The Films of Abel Ferrara

9 Lives of a Wet Pussy

The Driller Killer

Ms. 45

Fear City

The Gladiator

Crime Story

China Girl

Cat Chaser

King of New York

Bad Lieutenant

Body Snatchers

Dangerous Game (May 26/05)

There's nothing really worth recommending about Dangerous Game and the now-notorious film is just about as awful as one might've expected. Directed by notorious crackpot filmmaker Abel Ferrara and starring Madonna (!), Dangerous Game features a movie-within-a-movie that revolves around a sleazy married couple whose marriage is falling apart. Director Eddie Israel (Harvey Keitel) is going for a gritty, realistic vibe and pushes his actors - Francis Burns (James Russo) and Sarah Jennings (Madonna) - farther than they're willing to go. The majority of Dangerous Game is devoted to arguments between the various characters, a routine that quickly becomes awfully tedious. This is despite a better-than-expected performance from Madonna (hard to believe, but she doesn't suck here), though Russo goes over-the-top early and often. Ferrara's refusal to give us a reason to care about any of these characters ultimately sinks the film and, worse yet, turns it into an uncommonly interminable experience.

out of

The Addiction

The Funeral

The Blackout

New Rose Hotel

'R Xmas

Mary

Go Go Tales

Chelsea on the Rocks

Napoli, Napoli, Napoli

Mulberry St.

4:44: Last Day on Earth (February 4/13)

Though it begins with some promise, 4:44: Last Day on Earth quickly devolves into an absolutely endless piece of work that's rife with laughably avant-garde elements and underdeveloped, one-dimensional characters. The thin narrative follows bohemian couple Cisco (Willem Dafoe) and Skye (Shanyn Leigh) as they prepare for the literal end of the world, with the deteriorating ozone layer scheduled to incinerate the planet at exactly 4:44 A.M. It's an almost inherently engrossing premise that is, at the outset, employed to compelling effect by writer/director Abel Ferrara, as the filmmaker, in sharp contrast to most similarly-themed efforts, doesn't shy away from explaining just why this calamitous event is occurring - which, in turn, lends the proceedings a frighteningly plausible feel that is, unfortunately, all-too-short-lived. The movie's staggeringly deliberate pace holds the viewer at arm's length to an increasingly problematic degree, with the less-than-engrossing atmosphere compounded by Ferrara's ongoing emphasis on aggressively pointless elements (eg the consistent incorporation of incongruous stock footage into the proceedings). And although Ferrara has peppered the film with a few compelling moments - eg an anchorman signs off for the last time - 4:44: Last Day on Earth suffers from a progressively uneventful feel that prevents the viewer from working up an ounce of interest in or sympathy for the protagonists' meandering exploits. By the time the underwhelming and eye-rollingly pretentious final stretch rolls around, 4:44: Last Day on Earth has definitively established itself as a hopeless waste of time that squanders both its setup and Dafoe's typically intense performance - with Ferrara's relentlessly misguided choices transforming the movie into an interminable cinematic endurance test.

no stars out of