I honestly don't remember ever seeing Dennis Hopper act BADLY in anything. Until now. This was the worst performance I've ever seen from him, and I think part of the problem is he was simply miscast for the part. Hopper was just stiff and it looked like he was acting. And the guy who was playing the "evil hired
warlock" couldn't keep a steady accent for two sentences. He went between really bad Germanic to really bad English/Irish with annoying irregularity.
It's supposed to be a spoofy-noir PI flick about a dead Hollywood producer with the obligatory starlet wife/suspect/client for the PI. It also has a McCarthy Clone senator having public hearings, subpoenaing people to out their friends and colleagues who are "practitioners", and attempted public witch burning.
And just to get obnoxiously nitpicky, I found it very annoying that they had a Vodun priestess leading a Wicca-esque coven in a classic circle with absolutely no semblance of accurate ritual. Really, it's not like you can't go down to the local bookstore and look up how to at least fake a circle ritual.
July 21, 2008
