Tuesday, September 19, 2023

The Hot Spot (1990)


 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Hot Spot (1990) – D. Hopper

Apparently, this neo-noir was actually made from a script originally written for Robert Mitchum and you can imagine his sullen cool working perfectly for the amoral drifter who idles into town, finds himself caught between two women (one bad, one good), and thinks himself up an easy bank robbery.  But instead, director Dennis Hopper wound up with Miami Vice star Don Johnson. He isn’t bad and he isn’t good – but he’s not Mitchum.  Virginia Madsen plays the bad girl, wife of the boss (when Johnson takes a gig selling cars or mostly loafing), and she chews the scenery wildly but is the best thing about the picture. Jennifer Connelly is the good girl but isn’t given much to do.  Hopper manages to create a good deal of atmosphere here in this dead-end Texas town. It feels noir and it feels hot and, yes, steamy (Madsen seems to spend much of the picture nude).  Think they were aiming for The Postman Always Rings Twice (and this might actually be better than Rafelson’s remake). Once the plot decides to get going, it meanders its way to the finish line, where everyone gets what they deserve, even if it isn’t exactly what they want.

 

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