That Was Pretty Fucked Up Right There

While spending the weekend with my parents--my dad's 85th birthday was Friday--I caught the movie "Deadfall" on TV. It's a bit hard to explain the movie. It's sort of James Bond/The Grifters/The Hustler/Red Rock West only not as good as any of them. Because it's hard to figure out exactly what the movie was trying to do, I have to judge it a failure. It was, however, an entertaining failure, as I kept wondering which major or minor Hollywood star would turn up in a role next and how far over the top he'd go. This is the cast, which you can measure for scenery chewing potential:

James Coburn (in a dual role)
Michael Biehn
Nicolas Cage
Peter Fonda
Charlie Sheen
Talia Shire

Chris Coppola directed the movie, and the connections most assuredly helped. (The cast contains several family members, like Cage and Shire.) I shouldn't (and won't) mock too much. Francis Ford Coppola started just as shakily, shooting the abysmal "Dementia 13" around Roger Corman, who was shooting his own film on the same location for most of the day. From what I understand, Chris shoots crime re-enactments for "America's Most Wanted" and continues to look for his big break. He hasn't got it yet, but if he should find it, I don't want anything nasty I say about him to bite me in the ass.