The film stars James McManus as Private Detective Lloyd Meadows, Ellen Goldwasser as Jane Danforth, Pablo Bryant as Peter Danforth, H.M. Wynant as J.W. McCreedy and Lee Holmes as Scott.
Never heard of this film and actually, it just sort of popped up on my Netflix list by mistake. I thought I ordered The Big Empty (2003). This film is an interesting take on Noir.
Lloyd (McManus) is a waiter at a diner somewhere in L.A. While shopping at a grocery store for motor oil he witnesses his friend Scott (Holmes), who once told him was going to do big things with his life drop dead. All he ever made it to was grocery store clerk.
Then and there as Lloyd watches the EMT's wheel Scott to meat wagon he figures that it was Karma that made him witness Scott's death and decides to change his life on the spot. He un-pins his "Hi my name is Lloyd" name tag from his polyester uniform and drops it on the sidewalk. We jump cut to him slipping a "Lloyd Meadows Private Detective" business card into his wallet. Hey it's Tinseltown. Its a riff on the old "go West young man/reinvent yourself" trope. Waiter to private dick. Hell what could go wrong?
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| Lloyd (James McManus) |
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| Jane (Ellen Goldwasser) |
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| Peter (Bryant) |
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| Scott (Lee Holmes) |
Noirsville
Its watchable and will click mostly for noir fans who will get the references. 7/10
More reviews from IMDb.
okay modern take on the classic film noir
pompaj7 August 2000
This is a movie that tries to be cliched. That's a little weird because most if not all movies try to be different. A lot don't get to be, but they try, and would certainly like to be. Not this one. Why would a movie want to be just like the same thing we've seen a hundred times before? To prove that it can be done better. Nicer shots, cooler characters, better scenery, and a stranger mystery. The Big Empty succeeds on some of these grounds. The shots are terrific and so is the scenery. But the rest of it is bizarre. The main character is a tiresome, beat up kind of guy and yet he's young. He never smiles and probably doesn't know the meaning of fun. The case he gets involved in starts out just like the classic cases of movies like Chinatown and then gets really weird. I think the point of this movie was to take classic formulas and see if they could vary them to such a degree that we would never expect it. The detective is usually a cool, tough talking, never smiling, experienced guy. Here he's tough talking and never smiling, but he is far from cool and completely inexperienced. So it's sort of a spoof on detective stories. A black comedy. On the grounds that it is creative it works. But the story is certainly not that good and overall it is just okay.
How a PI movie must be!
Jeroen Besseling23 February 2004
This movie is totally brilliant. Every aspect of a classic film noir is in it, humor, drama, strong characters. This movie makes you think, about yourself, about life and loneliness. If you are not open (like me the first time I watched this) you won't like this movie. If you want to see action, you won't like this movie. Although this is a low budget movie the acting is brilliant and the camera work is very refreshing, especially the car scenes!. This little gem needs a lot of attention but will give you the real film noir feeling!. But of course only when you are looking for the film noir feeling. This is a movie for fans of the genre, they will understand what this movie wants to tell and why this movie is refreshing and uses the film-noir formula in a whole different way!.
Maybe sappy at its core, but if you know that it is...
punishmentpark8 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I had high hopes for this indie film that has a certain amount of fame and acclaim in underground circles, and it certainly turned out to be worth a ride. It shows a good sense of writing and cinematography, but unfortunately, by variable acting performances and some scenes that just went on too long, it does not fully escape from the b-regions of film.
The dark matter that is much discussed between the characters is often intriguing, but goes adrift sometimes within the structure of the much used P.I. film noir. Finally, there's quite a few humorous remarks (of the darker, but sometimes also the very human kind) thrown in, but be alert: James McManus' deadpan delivery and the overall depressing tone of the film might make them hard to spot.
A big 6 out of 10 from this bench in this park.
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