"Albino Alligator"
Director Kevin Spacey
"Albino Alligator" is a film with elements of the mystery/suspense, action and neo-noir genres featuring amazing performances. For viewers who enjoy sitting back and watching talented actors work the hell out of their craft in a dark film, this is one not to miss. The acting ensemble is solid with many standout turns. Everybody's got a secret in the bar where crime partner brothers Gary Sinese and Matt Dillon land after a car crash with both fatalities and injuries has damaged their plans. It's 4 A.M. in New Orleans, so it's guaranteed that the collection of humanity soon to be hostages will be an interesting assortment of types. Police are summoned, headed up by Joe Mantegna, because of the fatalities and when word gets out that there's a hostage situation nearby, the media gets involved, scattering dubious information over the airwaves. Mantegna, Dillon and Sinese turn in remarkable work among the cops and criminals and Faye Dunaway, Viggo Mortensen and Skeet Uhlrich all give compelling performances as the hostages fiercely bargaining to get out of the closing bar turned trap alive. Mortensen first appears virtually invisible and works first with silence, then a heavy dialect as he works away at twisting off this particular hook. He adapts to the claustrophobic danger of being seriously in the wrong place at the wrong time by working his shape-shifter craft on screen as the story's dance of the seven veils plays out. Of the actor/directors I've seen Mortensen directed by; it's Kevin Spacey I would most encourage sticking to acting. While "Albino Alligator" isn't a bad film, it's not exactly a revelation. "28 Days" isn't a revelation either, but I'd like to see what Betty Thomas does with a better script. While Sean Penn and Tony Goldwyn did produce revelations with "the Indian Runner" and "A Walk on the Moon," respectively, I wouldn't miss their magic in front of the camera nearly as much as I would miss it from Spacey.
Colleen Wallace
Review: "Prison"
Noel Coward once said "Dying is hard, comedy is harder," and harder still is making a well-acted horror film on a tight budget. "Prison," for the most part, is such a film. Directed by Renny Harlin, shot in the true-to-life, American gothic, abandoned Wyoming State Penitentiary and using a mix of seasoned stage actors and new faces, "Prison" relates a fascinating story of inhumanity, reincarnation and karmic justice.
"Prison" begins with preparations for the execution via the electric chair of Charles Forsythe. As Forsythe moves into the execution chamber, one of the prison officials stops him and in a particularly mean spirited gesture, yanks a silver crucifix from around the condemned man's neck, breaking the chain. Fast forward two or three decades to budget cutbacks of the eighties, a lone woman crusading for prison reform and an old boy warden distractedly brushing her off, unable to shake his reoccurring, wicked nightmares.
The new governor re-opens the old, abandoned penitentiary due to statewide prison overcrowding and puts Sharpe, the old boy warden, in charge of the new/old facility. Among the first things Sharpe does are to throw two would-be escapees into solitary, cut off all the prisoners mail and visiting privileges and order the execution chamber reopened, after posting a photograph of Ronald Reagan in his office. The last bit is a nice touch for those of us with short memories. Reopening the execution chamber sets in motion a combination of electrical problems and supernatural nightmares that kick the action into high gear and drive the karma bulldozer through the rest of the film. Lane Smith plays Warden Sharpe with equal parts stodgy bureaucrat and twitchy dictator.
Viggo Mortensen, in a dual role, is mostly known as Burke, and will go down in film history for playing the most decent convicted felon the screen has ever known and even looks great with a seeping head wound. Lincoln Kilpatrick plays Cresus, Burke's lifer cellmate, with dignified resignation and the destiny between the three men is played out to a surprising, but satisfying conclusion. While special effects snobs may pick this film apart, the acting, cinematography and setting are undeniably first rate for a great horror movie. Even some of the technology of the time adds to the overall creepiness: a friend I watched with winced at the screech of a dot matrix printer, to which I remarked, "Hey, it's a horror movie!"
An excellent choice for viewing on a dark and stormy night.
Colleen Wallace
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