Hey folks, Harry here... I've been working on my review for this one for a while now, taking my time because that's the sort of movie it is... one of those that you want to see three or four times before you attempt to talk about it. I'll get my review up hopefully in the next couple of days, but you should know to look for this film. It is not what is expected from Adam Rifkin. And it really changes everything about how you look at him in its wake. Here's Rav....
I saw A Night at the Golden Eagle a couple of weeks ago now, I've really just been swept away with a lot of other things like seeing other movies and interviewing William Shatner for www.movieheadlines.net. Finally I'm caught up with all of that and I can get to reviewing A Night at the Golden Eagle, a fantastic new indie from director Adam Rifkin (Detroit Rock City, The Chase, and The Dark Backward). So here we go.
Late sunday I received word from a crusty dock worker that the new Adam Rifkin movie was screening on monday afternoon at a classified location, no other details were given. Well that really narrowed it down, Adam has three projects in the can: an indie drama he directed about a young woman dealing with the end of a relationship called Without Charlie (described as Alley Mcbeel-esque), he produced a indie action comedy thing called Getting Hal about some detective that looks okay, and a crime drama called A Night At The Golden Eagle that stars Natasha Lyonne as a whore and Vinnie-FUCKING-Jones (fuck yes jackpot ding ding ding, if this isnt the film showing, im going to wind up hijacking a print).
Monday rolled along and I arrived at the classified location just in time, seeming quite desolate. After walking in and calling hello? hello?, like some idiot hitchhiker walking into an abandoned house right off the road, finally I found a stray employee. "Are you guys by any chance about to screen something?" I asked. The employee remarked, "Vanilla Sky starts at three, it'll be $5." "No, are you guys by any chance screening the new Adam Rifkin movie, like right now?" said I, "What is the new Adam Rifkin movie?" said the puzzled employee. Frustrated I karate chopped the employee knocking him out, after saying, "I really don't know". From here I stormed the projection booth looking for the print, I was going to watch this movie no matter what, right before I realized I had no fucking clue what I was looking for, my phone rang. On the other end of the line a maniacal laugh lay, the crusty seaman informed me the screening was delayed till tomorrow and no he still does not remember the title of the film ARGH!
Tuesday, same time, same place, I was back for try number two, worked out pretty well actually, waited for Harry to get there and then bombarded him with the eternal question, What fucking Adam Rifkin movie are we watching???? A Night At the Golden Eagle, he says (FUCK YEAH!). Well lets fast-forward a bit, eventually the movie started....cool!
READER NOTE: REVIEW ACTUALLY BEGINS HERE,
A Night at the Golden Eagle is about a night at the Golden Eagle (Surprised?), a seedy Los Angeles hotel located in one of those parts of town with a whore and drug dealer on every corner (wait thats every corner in L.A. right?). Well tonight, the Golden Eagle's most interesting inhabitants are Mick, Tommy, Rodan, and the coolest bum ever. Tommy just got out of jail after serving seven years meeting his old co-hort Mick right outside the prison wall, Mick is ready to get right back into the swing of things like in the good ol days. Mick has gone straight, he went and got himself a minimum wage job at a porn store where he is treated like shit, got rid of the car, travels on the city bus, and now lives cheaply at the Golden Eagle. Mick's been waiting for this day for a long time, he plans to get a new start on life with his old friend, he's saved up these seven years and got them both bus tickets to Las Vegas for tomorrow, where everything will be better. Tommy takes this change really really hard, as he really is a career criminal, this situation with Mick seems unfathomable. All of this is thrown out the window the minute Tommy picks up one of Rodan's Girls (Natasha Lyonne) standing outside the hotel.
Rodan (Vinnie Jones) is pure scum, he's the type of pimp that picks up a young naive run-away pre-teenager off the street and shows her "How to become a star." and that is exactly what he is doing today, a beautiful suburban 15 year old fed up with her parents is about to be shown the ropes in Rodan's world. Her new teacher is what one would call a "slightly mature" (older, veteran, gone around the block a few hundred times, you get my drift) prostitute. She really has no idea what she is in for.
The bum's of the golden eagle really steal the show. See some ghetto movies just reduce bums to being scenery, but not in Golden Eagle. It's weird I swear I've seen all these bums walking around in downtown before, but not until Golden Eagle did I realize how interesting they truly can be. For example there is, what I consider, the coolest ranting bum ever sitting in the lobby watching TV, talking about the time he double teamed Fay Wray with Bela Lugosi and he does this all fucking day. Then there are the bums that torture the clerk, I wish i knew the actor's name as he was just fucking hilarious when he yells at bums for either trying to buy single cigarettes or just standing around staring at him. Well whats really crazy about this is there are times where Adam Rifkin turns the table completely around and instead of just looking down at them and laughing, you begin to feel for them and get to know who they are and understand them as not really vagrants but i guess as failed people (its not the right phrase but its the first that comes to mind.
Now Vinnie Jones is just the fucking bomb in anything man, hell he could be cast in Air Bud 4 and I'd watch the thing, I must say it's really cool to see him playing such a cool evil villain as opposed to his british mob badass roles, because his character really is evil in ways you've never fucking seen vinnie jones. Wow what a delight is it to see Natasha Lyonne playing a whore, and most of the movie she really is just becomes an object that mick and tommy just can't fucking get rid of. Ann Magnuson really does a bang up job, totally believable characterization. The girl playing the teenager really was fantastic embodying her role.
Oh my fucking god Mick and Tommy dude woah. Apparently the film was based on some of the real life stories of these two guys, now knowing that I must say I dont know if i could survive meeting these two in person, i probably would pussy out run and lock the bathroom door till they were gone. Fuck man they blow you away.
A Night At the Golden Eagle is exactly not what you expect from the director of Detroit Rock City and The Chase, and thats meant as a very good thing. The film might not be perfect but it is one that at least I will not forget.
Rav
