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I am probably one of the few people that never saw this film in the 80′s and I was really looking forward to a drug-ridden, brat-pack, 80′s teen movie. What a disappointment.
Based on Brett Easton-Ellis’ novel of the same name, Less Than Zero tells the story of three highschool friends in Los Angeles, who desperately try to maintain their close friendship despite infidelity, failed financial ventures and excessive drug-taking. The characters have those typical 80′s teen-movie rich-kid names like Clay (Andrew McCarthy), Blair (Jami Gertz), Julian (Robert Downey Jr.) and Rip (James Spader). They drive beautiful cars, live in mansions with spotlessly clean swimming pools and are arrogant as hell.
Robert Downey Jr. basically plays himself, struggling with a crack-cocaine habit and getting himself into messy situations with slimy drug-dealer James Spader. Friends Clay and Blair fruitlessly try to help him, including nursing him through ‘cold turkey’ within one night which seemed a little unrealistic.
Andrew McCarthy was never a great actor, he just fitted his bland, preppie schoolboy roles in Pretty In Pink and Class perfectly. He is exactly the same in every role I have seen him in, which may explain his disappearance ino minor roles and B-movies in later years. His performance in Less Than Zero is wooden and the scenes with the even worse Jami Gertz will make you grimace as they monotonously spew out their lines over a muzak soundtrack. James Spader makes up for a lot, but cannot save the film from its ham-acting, superficial characters and unlikely details in the storyline.
It’s as if director Marek Kanievska is as immaturely arrogant as a filmmaker as the characters in his film are themselves.
**/5
suzero (90 posts)Suzanna Noort - TV/video director/editor and multimedia something. Amsterdam, Netherlands
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oh no! I remember loving this film. Does it really suck? I guess my movie viewing from over a decade ago is not to be trusted.
Comment by marisa — Tue August 19, 2003 @ 18:41Hmmm… I remember this movie interested me because of the soundtrack album. Slayer, Danzig, Public Enemy… not really muzak. Hazy Shade of Winter is my favorite Bangels song as well
Talk about 80′s…
Oh well, I was 14…
Comment by weefselkweekje — Wed August 20, 2003 @ 7:56Seems like I haven’t been exposed to real-life until the age of 15. Culture for me meant listening to the Miami Sound Machine … juck! … Ignorance is blissss. So in an attempt to recapture youth. Let’s watch this.
Comment by reisneus — Wed August 20, 2003 @ 12:34Miami Sound Machine! Oh I love them still! I have such a soft spot for Gloria Estefon! What a guilty pleasure…
Comment by marisa — Wed August 20, 2003 @ 15:42Yeah! At least it’s cheerful music. Not that mushy ‘I almost died, but picked myself up and now I’ve seen the light’ Mumbo Jumbo. Which is admirable of course, don’t get me wrong.
Comment by reisneus — Thu August 21, 2003 @ 10:12Slayer kicks @$$ !!! Awesome soundtrack
Comment by slayer_RULZ!!! — Thu February 16, 2006 @ 22:42just for correctness, i really have to concour on that highly deformed review … best case of a reviewer being fed up with too much films, drifting away from essences that are being provided by some movies … susan, you just sound like a frustrated-by-life, lonesome “seeker” … even though andy mcarthy was drifting into b movies, he was (especially in this movie) simply brilliant … it takes quite something to play a reserved yet being focussed on person … if one movie is really being deserved to be taken seriously, then it`s less than zero. honesty doesn`t always have to be over the top …
Comment by lozzer — Fri May 8, 2009 @ 21:28just for correctness, i really have to concour on that highly deformed review … best case of a reviewer being fed up with too much films, drifting away from essences that are being provided by some movies … suzana, you just sound like a frustrated-by-life, lonesome “seeker” … even though andy mcarthy was drifting into b movies, he was (especially in this movie) simply brilliant … it takes quite something to play a reserved, yet being focussed on person … if one movie is really being deserved to be taken seriously, then it`s less than zero. honesty doesn`t always have to be over the top …
Comment by lozzer — Fri May 8, 2009 @ 22:30