Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Catherina If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

MisterWhiplash Slasher won't be the first or last examination of the desperation, mood swings, and practical sexual comparisons (how's the performance going one might wonder, keep in mind they're all male sellers after all) in the world of salesmen. The Maysles brothers first took it on back in the 60s, and while John Landis may not ever reach the heights of being an exceptional documentary filmmaker, he has a lot more fun than the Maysles ever would, specially with a topic like this. The world of used car salesmen is sleazy and based on sensationalism and tricks as opposed to being straightforward, so Landis tries to take that same approach with his style, as he uses the city of Memphis almost as another character, if only in subtext, in this special part of the car salesman's year. Michael Bennet is the principle figure here, as the 'slasher', who flies in to Memphis (whether it's every year or not I can't say, though he appears to trump his track record whenever he can) and sells cars at low-low prices. Which means, considering there's no warranty and the many potential problems with the used cars, you get not necessarily what you pay for but the ideal of what the seller gets you to pay for, if that makes sense.As mentioned, there's some flashy editing here, with images flying by at times to great R&B songs- strongly in the vein of the Blues Brothers mold- and we get a sense soon enough of what the slasher and his cohorts have to deal with: Memphis is a city mostly bankrupt, with the exception of the mega-industry of Fed-Ex, and even when the slasher goes to lengths to take off thousands of dollars it's not enough for certain people. It's here that Landis, with his great amount of access, digs into the particulars of the used-car scheme. The gimmick for the slasher, which is meant to drag in as many as possible Memorial Day weekend, is that cars are as LOW as $88. Which means most of them, of course, are not that much (there's a running gag involving the first $88 car, with a bag of bad fish lying in the back of the car). But even amid the pandemonium that Bennet tries to conjure with his microphone and the music blaring in the background, some people just don't get convinced. It's here that one sees firsthand what BS is all about in the simple act of having to sell something, like when a customer won't settle for the price due to a father-in-law, and in elapsed time of over two hours it becomes a see-saw of half-truths and misnomers. It's never boring, at the least, even when one feels the salesmen sink to new lows.But Landis's chief subject, Bennet, is a very good subject for Slasher because of how he's not totally an un-human business drone who sells crap to people completely. Well, a lot of time he does, to be sure, hence the cheap tuxedo he wears every day as he strains his voice. Yet it's strange that Landis should make the visual comparison at the start of the film, showing presidents of the past in blatant lies, because even through all of the slasher's go-for-broke tactics of getting people to get cars there is a sense that he's not being dishonest entirely with himself to his public audience. And at least Bennet is candid enough, unlike a politician, to let the viewer into his big follies and flaws: he boozes like a bum and smokes whenever he can, brings some vulgar speech in his rants in his hotel room and in a interesting scene a garage lot, and will have a good time at a strip club. And throughout his wheeling and dealing, one sees him start to break down over the course of three days, and even in his blatant lying seems down to earth in a strange way, like when he makes his last confession-type talk to the camera in the car. Meanwhile, Landis, like Bennet, tries to make this into as much of a showman's game as it is a job, and never keeps things still for too long, while still getting at the human elements on all sides be they the gruffish, lively buyers of the cars (all relatively low-income families) or just the workers at the dealership who just get bags popcorn to eat for lunch.In the end, Landis doesn't paint a definitive picture of what the life of a used car salesman is, as he's attempting to get a significant piece of what it's like for a salesman on the hottest weekend of the year, nor is he getting a complete portrait of Memphis (though he tries, including Elvis bits scattered around). But it's a lot of fun, and enlightening in some spots, and it marks as a minor return to form for Landis, albeit in documentary form.

ReelCheese An interesting premise isn't done justice by this documentary about the ill-reputed world of car salesmen. Michael Bennett is known as "The Slasher" for swooping into dealerships and cutting prices in a bid to thin the lot in a hurry. One of his more interesting gimmicks gives customers the chance to buy an automobile for just $80. The film provides intriguing insights into how clever dealerships are always one step ahead of an unwitting public. But the whole thing seems so scripted. So much so, in fact, that the first time I watched "Slasher," I thought it was a mockumentary. On paper, Bennett is an interesting enough character to center a film around, but he doesn't translate as well as the filmmakers might have hoped. (Just a note... despite the title, the movie contains no gore).

thornton-michael I just finished watching this turd of a movie and want the last two hours of my life back. Seriously, all I learned was that the Slasher likes beer and he's annoying as fa-wk. Clearly the guy is tweaked out of his mind the vast majority of this movie. I could've made a better documentary about the people that hustle at car-washes. The only good part of the movie was laughing at all the morons that actually fell for the $88 car ploy,I kept expecting Eddie Murphy to jump out yelling "Hercules, Hercules" during a couple of these scenes. Only other scene of note, in between the mundane drivel like showing the Slasher take a urination, was the white guy that sounds JUST LIKE the Ladies Man. I kept expecting him to say, "Yeah that's nice" and ask for someone to pass him the Courvoisier. Next time I consider becoming a used cars salesman I'm going to have someone kick me in the larynx so maybe I can become as good as the Slasher at slashing the price. There are only two parts of the DVD that make it a little less of a time drain than watching it on TV. The extra's menu with the still of the as hat trying to "cut" the price list with the fake chainsaw was humorous, and the scene where the Slasher is clearly rolling a joint. That tells you how great the extra content on the DVD is...Despite the IFC seal of approval DON'T WATCH THIS POS!

anhedonia Michael Bennett, the titular character in John Landis' documentary, is a free-lance car salesman who travels the country helping car dealerships boost their sales on particular weekends by, you guessed it, slashing prices.Apparently Bennett's very good at this and he puts on a carnival barker-like show that is in turns funny, hectic, tiring and obnoxious. Watching Bennett do his shtick exhausts the viewer because this chap runs like a fast-paced motor without an off-switch. The problem is Landis films just one weekend in Bennett's life - when the "Slasher" travels to a dealership in Memphis, Tenn., "the bankruptcy capital of the world." In an interview on IFC, Landis said he initially planned to make a documentary about the effects of President Bush's economic policies, but wound up going in a different direction when he met Bennett.Landis lets us peek at some of the inner workings of Bennett and his two friends - a DJ and a "mercenary" salesman. We get to see them work the crowd, as well as hear their asides when interviewing young women for the weekend gig (some of their comments are a bit cruel) and reacting to customers' comments (we see how they manipulate customers).But as engaging as Bennett is - a wound-up beer-guzzling machine who also is a loving husband and father - a little bit of him goes a long way, a very long way. If Landis wanted to capture one weekend in Bennett's life, a documentary short would have sufficed.For a feature, we need to see more, not more of the same thing, which is what we get here. Landis should have spent more time with Bennett's wife, who sees her husband two days a week. We see only a few snippets of Bennett with his family and it would have made for great cinema. Also, seeing whether Bennett changed from city to city, whether his routine varied depending on the economic and geographic conditions of the area, would have made for a better story.And two crucial questions Landis does not even raise, much less answer, are how did Bennett get into this business and why does he do it? Yes, the money's great, but is there something else that draws Bennett to do this, to be away from his family for five days per week, especially when he says he'd like to be home with them? We never find out what attracts Bennett to this job.Although it runs under 90 minutes, "Slasher" seems like it's about 30 minutes too long. Many scenes seem redundant and at the end of the film we don't know much more about Bennett than we did in the first few minutes. It's still worth a look, though.