Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Perfect cast and a good story

Boring

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Raymond Lembecke (Vincent Gallo) just got out of prison. His girlfriend is Addy Monroe (Kim Dickens). Curtis Freley (Kiefer Sutherland) is a psychopath. Together with Marcus Weans (Mykelti Williamson), the four rob a drug dealer of his drugs. The problem is that a cop was working undercover there, and everybody was killed. Now on the run, they carjack an RV with a couple on board (Kevin Pollak, Grace Phillips).This is a Kiefer's first time directing effort for a full length film. It has it's moments but there isn't anything special and it doesn't flow. The story jerks from one thing to another. Some of it doesn't really make sense. For example when they leave the RV and take the pickup, they left the pickup driver and kept the RV couple. They must know that if they leave the pickup driver, the cops would zero in on the pickup immediately. This was stupid and added nothing to the story. Kiefer should have stayed with the RV in the story.

If you've ever seen the movie Reservoir Dogs, try and imagine what it would have been like if it had been written and directed by Chuck Norris. That will give you an inkling of what a colossal cornucopia of crap this film is.The movie opens with Ray (Vincent Gallo) getting out of prison, though the moment is treated like he's a star high school athlete on the final day of his senior year. Ray hooks up with his girlfriend Addy (Kim Dickens) and then it's suddenly 8 months later and Ray and Addy have joined with two other guys to try and rob the local drug dealer. Curtis (Kiefer Sutherland) is a kill-crazy half-wit and Marcus (Mykelti Williamson) is a black guy with an inexplicable ghetto accent. It sounds like 30% ebonics, 30% Jamaican and 60% speech impediment.The drug robbery goes wrong and Ray and company go on the run, kidnapping a couple named Gordon and Donna (Kevin Pollak and Grace Philips) and hijacking their RV. Rather than act like hostage and hostage-taker, everybody behaves like they're long lost cousins meeting again for a family reunion. Defying all reason and common sense, Ray and company keep dragging Gordon and Donna along with them as the criminals try and sell their stolen drugs and get out of the country before the cops and the criminals the drugs belonged to track them down. The movie then spirals into a pit of idiotic plotting, cheesy drama and unintentionally comic violence that would have fit perfectly into any random episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.In the nigh endless litany of things wrong with Truth or Consequences, N.M., I have to start with the acting. Vincent Gallo is worthless. He has no screen presence and doesn't give an ounce of conviction to any line of dialog he recites. It's like he flunked out of the Quentin Tarantino School of Acting. He's also the least physically attractive guy in the whole cast, whether measured hetero- or homosexually. I've already mentioned Mykelti Williamson's bizarre accent. Most of Kiefer Sutherland's acting in this film is done by his hairdo, though he does let out a Jack Bauer growl on occasion. Martin Sheen plays a mob hit-man and has given better performances doing voiceovers for car commercials. There's not one single second when Kevin Pollak seems like a real person in this story. He could have been replaced by a muppet and not one of the good muppets, like Fozzie Bear. I mean Beaker or Scooter.As for the writing…well, I'm sure almost all of the words in the script were in the correct order and were accurately punctuated. It's a fiasco on every other level. None of the things that happen in this movie follow any logic except the dictates of the Almighty Plot Hammer. Characters are introduced out of nowhere. Important plot elements are mentioned 30 seconds before coming into play in the story. Foreshadowing is introduced and then abandoned. One cliché after another is piled up like a Pike's Peak of vapid screen writing. I don't think there's one well written instant in the entire movie.Sutherland's direction is vaguely adequate. Nothing looks really bad but nothing looks really good. You certainly wouldn't ever hire him to direct another film because of his work here, though you wouldn't automatically disregard him because of it either.Truth or Consequences, N.M. is just plain dreadful. Avoid it.

"Truth or Consequences N.M." is a sloppy drama about a petty crook and his girl, a half-psycho killer, an undercover DEA agent, and an abducted ordinary couple traveling together with a bunch of drugs and cops and the mob on their tail. In spite of a good cast, this B-movie is just more of the same old stuff we've all seen many times before with nothing to distinguish itself. Full of plot holes, continuity goofs, abjectly ordinary action, etc. this is one for the late night couch potato only. (C)

This movie doesn't bring anything new. The same get-away after a failed robbery, the same police-and-mafia-follow-guys, the same undercover cop, the same ending scene with everyone shooting everyone. The good thing about it is that it has its moments. The dialogue is not bad at all, and the actors, especially Sutherland and Gallo, are very good. But add that to a strange deja-vu feeling you get throughout the whole movie and you got the picture. Doesn't deserve more than 5 out of 10.