The Hot Spot (1990)

This movie is just wonderful. The direction by Hopper is top shelf and the sound track, wow! Don Johnson is excellent (believe it or not!) as the cool guy, passing through town who later decides he can easily pull off a clever bank robbery in the face of this backwards, sleepy town. Only problem is, he can't help but get tangled up in the bizarre, twisted lives of some of the town's ladies. Virginia Madsen gives an incredibly sexy performance and Jennifer Connelly lights up the screen with her exotic beauty. I can't stress enough how well made this movie is and how damn terrific the sound track is, featuring some great blues artists and also Miles Davis (one of the last recordings he worked on I believe).

Please see this movie.

Fmovies: This film is great. The atmosphere, heat, casting, setting, plot, you name it. Everyone in the film is sweating up to the eyeballs, constantly mopping their brows, with stains all over their clothes, looking very hot and tense indeed. The seeds for a necessary release are sown! And sure enough, the pressure reaches boiling point and everything erupts. I don't want to give too much away, nor can I be bothered writing a proper commentary but this film is BLEAK in it's honesty with respect to it's (secondary/primary?) plot - all ideals are shattered: romance and (true?) love, freedom (whatever that really is) and so on. Some would call this a cynical work, I'll call it realistic - Sod's Law applies as heavily in the movie as it does in real life. Go on Dennis, more of this please!!

The audience for this film stayed away because of Don Johnson. In his defense, Johnson has been in a few very good films (Melanie, A Boy & His Dog), and he is very smooth and sleazy here. Fueled by a great sound-track, provided by John Lee Hooker, Miles Davis and Jack Nitzsche, this dirty edged noir evokes a Jim Thompson like feel, and is beautifully lit and shot. Dennis Hopper directed, and he did just fine. There is so little good noir in the last 30 plus years, that fans of the genre will want to see this. And if you get the chance to see it on the big screen, it is well worth it. In an era when no 'new noir' comes close to Polanski's Chinatown, this movie is way better than Body Heat or LA Confidential. It certainly looks better, and has a much rawer sensibility and texture.

The Hot Spot fmovies. Shot in and around Austin, Texas, brilliantly written and directed by Dennis Hopper and adapted from Thompson's book, Hell Hath No Fury, this is a movie buff's movie. It is probably the best performance by Don Thompson he will ever give. It's one of those movies that put everything together to achieve a "harmonic" that is very very rare. Why it didn't achieve notice and a clutch of awards is one of the mysteries of the film industry. Everything in the movie meshed perfectly, including a great score.

Dennis Hopper delivers the goods in this meticulously conventional tale of a charismatic underachiever finding his level. Harkening back to the gender and class warfare sensibilities of the Forties, The Hot Spot excels across the board, in acting, dialogue, plotting, music, and cinematography.

This movie has someone for everyone to like and almost everyone to hate. Between Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, and Jennifer Connelly, there's a romantic interest for both you and your sweetie. I've never lived in the South so I'm not sure you'd like the portrayals if you are from there, but even without the Southern setting, the deviousness and deceit are universal. After the first viewing, the plot twists may not surprise you anymore, but you'll appreciate even more how justice and irony come into play in deciding the fate of the players. Highly recommended.