Richard Kooris Movies
Just how far will some guys go to pay off a debt? Frank (Jason Lee) and Eddie (Crispin Glover) are a pair of inept would-be wise guys trying to scare up enough money to get out of the small Texas town they call home. They think their ship may have come in when Spider (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a local crime boss, offers them a big payday to drive a truck full of bootlegged cigarettes into Mexico. Frank and Eddie jump at the chance, but soon discover they're been made patsies in a scam when the truck turns out to have been booby-trapped, and by the end of the day they owe Spider a quarter-million dollars. Desperate to raise the cash, Eddie, a part-time gravedigger, hears that an exotic dancer with a rich sugar daddy has recently died, and was buried wearing a valuable diamond necklace. Frank and Eddie then hatch an elaborate scheme to exhume the stripper, swipe the necklace, and hold her remains for ransom. Drop Dead Sexy was the first directorial credit for writer and producer Michael Philip. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Crispin Glover, Jason Lee, (more)
Over ten years after making the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper returns to his deranged family of reclusive cannibals for another round of chainsaw chases and non-stop screaming. Hooper brings a real budget this time (having recently directed Poltergeist for Steven Spielberg) and the talents of veteran make-up artist Tom Savini. This means he can make things bigger, louder, and gorier than ever before -- and they are. He also brings a wacky, self-deprecating sense of humor, as if deliberately flaunting Texas Chainsaw Massacre's status as one of the first and still greatest "splatter" movies. The result is an impish take-off on the original film (and contemporary horror movies in general) that elevates its own clichés -- buckets of blood and gore, droll dialogue, the screaming female lead -- to the level of high camp. The movie is loosely concerned with a small-town disc jockey named "Stretch" (Caroline Williams, who does most of the screaming) and an embittered Texas Ranger named "Lefty" (Dennis Hopper). They team up and decide to put an end to the murderous activities of the Sawyer family once and for all (that is, of course, until Texas Chainsaw Massacre III). The real highlight of the film is when Stretch and Lefty find their way into the Sawyer family hideout -- a ruinous, winding abattoir underneath an abandoned amusement park -- and engage in a chainsaw-battle-to-the-death with Leatherface (Bill Johnson) and the rest of the clan. Jim Siedow is back from the first film as the acerbic Drayton Sawyer, the family cook and owner of the Last Roundup Rolling Grill. Chop-Top (Bill Moseley) and Leatherface do most of the movie's dirty work. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, (more)
