Pluskylang Great Film overall

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Scott LeBrun Director Katt Shea deserves a lot of credit for "Streets", a gritty, honest, heartfelt little movie that serves as more than mere exploitation, creating a hard hitting portrayal of runaway youth in Venice, California, personalizing the story by focusing on Dawn, played by TV star Christina Applegate in a wonderful, tour-de-force performance. Dawn is a heroin addicted, teenage prostitute attacked by a john, and who forms a friendship with a kid named Sy (David Mendenhall) who distracted the cop long enough for her to get away. The budding relationship between Dawn and Sy forms a solid basis for the rest of the movie, written by Shea and producer Andy Ruben, which devastatingly illustrates the kind of hard scrabble existence led by people like Dawn. Applegate delivers a performance that is alternately tough, feisty, sympathetic, kind, and vulnerable - but, most of all, it's believable. Mendenhall also does well as the nice guy who is new to the life being lived by Dawn and her contemporaries, who can't really identify with them as he is definitely not of their world. Enjoyable contributions are also made by Patrick Richwood as Bob, Aron Eisenberg as Roach, Mel Castelo as "Elf", and Alan Stock as Allen. This coming from Concorde, it's still exploitative enough for those watching who expect a certain degree of trash. Applegate does bare her breasts for a scene, but this particular scene is played for romance rather than just sex. And the ongoing subplot with the deranged john, a motorcycle cop named Lumley (played with convincing intensity by Eb Lottimer), is standard enough stuff, although the viewer may be taken aback by Lumley's home made weapon that metes out brutal punishment. The music score by Aaron Davis is supremely effective, as is the beautiful and haunting composition "Dawn's Theme" sung by Elizabeth "E.G." Daily. The use of the locations is excellent, and in general this is quite well made and stylish. Although mostly played (very) seriously, it's not without its humorous moments. Cameos are made by ladies who'd previously starred for director Shea: Kay Lenz ("Stripped to Kill") and Starr Andreeff ("Dance of the Damned"). This is genuinely potent stuff, right up to its riveting ending, and worth watching, both for Applegate fans interested in seeing her show off her dramatic chops earlier in her career and for exploitation film aficionados. It's too good to miss. Eight out of 10.

Woodyanders From the makers of the phenomenal, trend-setting "psycho murders peel artists" milestone "Stripped to Kill" and the outstanding offbeat existential vampire horror knockout "Dance of the Damned" comes this grim, tough, unflinchingly realistic down'n'dirty exploitation thriller about young, strung-out, totally on her own illiterate Venice Beach, Los Angeles prostitute Dawn (a strong, unglamorous, very endearing and somewhat startling performance by Christina Applegate; Kelly Bundy on "Married ... With Children"), a fiercely self-reliant teenager who turns tricks in order to eke out a meager existence and support her heroin habit. Dawn has a near-fatal run-in with brutish, sadomasochistic sleazy teen hooker killing cop Lumley (a cogent, creepy, live-wire portrayal of frighteningly deep-seated seething psychosis by Ed Lottimer), who relentlessly stalks Dawn and savagely picks off her scruffy homeless street people pals throughout the rest of the movie. David Mendenhall offers a solid and likable turn as the naive, slumming rich kid who develops a crush on Dawn and gets caught up in her tawdry and thankless day-to-day lifestyle."Streets" is something of a surprise: it's a gritty, gutsy little B picture (Roger Corman gets credited as the executive producer) that successfully manages to relate a compact, seamy, highly credible slasher narrative while simultaneously delivering a rich and vivid exploration of how unemployed folks at the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder somehow manage to barely squeak by and how people with real power and authority in our society can get away with cruelly preying on those hapless and helpless individuals whose utter powerlessness and political vulnerability make them easy targets for constant victimization. Katt Shea Ruben's sturdy, no-nonsense, unsentimental direction (Ruben also co-wrote the rough-edged, pungently insightful script), the garishly lit, evocative cinematography, a brooding melancholy score (the sad, haunting ballad that's beautifully sung by Elizabeth Daily which plays on the soundtrack during the opening and end credits is especially poignant and effective), the top-notch acting (besides the three excellent leads, both Kay Lenz and Starr Andreeff have nice cameos as lady police officers), an authentically grungy depiction of L.A.'s desolate beach-side milieu, and the uncompromisingly downbeat ending all give this shamefully overlooked and underrated scrappy gem a potent scroungy verisimilitude that's extremely compelling and powerful. A real sleeper.

macgill3-1 I had always wanted to see a film about the crazy homeless people in Venice, CA and now I have! This film is very entertaining on many levels. What if the cops in Los Angeles really are this insane?! Streets has a great cast: a young Christina Applegate peppered with a nice spread of unforgettable character actors such as Aron Eisenberg (deep space nine fans) and Patrick Richwood.The acting by Christina Applegate is fantastic (though the acting by most everyone in this film is quite good!)- she's so young here but already you can see how natural her acting is! The direction by Katt Shea is superb. There are many shots in here seldom performed by directors well- but she does them all flawlessly! The blood and gore does not appear phony which is surprising since this film didn't have a gigantic budget. Above all the script of Streets is very well done. The characters are well developed and the dialogue is believable. It doesn't end with a cheerfully happy end either- it goes a more realistic route which I appreciated. Streets is very violent and suspenseful it will leave you shaken and on the edge of your seat!! SEE IT! Why is this not available on DVD yet?!!

xeno47-2 Christina Applegate stars as, Dawn, a heroine-addicted teen-prostitute fighting for survival on the streets of Venice, whose narrow escape from a psychotic cop (Ed Lottimer) armed with an explosive home-made gun and bent on raping and slaughtering runaways, initiates a bloody pursuit through the hardened world of homeless teens.After thwarting her attempted rape and murder, Dawn befriends Sy (David Mendenhall), a naive middle-class teen runaway and aspiring musician, who's chosen a temporary life on the streets for seemingly artistic inspiration. Dawn takes Sy under her wing and gives him a guided tour of her world, along the way their friendship of mutual dependence blossoms into youthful love.Dawn introduces Sy to an interesting array of characters. Most notably Bob (Patrick Richwood) a heroine dealer and eccentric metaphysical philosopher obsessed with the palindromic nature of his own name and its relation to his existence. Also look for a pre-Nog Aron Eisenberg for those Deep Space 9 fans, and 2nd Unit photography by Janusz Kaminski."Streets" is a compelling look at the lives of the forgotten and abandon children forced into early adulthood combined competently with gripping psycho-killer action. The violence is superb Corman-esquire exploitation with a nice amount of gore, mostly due to the killer's use of a special gun capable of blasting material into oblivion. However one of the more violent executions is entirely off screen accompanied by a descriptively muffled bang.The performances are convincing and Katt Shea's direction is outstanding. There are many inventive sequences that utilize techniques that are often misused by others. There is a first-rate use of off screen sound and dialogue, especially Bob's rants, plus a gorgeous temporal ellipsis that brings the audience from one time to the next within the same space. When watching this I was struck how the image of the motorcycle cop hunting down the innocence of a child is something that we've assigned almost icon status to the villain in Terminator 2, however this film demonstrated that same notion of a symbol of protection and justice twisted into the complete opposite -and a couple years before James Cameron's version.This film is so underrated… why is it not on DVD???