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Steineded How sad is this?

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Leofwine_draca THE SALTON SEA is another drug-fuelled drama that explores the negative and devastating effects that drugs have on users, dealers, and the local community. I'm not really a fun of these types of drug-binge movies a la FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS so I wasn't really expecting much from this movie.I didn't get it. Unfortunately, THE SALTON SEA is more about drug use than it is about the law enforcement of the situation, even though there are a couple of DEA officers in it. Instead what we get is a permanently-stoned Val Kilmer wandering his way through a world of violence, degradation, and humiliation, interacting with various unpleasant characters.The characters are the best thing in this production. Vincent D'Onofrio's drug pusher is memorable thanks to his appearance alone. Doug Hutchison (THE GREEN MILE) is ever-creepy in support, even though he's playing one of the 'good' guys. There are cameos for R. Lee Ermey, Meat Loaf, and BD Wong. But the film lacks the right kind of substance, and feels plot less and meandering all the way through. I didn't care for it at all.

NateWatchesCoolMovies D.J. Caruso's The Salton Sea is like two great films for the price of one. On one hand you have elements of a zany, off the wall meth addiction screwball comedy (not unlike Jonas Ackerlund's Spun, which I will be reviewing as well). Those comedic elements are wrapped in a very tragic, violent and vengeful film noir, with a brooding, paced melancholy that chills the heart. Val Kilmer stars as Danny Parker, a scumbag tweaker who snitches out fellow addicts to two corrupt narcs (Doug Hutchison and Anthony Lapaglia, equal parts hilarious and scary). But he's also Tom Van Allen, a stoic trumpet player who has been driven to this life of unending nocturnal madness through bloody and unfortunate circumstance. I won't say any more than that or I'll spoil the plot. Kilmer plays both sides of the coin willingly, and in a way is perfect for both aspects of this character, as he has always had a flair for both mournful gravitas (The Saint, Batman) and hyperactive lunacy (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Willow). Vincent D'Onofrio almost steals the film away from him though, playing a deranged crank dealer named Pooh Bear, who I quote "snorted so much gack they had to chop his nose off". He is a plastic nosed monster with a bleached blonde cut and a chilling nasally whine that produces nightmares. Vancouver born Deborah Kara Unger gives a restrained performance as Danny's down on her luck neighbour. The supporting cast rocks it, with appearances from Meat Loaf, Luis Guzman, R. Lee Ermey, Peter Saarsgard, Adam Goldberg, Glenn Plummer and Danny Trejo. I've heard people whine about this film being style over substance. Well, when you have a style this distinct, a score this good, a color palette this gorgeous, so what if the visual and auditory aesthetic takes over a bit? It still has enough exposition and character motivation to surge forward with purpose. A very underrated, delightfully off kilter late 90's noir entry well worth watching.

punishmentpark I've seen this one quite a few times, and the whole melancholy 'thing' with Val Kilmer's character switching back and forth in time, with the fire and the trumpet and the confusion as to who he was, is and will be, has a real attractive quality to it, for lack of a better word. When his two personalities are both dead in the end, and yet a third one comes out hopeful in the end, it's simply one of those few original film noir endings that we're all hoping to discover every now and then.The rest of the cast is just spot on, too. Vincent D'Onofrio obviously put some work into the redneck crazy man Pooh-Bear, as did Peter Sarsgaard for the ever so sympathetic Jimmy the Finn, or Deborah Kara Unger to compose her believable woman-in-(double-)trouble Colette. I could go on mentioning pretty much the whole cast, but I'll stop at saying that there isn't a bad element here actor-wise... although some of those meth-heads are pretty over the top. The story is largely not wildly original, but has some interesting perspectives, okay twists and, as mentioned, the weaving in of Danny's past is wonderfully done.A big 8 out of 10.

Robert J. Maxwell Val Kilmer is pretty good as the junkie who rats on his dealers for the Los Angeles police. He's all punked up with spiky hair and a vast, gaudy tattoo of crimson and black across his shoulders. He wears dozens of silver rings. God, is he ugly. But he plays it well. When he's in danger he looks and acts genuinely scared, as you and I might do.His friends, juicers and dopers, are gotten up in much the same fashion and they sit around bejeweled and bedazzled and dream up schemes of robbing a hospital and rappelling down the central staircase with Bob Hope's fecal specimen to be sold for a fortune on eBay. I swear I'm not making that up. The writer, Tony Gayton, thought it up.Among the supporting players, Peter Sarsgaard and Vincent D'Onofrio are unforgettable. Sarsgaard is a relatively normal friend of Kilmer's. With his wide smile and soft eyes he seems like a love-struck groupie, but, man, he has demonstrated great range in other roles, like his villainous rapist in "Boys Don't Cry." He's truly talented.D'Onofrio has a juicier role. He's a rolling, pudgy big-time dope dealer named Pooh Bear who lives in a desert shack, wears a plastic nose in place of his real one, has beaten a man to death with an electric wheelchair, and eats brains for breakfast. He lumbers around, drawling and cackling. Everybody in this movie is bizarre but he gets the palm.The story is a bit complicated and the script lets us in on it by means of flashbacks, prudently used from time to time. Kilmer isn't the man he seems. By the movie's end, he's not even the man he didn't seem to be.Betrayal follows betrayal. Most of it is handled delicately. There is hardly a moment when we're lost. But the structure is weak. How funny is the Kennedy assassination restaged for laughs? How many climaxes can a story have? Why does Kilmer fling his trumpet into the Salton Sea at the end? I wasn't lost. I was just stumped. But there's another feature of the film that ought to be mentioned, I guess. This is a low-down revenge movie at heart, dealing with shabbier characters than you would ever want to meet. It's filled with guns and occasional bouts of violence. Yet, except near the beginning, when director D. J. Caruso wants to give us an illustration of what the world looks like inside a dedicated doper's head, there is no directorial razzle dazzle. There's no slow motion. The camera doesn't wobble around in some post-ictal twilight state. Racking shots, zooms, and other tricks are largely absent. It must have been tempting for Caruso, as it would be for any young director, to call attention to his auctorial authority, but he restrains himself. Somebody should shake his hand.