American Perfekt (1997)

Sadly Over-hyped

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

A road movie thriller with a good injection of black humour and loads of offbeat characters. The story has a lot of surprises in store, though the experienced viewer might have an inkling or two about several of them. I just like to go see where it goes, and with the terrific acting from the likes of Robert Forster, Amanda Plummer, David Thewlis and Fairuza Balk, this was a hell of a lot of fun.Cinematographically, one might say that it is not particularly beautiful or anything, but I love to watch an 'old' '90s DVD much better than loads of all that new digital crap (not to say that there aren't any good movies made anymore, no sir). For this one, we begin at leaving Los Angeles, but most of the characters are from there, in any case leading man psychiatrist Jake Nyman is - what a character; it's an atypical role for Forster to play, but he does a fantastic job!9 out of 10.

Fate is what this movie is about. You got a fine cast of actors in this movie, the results are really moderate. Amanda Plummer plays Saundra, a disillusioned pro who happens to have a fiasco with her car. A huge station wagon blocks her path when she leaves a diner, the driver turns out to be an entertain tries to give her back her lighter that half-works. Robert Forster plays Jake, a shrink who's kinda superstitious. He has a silver coin that seals his fate. David Thewlis plays Santini, a traveling performer with a shady past. All three go into a cheap motel where a murder later on takes places. Fairuza Balk plays Alice, a strung out woman who is searching for her sister, Saundra. When you get all into one place, the results are explosive. To me, this movie is rather common than exciting, though it's not boring, it just needs to get to understand the story better. 2 out of 5 stars

A bleak defeat for continuity. There is a car chase at the end of this movie - Paul Sorvino drives a police car. Any promise this movie may have shown up to this point DISAPPEARS as we notice Paul is driving TWO COMPLETELY different police cars from shot to shot. One police car has the "bar" style police lights across the roof. The other police car has five small police lights arranged in a V formation on the car roof. Sorvino turns the corner in one car, emerges onto the road in another. Over and over. It drove me crazy. Way to go, film crew. What a fantastic way to throw a year of your life and thousands of production dollars in the garbage.

Robert Forster is good as Jake, a psychiatrist who picks up a woman named Sandra, after her car is run off a desert road. Jake likes to make most of his decisions on the toss of a coin. The duo run into a confidence trickster named Santini, and that's when the fun and games begin. Jake soon hooks up with Sandra's sister Alice, who is supposed to meet Sandra in a diner. Jake then has a few surprises in store for Alice. The film isn't very long, and doesn't out stay its welcome. A blackly humourous road movie that is well worth seeing. The film clearly has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek.