Truth or Consequences, N.M
Jack Bauer and Bubba NO!!!
Don't you hate it when you watch a movie and you think to yourself, "Man, this is such an awesome idea but they need to do more with it?", and you're disappointed, even though the movie has a great ending? That's how I feel about "Truth or Consequences, N.M".
Keifer Sutherland, who is now known as Agent Jack Bauer on the kickass show "24", directed and co-stars, as Curtis, the Mr. Blonde of this group. I say Mr. Blonde because this movie is a combination of "Reservior Dogs" and "From Dusk Till Dawn", minus the vampires. Mykelti Williamson, who's known as Bubba from "Forest Gump", plays Marcus, the token black dude who talks "Ebonics" and constantly talks about his "mama". Vincent Gallo, who was the main guy in "Buffalo '66", is the main guy here, playing Raymond. At the start of both movies, Vincent is getting out of prison. But in this movie, he has a girlfriend, Addy, waiting for him.
Eight months after Raymond is out of prison, he plays some sort of vague robbery against John. C McGinley, who is now the cranky doctor Dr. Cox on "Scrubs", who gave Raymond a job at a warehouse, that also holds drugs, apparently. McGinley, who plays Eddie, wasn't suppose to be at the warehouse, according to Curtis, and so Curtis takes care of that by shooting him in the head. Another guy who was just there who also turns out to be an undercover cop is also shot by Curtis. Raymond, needless to say, isn't happy with that and the foursome takes off.
Everyone is pissed off at Curtis, but he doesn't really care and is happy he got to kill someone. See? Mr. Blonde. Now the "Dusk Till Dawn" part takes place when they decide to ditch their current car and meet up with Kevin Pollack, playing Gordon, and his girlfriend Donna, having a picinic. Their car turns out to be...
Anyon see "From Dusk Till Dawn"? Then you know it's a-
R.V! WOO! Too bad they weren't trying to get to Mexico...oh wait, they are. At least there wasn't a bar named "Titty Twister".
They get in the R.V and for the next 45 minutes everyone just has conversations with each other. Donna is getting worried because Gordon appears to be getting into the whole robbers-are-cool-can-I-play-with-them, please-mommy role. Addy finds out she's pregnant but doesn't tell Raymond, Curtis wants to kill everyone they come across and Marcus is trying to get the cops attention.
Why is he doing that? It turns out Marcus is a undercover cop. Whoa, didn't see that coming, huh?
The gang go from one vehicle to another while avoiding cops and they finally get to Vegas. There, they meet with crime boss, Tony Vago, played, rather badly I'm afraid to say, by Rod Steiger. I know Rod can do a better job, but I guess his heart just wasn't in this project.
It all turns out Tony owned the warehouse they knocked over and is pissed that they're trying to sell his own drugs to him, which sounds like "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" and before Tony can "whack" them, Curtis goes crazy and kills everyone.
So now they have cops AND the mafia after them. Didn't see that one coming either.
Now that Vago is dead, the new leader is Martin Sheen, who is just called "Sir". He's pissed off but in the cool Marcellus Wallace type pissed and he vows to hunt down Raymond.
Raymond and the gang go to this dude's Wayne's house. Wayne use to be a cellmate with Raymond and now that Raymond is in serious shit, he needs a place to hide out, and, has "Raising Arizona" taught us, no better place then your former cellmate's place.
Wayne doesn't want anything to do with it, so he hides out at his girlfriend's place. Everything seems to be going ok here until the guys go out to get food at a bar and some cowboy dude bumps into Gordon. Gordon, who wants to show off in front of his new friends, attacks the cowboy with a beer bottle. He wasn't dead, but trust ol' Curtis, well, did make him dead.
Hey, he's the director, if he wants to play the crazy guy, let him.
Raymond says they're gonna dump off the drugs with this other redneck guy named Cecil in some city in New Mexico. Um...what city is it? Roswell? Flagstaff? OH!!!!
A little trivia: There is actually a city named Truth or Consequences in New Mexico. Sometime in the 50's there was a game show with that title and the city, for some reason, wanted to game show to go there, so they changed the name of their town.
Neat huh?
So Raymond, his girlfriend, Jack Bauer, Bubba, the guy who does Shatner impressions, and his girlfriend head to New Mexico. "Sir" knows they're heading there becaue he tortured Wayne with the Leslie Gore song "It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)" so the mafia is on it's way. Marcus got through to the police, so their on their way. What ensues next: good ol' fashion shootout ending in a bloodbath.
The entire movie, Curtis is obsessed with a quarter because he says if you get it to land on it's side, you can read people's mind. This is, of course, from the famous "Twilight Zone" episode, and they admit that in the movie, so it isn't a total rip off. So Curtis, who noticed some sniper guy hiding out in the desert, takes him hostage and while talking to him, he plays with the quarter. The quarter lands on it's side and he senses something so he jumps and, wow!! A gunshot came through the window! Too bad the quarter fell, he didn't sense the second gunshot that killed him.
Raymond and Addy start shooting at the cops that are approching, Marcus and Gordon start shooting at the mafia, and "Sir" approaches Donna and is about to shoot her when Gordon saves their asses and kills "Sir". Addy, somehow, got shot and is dead. Raymond gets all depressed and pretty much gives himself away. Marcus reveals he's a cop and when Raymond notices a mafia guy about to shoot Marcus, Raymond shoots. Marcus thinks it's aimed for him so he shoots Raymond, then notices the Mafia guy. Oops. So all the bad guys die at the end, much like...oh forget it, you get the point I think.
This movie really should've been good, awesome in fact, but it really wasn't orginal. And I thought the whole movie was gonna take place in Truth of Consequences, New Mexico, and crazy things happen to them, meeting crazy people, and they can't get out. That would've been cool and original.
Just like "U-Turn".
2 stars.
"Truth or Consequences, N.M" on IMDb.com:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0120383/