Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

morrison-dylan-fan With a poll coming up on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best movies of 1984,I decided to take a look at Warner Archive titles on Amazon Uk,and I spotted an overlooked Neo-Noir,which led to me getting ready to meet Mike.The plot:Receiving a phone call from her boyfriend Mike, Betty Parrish discovers that Mike has messed around with some local drug dealers,which leads to Parrish having to sort out a safe house for Mike.Finding himself penniless,Mike continues to secretly deal cocaine with his pal Pete.Nearing the completion of a big deal,Mike & Pete take advantage of their customers being temporarily disturbed,by secretly cutting one of the bags open,so that they can re-sell some of the coke.Thrilled about having stolen right under their clients nose,Mike gets set to spend some time with his girlfriend Parrish.As Parrish waits for her boyfriend to arrive,Mike discovers that he has been sniffed out.View on the film:Whilst the DVD sadly does not contain the (infamously) deleted footage,Warner Archive give the film a good transfer,with the presentation capturing the mix of film & video stock,and the added bonus of the trailer giving a tease as to what the movie could have been.Hacked to bits by the studio, (who replaced Joe Jackson's score with a shivering one from John Barry,and changed the original design for the plot to be played chronologically backwards) the ripped from the headlines (with the film being loosely based on the murder of a man involved in a drug cartel with 2 UCLA football players)screenplay by writer/director James Bridges still offers an easy-going mix of twenty somethings teen Drama and sun-set Neo- Noir.Bridges gives Parrish's love story light & fluffy notes which are counted by a disturbing normality to the coke epidemic about to take place,with Bridges showing Mike being unable to stop himself from going down a line filled with ruthless drug barons and two faced friends.Reuniting with James Bridges,the pretty Debra Winger does very well at showing Parrish lose her girlie innocence,thanks to Winger giving Parrish's romance with Mike a breezy atmosphere,which is hardened as Parrish discovers the secret life that Mike has been living.Whilst the flick was forced by the studio to sit on the shelf for a year,director James Bridges and cinematographer Reynaldo Villalobos stylish on location filming is able to still shine,due to Bridges & Vallalobos giving the movie a sunny appearance to match Parrish dream romance with Mike,which gradually sinks into a dark Neo-Noir world,as Parrish meets the people behind Mike's Murder.

rusoviet ...anything but - Smart industry personnel be they script, directors, producers, actor/actresses, set-property, agents, scribes - know the reality of the myth of ease per Los Angeles. The weather is the primer for the pump that has made the myth fact. LA is a very dangerous place for that very reason and this film does a great service in depicting what the naive step into to their own peril in assuming anything but that.Paul Winfield sympathy is so evident here for Debra Winger. The only real mystery is why she would be pulled to Mike to begin with - our boy Mike is a real fool who hangs with others because of the choices he's made already - got make some more scratch and I don't want to work hard for it.Great movie as noted the draw isn't so much 'Who dun it' as 'Don't be a fool, you've no idea who you are messing with!'

preppy-3 Betty Parrish (Debra Winger) loves Mike (Mark Keyloun) not knowing he's a drug dealer. He's murdered one night and Betty sets out to find who did it...and why.Muddled and downright boring attempt at noir. Director James Bridges also wrote the screenplay so he can accept full blame for this. Supposedly it was shot in non-chronological order and he was forced (by the studio) to recut it to run in chronological order. That could explain why it's so badly directed. However that doesn't excuse the confusing plot and lousy acting. Winger (a wonderful actress) is terrible in this. She shows next to no emotion and just wanders around. Only Paul Winfield is any good. The only good part of this movie is a very eerie sequence late at night. THAT worked but it came far too late to save the movie. I saw it in a small art cinema in 1984. When it started there were maybe 10 people in the theatre. When I left at the end (I kept hoping it would get better) I was the only one left! Boring and pointless. You can skip this one. It's obscurity is well-earned!

MarieGabrielle Seems like many films fall into this category- especially when they were not blockbusters, had an interesting plot, and do not conform to the formulaic Hollywood trend.Debra Winger is very good in this film as a 20-something girl, living on her own, who soon gets in over her head. Mark Keyloun plays Mike, her tennis coach, with whom she develops an interest.The backdrops of LA are interesting and mood inspired, as was the score- if it wasn't I wouldn't be remembering it right now. Brooke Alderson ("Urban Cowboy") also has a brief part as Winger's friend- who tells her to get out- get out of the relationship. Apparently Mike has ties to the drug world- and Winger's character is embroiled in the plot. There are also some interesting scenes with Paul Winfield as a corrupt record producer.Watch this film. The story is film-noir, set in L.A. Debra Winger is excellent, as always. You will not be disappointed.