting the Ego. There is also a subtext regarding religion and a conflict between Ego and religion. The death of the cult figurehead results in the the Id being satisfied. And the salvation of the world.

The professor (Superego) is the epitome of anal retentive, cleaning even as his wife tells him she is leaving him. Even just after that, leaving tape messages for himself, he doesn't mention that she has left, he just jabbers on about bizarre dreams. The scene where he gets reamed by the lesbian hit-woman using her gun is funny in how he instantly loves it.

Daphne (Ego) is a chain-smoking nervous wreck, even as she makes a bold move, bashing a couple of guys from the church and kidnapping their cult goddess. She's constantly going back and forth between action on an ill-conceived plan and trying to make everything OK.

The nympho (Id) is pure fun; whatever pleasures her at the moment. But by the end of her interaction with the professor, she is frustrated, which isn't surprising.

Tom, a mental case, is purely innocent. He starts off pretty much totally whacked out and dependent on his medications, which have run out. As the movie progresses he has moments of increasing lucidity and in the end drives off towards his dream with the hot chick happily coming along for the ride. His improved mental state with increasing time off medication just occurred to me, but fits with other themes in the movie.

Lacey Chabert playing the nympho is fun to watch in this part, but maybe that's just pandering to my inner id.

There are some lingering questions, such as how a figure as pathetic as the professor was able to get a beautiful wife and house to begin with, or how he has a wife leave him and never mentions it. How Daphne can brutally pound a couple of guys in the head with a baseball bat and not feel a bit of remorse or second guessing. How Tom, who is clueless and confused suddenly gets his head together and leaves with the girl, which is a great ending, but a bit surprising that he can drive. Or how the professional hit-woman is such a terrible shot at the end. The lesbian hit-woman is completely superfluous, but hey, why not.

All in all, it's fun to watch, if a bit slow in parts, particularly dealing with the professor's character development. I loved the anti-religious undertones, which are subtle and humorous, pointing out the controlling, and often two-faced and hypocritical nature of it.