In spite of some charming dialogue and a cast of seasoned professionals, All-American Murder doesn't have quite enough style or panache to thrill much and the pacing lags a bit after the first murder. The final twist is genuinely surprising, but there's not a lot of suspense or thrills on the way to getting there. Christopher Walken seems like a surprising choice for a role like this in a film such as this, but he's one of the more entertaining aspects of the film.
21 Reviews
She was an American Girl
before she burned to shreds
Coventry4 July 2010
"All American Murder" is a fairly pleasant diversion in case you're looking for a light-headed horror/thriller and keep your expectations to an absolute minimum. I honestly don't see the point of harshly criticizing this modest little straight-to-video flick, since the makers themselves clearly never intended to deliver a groundbreaking masterpiece. The film has a good pacing, fresh faces, a couple of inventive murder sequences and – most importantly – another straight- faced performance from the tremendously awesome Christopher Walken who's still way cooler than any other major actor even if the script is inferior. Also, with a little bit of goodwill and imagination, you could state that "All American Murder" is some sort of tribute to the Italian Giallo of the late 60's and 70's. Most of the Giallo-essentials are well represented: luscious babes in peril, red herrings and far-fetched plot twists, sleazy supportive characters, black gloves and a grotesque denouement. Thanks to daddy's influence, the rebellious teenager Artie Logan is accepted at the respectable Fairfield campus for his absolute last chance at a proper education. He meets the impeccably perfect all- American girl Tally and really intends to make an effort, but then the poor girl is brutally killed when someone sets her entire body on fire. Due to his past and questionable reputation, Artie naturally becomes prime suspect #1, but the witty and seasoned police detective PJ Decker somewhat believes in his innocence and gives him 24 hours to prove it. During his search for the real culprit, Artie quickly discovers that behind Fairfield's prestigious reputation lies a network of perversion, blackmail and corruption. The first half hour of "All American Murder" can only be described as
very, very WRONG! Wrong 90's music, wrong teenage & adult stereotypes (the dominant father and his rebel son? Please!), wrong depiction of college differentiation and extremely wrong attempts at dry humor (Walken's hostage negotiation). The film gets better and even fairly compelling after that, with various murders and interesting enough plot twists. Some of the initial defaults remain throughout the movie, however. For some reason all characters, including the insignificant supportive ones, also insist on narrating jokes and anecdotes that are completely irrelevant to the plot. The acts of violence and sex also remain too brief and decent, but that's probably linked to the fact this is a low-budgeted video production. And Walken is too cool, period!
Shamelessly manipulative exploitation....
merklekranz5 August 2007
Starts out promising. Decent character development, and Walken's presence helps, but logic flies out the window early on and never returns. The two cops who believe Artie did it are extremely annoying. Pretty soon the predictable plot spins out of control with bodies piling up for no other reason than to twist the story and shamelessly manipulate the viewer. The ending will leave you with an empty feeling like you have been cheated. Nevertheless, like a pending train wreck, it is difficult to look away. I watched it to the end, but have seen many superior twist and turn exploitation movies. In summary, watchable but very average. - MERK
not half bad
oliverburnett11 November 2001
I saw this one because I am a big fan of Josie Bissett(Jane from Melrose Place) and I wanted to see her in a movie role so I went to the video store and was suprised that they had this. All-American Murder is pretty good. It's not fantastic but worth a look if your in the mood for a thriller.
Horrible movie - and i was an extra
jsmith475044928 September 2010
This was one of the worst movies I've ever seen... and i was in it! Most of it was filmed on the campus at Oklahoma State University, where i was attending college at the time. I'm in a few scenes, which for me personally, was the only cool thing about the movie. I'm one of the students that runs up and finds the burning body on campus, and I'm in a couple of other scenes.
It does have a decent entrance by Walken... very Walkenesque, and entertaining. He's really one of the only things that lifts this train wreck from the complete utter depths of horrible.
Other than that it was good to get to hang out with Mr Walken briefly, and Richard Kind was very cool and hung out with us all quit a bit, and even played golf with some of us one day. Josie Bissett...well let's just say she really didn't say two words to any of us, and leave it at that.
Got a sympathy 3 from me merely because Walken and Kind were in it, and provided some cheesy, campy, wth moments. Incredibly horrible directing... so much so, the director should have played it off as 'I meant for it to have this surreal sucking, b movie thriller quality. huh, huh.. i meant to do that.' Yeah right.
