Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

moonspinner55 Muddled, episodic rendering of Benjamin Stein's book "Ludes" stars James Woods as a tax shelters salesman from New York City who is brought to Hollywood along with wife Sean Young by a wealthy business contact; soon, the couple are spending lavishly and doing coke-lines on the coffee table. Cheap-looking, poorly-edited film rests almost entirely on Woods' performance to carry it...but he fails to give his hyperactive nebbish-turned-jet-setter the proper nuances (to say the least). Supporting cast (including Amanda Blake, Grace Zabriskie, and Steven Hill in a lovely turn as James' sympathetic boss and benefactor) easily out-acts the mannered leads. *1/2 from ****

Robert J. Maxwell An interesting movie, particularly if you enjoy seeing someone suffer even more than you.The tale is a familiar one. Ambitious salesman has devoted wife whom he loves. He gets into making money -- big money. Mercedes, a modest multi-million dollar house in a fashionable section of Los Angeles. Magnums of rare champagne at fancy restaurants. Half a million non-refundable dollars invested in real estate in Cabo, where they serve, in Sybaritic establishments, elegantly prepared and formally presented authentic Mexican dishes made entirely of ingredients from cans of Rosarita products.But the sales business hits a bump. Not a bottomless pit, just a kind of tombe. Down in the dumps, the salesman takes some cocaine to get a temporary boost. His wife advises him devotedly, "Why don't we get out of here? Can we just stay home and talk?" But his career continues to drop erratically downward into debt and degradation. He talks his devoted wife into trying cocaine. (She stares at the apparatus and asks, "Is that what I think it is?") Pretty soon they're doing several lines a day. He begins to slap her around, though she's pregnant now. (One guess at the fate of the fetus.) He spazzes out on some bad street s***. He humiliates himself in a public place. When he spills his coke on the floor he throws himself on his knees and begins sniffing furiously at the shag like a coyote in a garbage dump. They find a dead body on their doorstep. Their dog runs away. That kind of thing. I forget the end, but I suppose there was an epiphany. Something along the lines of "Money Doesn't Mean Everything," or, "Just say no to drugs," or both.In order to fully appreciate this film you have to perform a thought experiment. Think of the salesman, James Woods, the hypomanic, speech-pressured human-perpetual-motion machine. Got the image? Good. Now imagine James Woods on coke.If you've seen "Days of Wine and Roses" you've got a good idea of what this one is like, a kind of "Days of Coke and Roses." Did Ben Stein really write this thing? Did Darryl Poinicsan do the screenplay? Not that it's insultingly bad. It's just that it's so thoroughly pedestrian. Years ago, before anyone knew anything about drugs, I kept running into plants in Pago Pago that people said were magic "koka". I collected an armload of leaves, made an infusion of them, and applied the stuff to open sores and sometimes asked people to drink it. Nobody's pain went away and nobody got high, although I had my notebook at the ready. As I was told later, they weren't coca plants but cocoa plants. Humped by a single whimsical orthomeme and a complete ignorance of cultigens.

sol Modest little movie that went almost unnoticed when released in 1988, it took in just under 1 million dollars in total ticket sales. The movie "The Boost" is about as powerful in it's message about the destructive nature of drugs, legal and illegal, as the film "Days of Wine and Roses" was some 25 years earlier about the evils of alcoholism. Down and out in New York City salesman Lenny Brown, James Woods, gets his big chance when real-estate tycoon Max Sherman, Steven Hill, takes notice of his innocent and boyish ability to charm people, that Max's associates didn't. Giving Lenny him a chance to show his stuff Max gives him a top job as a salesman for his firm back on the west coast. Lenny and his wife Linda, Sean Young, leave for L.A with a home and swimming pool a leased luxury Mercedes and high paying job there waiting for them. Lenny is easily up to the task in getting clients to buy Max's real-estate and within a year has worked himself up to become the most productive salesman in the real-estate business in L.A. It's then that things begin to go sour and Lenny just isn't up to the task of facing and dealing with them.Making most of his sales due to tax shelters and right off the US Congress unexpectedly votes to close them putting the real-estate market into a tailspin as well as everyone, like Max & Lenny,behind the eight ball and in the red. Lenny for his part wasn't that economical with his money and not only spent it as fast as he earned it he also went hundred of thousands of dollars in debt expecting his future sales in real-estate to eventually pay them off. Broke out of a job and with no money to pay off his bills Lenny, as well as Linda, turn to the only thing that can make them forget their problems cocaine.Gripping and disturbing film that doesn't have an happy ending with Lenny Brown blowing his whole life, and wife, away as he blows and gulps himself into oblivion on lines of coke and bottles of Quaaludes.Top-notch performances by both James Woods and Sean Young as a young yuppie couple who get caught up with the wild and depressing times of the high flying and spending 1980's and crash from it's excesses in both money and personal, as well as private, entertainment. The movie ends with Lenny now totally hooked, and wiped out, on drugs talking to Ned, John Rothman,a NY Times reporter that he first met at the beginning of the film in New York City. Spilling his guts out in what looks more like an opium den then a one room apartment Lenny could only hope that Ned would write his story and have it published in the Times. His sad plight may very well help future Lenny's and Linda's from sharing the same fate.P.S the film "The Boost" had actress Amanda Blake, who played Kitty on the 1950's & 60's TV Western "Gunsmoke", as Barbara in it as a washed up former showgirl and madam who, like Lenny, threw her life career and savings away by getting addicted to drugs. It turned out to be Amanda's last appearance as an actress on TV or in the movies as she died less then a year, on August 16, 1989, after the film was released.

MarieGabrielle While today this movie may seem a bit dated, and yes, it is a little over the top, with a thin story line, the message is important.James Woods is excellent, always assimilates the character he is portraying (I was reminded of his film "The Story of Bill W.", about the origins of Alcoholics Anonymous). Sean Young is also good, looks lovely, and portrays the put upon wife who ends up saving herself.The business deals, and his rapid rise and fall are probably exaggerated, but the audience sees a former success "hitting bottom", which for some substance abusers, can take either a year, or a decade. The fact that Woods portrays an "äverage guy" who is just trying to get ahead, is realistic; he doesn't plan to live in a seedy apartment near Hollywood Boulevard; it is a long way from NY , or Wilshire Boulevard.Some cameos are also excellent; Steven Hill is Woods' mentor, starting him on the fast track, Grace Zabriskie portrays an eccentric neighbor; John Kapelos plays the former "friend" from Woods' halcyon days.Initially this movie was panned mercilessly; I find that over the years certain movies resonate the time period they depict, and while this was not a blockbuster film, like Oliver Stone's "Wall Street", (which was released the year before) it at least has a message, and several decent performances which deserve credit.