Last Days Of Frankie The Fly
After the massive success of Pulp Fiction, a lot of film companies (usually indie outfits) started looking for their own kind of similar hit, leading to the greenlighting at the time of several offbeat, âquirkyâ crime films, which leads to this release from 1996, certainly a curiosity item from a certain standpoint due to the fact that few have ever heard of it despite having a pretty good cast (including Dennis Hopper, Kiefer Sutherland, Darryl Hannah, and Michael Madsen) who all get at least a moment or two to shine here even as the film is undone by a poor script, story, and execution. Hopper plays Frankie a.k.a. âFlyâ, a low level mob gofer working for the local boss (Madsen) and constantly picked on and humiliated because they all know heâs just a big ol pussy. One of Hopperâs jobs as an errand boy is to oversee Madsenâs warehouse porno film studio, where a manic NYU Film School grad (Sutherland) is forced to churn out one bad skin flick after another in order to pay off a massive gambling debt that he owes Madsen. While there Hopper finds himself falling in love with the top porn actress (Hannah) they have, who also happens to be a street prostitute trying to kick a heroin habit. One day Sutherland gets a hot tip on a racehorse, but since he is forbidden by Madsen to gamble, persuades Hopper to do it for him, which Hopper agrees to on one condition: that he be allowed to write a (non-porn) script for Hannah to star in using Madsenâs money and resources without his knowledge. Now, while all this sounds somewhat slightly whimsical, the direction by Peter Markle is unusually leaden, and is not helped by a lame soundtrack of b-side tracks by famous singers or the hackneyed dialogue in the script written by character actor Dayton Callie (who also co-stars as Madsenâs right hand man), which tries to sound tough but wouldnât pass muster on a film studentâs homage piece to Scorsese. It CAN be said that all four leads do get a little something to work with that they make their own: Hopper shows his range playing a timid, meek sort after some of the real psychos heâs played, and a little rant he has against a careless valet attendant is pretty interesting; Sutherland plays WAY against type as a pretentious, over the top filmmaker that is an 180 degree turnaround from the cold, taciturn Jack Bauer, and has some pretty funny lines as a result; Hannah shows that despite being a 6 foot tall, gorgeous blonde, she can still play sweet and vulnerable with the best of them; and Madsen plays his crime boss as a sadistic monster not far removed from Mr. Blonde, with the scene where he takes his revenge on the threesome being particularly creepy. Eventually the story takes a turn where, after raping Hannah and maiming Sutherland, Madsen takes it easy on Hopper and actually seems to show a little compassion for him, but instead instills in Hopper an obsession to not only kill Madsen, but to film himself doing it, setting up the sloppy finale, which takes a LOT of liberties concerning Madsen having absolutely no fear of Hopper and walking into an obvious setup, thinking the whole while that Hopper wonât have the balls to carry it out. And then thereâs the disastrous âtwistâ ending, which not only comes out of left field with no foreshadowing of any kind, but actually leaves more questions unanswered than not. Overall, while not to be mistaken for a good film, one which should be seen by any fans of its four main stars at least onceâŚ
5/10