You know when a movie is so fantastically bad that it’s incredibly fun/funny? This movie is like a John Waters’ wet dream.  I felt like renting a film starring James Franco after hearing about his current turn on General Hospital.I remembered seeing a commercial years ago for a Made for HBO movie starring Franco as a whore. So I Netflixed it expecting your run of the mill redemption story. That is how it starts out with his character returning from the army.

However it descends into wonderful camp. He & Brenda Blethyn (as his mother) overact all over the place while Men Suvari & Harry Dean Stanton (Big Love) are believable. It’s as if they are acting in 2 different movies. Some high/low points: Franco dressed as a cop in a scene out of an old porno that spirals into the old lady demanding to be fucked with his nightstick, the phrase “she’s had you selling cock since you were 12 years old” & a cameo by Nic Cage as “Acid Yellow”, a homosexual pimp. I also have no idea when the movie is supposed to be set. It was released in ’02, Suvari wears ’80s clothes & there is a date scene with 2 girls that is straight out of the ’50s.

When the credits roll on playing a techno version of Ring of Fire you aren’t the least bit surprised. Then you come to find out that it was in the words of the included trailer the “directorial debut of Nicolas Cage”. I think “from the twisted mind of Nic Cage” would have been more accurate. While I don’t turn down action packed Nic Cage vehicles, it makes you long for his older oddball work.

FYI: You also get to see Franco bare-assed.

BUY