Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Hollywoodshack I haven't seen this film until now because, like the recent Hunger Games, the premise seemed repulsive to me. Since most of the key events were off screen I managed to plow through it. First, the basic story is ridiculous. Why would a telegram boy or anyone eat a sandwich with broken glass in it? Second, the $80,000 budget is too much when we see the phony quality of the sets, always indoors, and an alleyway that doesn't even have a real-looking car that can move without a tow chain. I could've made a more realistic film using a super 8 camera and giving all the parts to my friends and relatives. This was a lot of money back in 1959. Peter Falk is fine in the lead part, Nico, a gangster who uses his beatnik friends to commit the perfect unsolvable crime. I suppose the money ran out after he and Barbara Lord collected their salaries.

SukkaPunch Upon watching a review of this film I instantly became curious about it. A juvenile delinquency film staring Peter Falk as a murderous counter culture member? Count me in.My preconceived notion about this film was that it was going to be another cheesy 1950s scare flick, somewhat in the vein of Ed Wood's 'The Violent Years.' What I got, however was a very well acted, well put together and memorable film which even my friends who are not into '50s B-movies seem to enjoy.The film focuses on two characters, the murderous thug Nico (Peter Falk) and Cliff (Jack Betts) the brother of one of Nico's victims. Nico is an implied drug dealer and popular member of the local counter culture, who becomes obsessed with watching people die after witnessing a man have a heart attack. Eventually, he decides he wants to see another person die, so he and a friend kill a delivery boy by feeding him a laced hamburger.The police are unable to solve the murder due to the lack of evidence which is generally involved in motiveless crimes, so Cliff decides to take matters into his own hands.I commonly regard this as one of the best B-Movies the 50s has to offer for reasons other than, 'so bad it's good.' The characters are interesting and well played; I really cannot think of a single actor who played their role poorly. I find the character of Nico's friend Francis to be one of the best acted. Francis was one of the murderers and was instantly paranoid upon witnessing the death of the delivery boy. His paranoia and anxiety is well played by the actor. It almost makes this film a case study in human behavior when at risk of being caught for a crime.Nico is interesting too, as a murderer he has a calm confidence about him, right up until his end. He is sly and cunning, and seems to understand the human condition well. Peter Falk does a wonderful job demonstrating his acting ability, making Nico a character the viewer loves to hate.I highly recommend this film to essentially anyone, it's available to view freely online and I recommend that you take a look. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Highly recommended.

Zeegrade This film aged about as well as a used diaper at the bottom of a garbage can. The dopey hipster dialogue, complete with daddy-o's, "kicks", and nonsensical philosophizing gets old real quick. I understand this is a movie about the beatnik culture it's just the fact that it doesn't hold up very well in the twenty-first century. What's even more grating is the fact that I'm supposed to believe that Peter Falk as Nico is this Svengali-like stud whose every syllable is regarded as pure brilliance to these hapless dopes. After watching an old man die and doing nothing to help him except watch like a soulless goon, Nico gets the bright idea to kill somebody just for kicks as the kids like to say and when I say kids I mean adults who should know better. While racking up a huge long distance phone bill at somebody else's apartment Nico and his companion/possible love interest Francis discuss who their victim should be when a young telegram boy comes to the door. Telegram. Ha! Send a text message you cavemen! The messenger's name is Roy and he is invited into the swinging par-tay for a bite to eat by Nico. The next scene shows Roy calling his older brother Cliff complaining of a pain in his stomach until he finally collapses in death thanks to a burger laced with crushed glass that raptured his intestines. Wouldn't you know something was wrong after the first bite? Thinking they got away with an anonymous crime both of the thugs return to their too-cool-for-school lives like nothing happened. When Cliff hears the details about his brother's death he immediately suspects that he was murdered and begins his own investigation with the blessing of Detective McLeod who obviously has more important things to do. After checking Roy's last delivery list Cliff is brought to the apartment that the party took place at and the fact that it was Nico who was in charge there. While trying to infiltrate the world of these dolts he meets Ellie who pegs him for a square and wonders what his interest in Nico is. Once all the facts fall in to place it becomes apparent who was behind his brother's death. Cue the bongo solo.Thankfully this was only sixty-eight minutes long as I don't know how much of this I could have handled. I spent my formative years in the eighties so I can understand if someone today watched a movie that constantly used "gnarly" and "radical" and "totally tubular" over and over again would eventually become sickened with what was considered cool way back in the day. Just try to imagine your grandfather chain smoking with his goofy chin beard and waxing poetic about nuclear war while banging inharmoniously on the bongos. Not a pretty sight? Well then spare yourself the agony of watching this. I get my kicks above the waistline sunshine.

Spikeopath Poorly acted, poorly scripted, choppy edited, and poorly transfered onto DVD, this film barely gets above sedate pulse rate mode. The plot promises much, man takes investigation of murder into his own hands due to ineptitude of investigating detective, well that last line I wrote is about as good as the film gets !. It would be nice if the villain of the piece was actually villainous, but sadly Peter Falk as Nico just doesn't instill any sort of menace and worse still is that he is surrounded by cartoonish followers who act like they are in a Bugs Bunny cartoon instead of the beatnik classic some seem to think this is.There is no tension worth writing about, and the finale brings about cries of relief that it's over rather than the nod of approval I'm sure the makers were hoping for, I have no idea what the budget for the movie was, but if it was more than the price of a bacon sandwich then the makers should spend 52 weeks in the stocks whilst we throw rancid tomatoes at them.I give it a generous 2/10 for the delightful Jazz beat score and the brave attempt from Barbara Lord to act with any sort of honest dignity in amongst the swamp of pain.Pah.