All the actors gave fine performances. The editing was a little too tight for my taste, some of the deleted scenes should have been included, it would have added to the film's foundation of story and characters. The flick only runs 94 minutes, so what's a few extra minutes?
The reason I am torn about this flick is that it starts out well, but looses all reality when we find out about "Billy number 2" and how Campbell (Jason Behr) meets him! Maybe I am getting jaded in my old years (I just turned 26 years old last week). I just can't believe anyone would fall for that. Well, I don't want to give anything about the story away so I guess I'll stop here.
My friend who watched it with me liked it. He thought the main character, Campbell, had a more quiet presence due to his rejection by his father and losing his first true love. Kinda like being hurt and walking wounded and quiet all the time.
The film also has a commentary with the director, Victor Salva and Jason Behr, deleted scenes, etc. I think I am going to have to start watching Roswell too, Jason Behr is a cutie!
A word on packaging of this DVD. I guess that this film bombed at the box office and then went to DVD twice via clever marketing!
I bought this DVD for about $13 from buy.com by using lots of their coupons and free shipping offers. I guess that I got the first packaging attempt from Bell Canyon Entertainment who first marketed this flick as "A terrifying new thriller...to spend a weekend in hell" with a picture of the father and the older guy from prison on the cover.
I guess this did not work nor sell many DVDs.
The DVD is now marketed by Wolfe Video and the cover now shows Jason Behr hugging his lover. ( This is the picture in the TLA catalog.) I guess Wolfe is trying to play up the gay angle instead of the "terrifying thriller" angle that Bell Canyon tried to use. If the straight folks won't buy this DVD, maybe we'll spiff up the packaging and hopefully the gay folks will"!
This flick is now being marketed directly to a gay audience now, even though in the directors commentary both the director and Jason Behr say that they tried to strip out the sexuality issue (gay/straight/whatever), that this flick is just about a person who loses the love of their life. Neuter does not work for me. I don't think the word "gay" is even said in the movie.
My friend is standing over my shoulders as I write this, so I am trying to give a balanced view, but this is not one of my favorites!
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