this movie starts strong with a promising sleaze-ball used car salesman as the title character who has traveled to Memphis, TN to try and sell 30-50 cars in one weekend at a car dealership located in a very poor area.
In order to do this, the guy becomes the "slasher" who brings a dj and much
pomp and circumstance to an ordinary dealership, prepared to lower prices that have been overly inflated. he attracts attention to the memorial day sale with an advertised but hidden $88 car/junker.
Anyway, the character is fairly deep-- an alcoholic who loves his wife and kids whom he rarely sees. And he knows his job is bulls**t. All of this is pretty
interesting, but the piece just doesn't carry for a full 90 min. I admit to being drawn in for a good 30 min, but by that time, most of the range of this guy's personal life and mildly interesting dealings in the used car business seemed to be thoroughly exhausted.
In particular, the events at the dealership (where we are stuck 70-80% of the time, really never reached any interesting developments. There were a few
interesting characters, but nothing really worth showing off. I feel like I've seen equitable characters or better the few times I've been at car lot.
Nothing too spectacular here. I know, it's supposed to be John Landis, with all the hooplah that goes along with his name, but I really feel Landis didn't spend enough time documenting here. This piece was primarily, if not entirely,
contained within the one car sale and the days leading up to it. To me, the smart thing to do would be to follow this guy to half a dozen of these events and pull the best material together into a composite piece, because this singular event was not funny, moving enough or revealing enough to hold together on it's own.
Good topic, nice start, but go back on the road with the Slasher and get some more 'A' material to splice in, please, because I was squirming in my seat
waiting to leave this dragging film.
In order to do this, the guy becomes the "slasher" who brings a dj and much
pomp and circumstance to an ordinary dealership, prepared to lower prices that have been overly inflated. he attracts attention to the memorial day sale with an advertised but hidden $88 car/junker.
Anyway, the character is fairly deep-- an alcoholic who loves his wife and kids whom he rarely sees. And he knows his job is bulls**t. All of this is pretty
interesting, but the piece just doesn't carry for a full 90 min. I admit to being drawn in for a good 30 min, but by that time, most of the range of this guy's personal life and mildly interesting dealings in the used car business seemed to be thoroughly exhausted.
In particular, the events at the dealership (where we are stuck 70-80% of the time, really never reached any interesting developments. There were a few
interesting characters, but nothing really worth showing off. I feel like I've seen equitable characters or better the few times I've been at car lot.
Nothing too spectacular here. I know, it's supposed to be John Landis, with all the hooplah that goes along with his name, but I really feel Landis didn't spend enough time documenting here. This piece was primarily, if not entirely,
contained within the one car sale and the days leading up to it. To me, the smart thing to do would be to follow this guy to half a dozen of these events and pull the best material together into a composite piece, because this singular event was not funny, moving enough or revealing enough to hold together on it's own.
Good topic, nice start, but go back on the road with the Slasher and get some more 'A' material to splice in, please, because I was squirming in my seat
waiting to leave this dragging film.