It does have a decent entrance by Walken... very Walkenesque, and entertaining. He's really one of the only things that lifts this train wreck from the complete utter depths of horrible.
Other than that it was good to get to hang out with Mr Walken briefly, and Richard Kind was very cool and hung out with us all quit a bit, and even played golf with some of us one day. Josie Bissett...well let's just say she really didn't say two words to any of us, and leave it at that.
Got a sympathy 3 from me merely because Walken and Kind were in it, and provided some cheesy, campy, wth moments. Incredibly horrible directing... so much so, the director should have played it off as 'I meant for it to have this surreal sucking, b movie thriller quality. huh, huh.. i meant to do that.' Yeah right.
Very good mystery.
gridoon13 March 2002
Warning: Spoilers
An excellent whodunit that keeps you alert from beginning to end. The only serious weakness is the occasionally too-artificially "smart" (or smart-alecky) dialogue, but the film offers a gripping, involving story AND a subtle message about (this could be considered a minor SPOILER) the consequences of perfectionism. Not many people saw it (or liked it), but I think most fans of mysteries would enjoy it immensely. (***)
Christopher Walken cashes another paycheck
susansweb19 August 2001
Christopher Walken: what was he doing in this movie? What was he saying? The only thing this movie succeeded in, besides making me lose faith in Anson "Potsie" Williams filmmaking career, was making me feel sleazy. Everybody in this movie looked too cleancut to be involved with all that sex and I don't think there was a "Blue Velvet" double meaning of looking beneath the surface either.
From Animal House To The Petting Zoo
dungeonstudio26 May 2022
As cheesy and '80's' as this movie comes off as, I think many miss the humour and satire that embodies it all. Think of putting Risky Business, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Halloween, and The Breakfast Club into a blender. The first part is all sweet and predictable. But when the murders start happening, and more is revealed as to the perverted backgrounds of the students to the dean and his wife, it gets pretty deep. Walken's nonchalant character seems un-phased by the goings on, and seems to be a 'Scared Straight' mentor to young Artie to get him to mature and fear for his life. All in all, it does come off as a Made For TV, 80's romp. Yet the dialog, characters, language, and deviant background is memorably far from 'wholesome'. It's a fun movie that will stick with the viewer long after I think.
Ouch, this is BAD.
the_teapot24 November 2007
This is one of the most unconvincing, most terribly directed movies I've watched in a long time. It's so unprofessionally done, it's almost like a student movie. The story has some potential, I admit it's not the most predictable plot line, and some actors are quite good in their roles (Walken & Schlatter have some good chemistry), but scenes which are supposed to be scary are so badly done they come across as hilarious. Some scenes are so out of place and so unconvincing you find yourself thinking it's going to be a dream scene and the character will wake up, but no, it's for real. Then you just can't believe it. Background music is terrible. Character motivation is dubious. Many people's actions simply don't make any sense. It's basically C-production.
Man, this one was for me
BandSAboutMovies6 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
You know, we probably don't need to sell Vinegar Syndrome to you, but let us sell Vinegar Syndrome to you, who rediscovered and re-released this early 90s direct to video hybrid of the slasher and giallo and the erotic thriller and made it look better than it had any right to be.
If you're like us, you only need to know one thing: it was directed by Anson "Potsie" Williams*. Which is more than enough strangeness to get this at least one watch. It was written by Barry Sandler, who has plenty of experience in writing detective-style movies, with two Agatha Christie adaptions (The Mirror Crack'd and Evil Under the Sun) and the neo-noir as well, with the Ken Russell film Crimes of Passion. Actually, that's pretty much a giallo too, what with women changing their identities, a vibrator used as a murder weapon and a synth score by Rick Wakeman.
Charlie Schlatter doesn't seem like a giallo hero, what with 18 Again! And Police Academy: Mission to Moscow on his resume. And at first in this movie, hiis character of Artie Logan is too much the jokester, a stranger in a strange land of a new college who has a reputation for going against authority; a rich man's son out to rebel against anything you got. He meets cute with Tally Fuller (Josie Bissett, no stranger to the scumtastic world of the Italian thriller thanks to her appearing in Lenzi's Hitcher in the Dark and equally scummy American direct to video slashers like Mikey), a cheerleader who has it all together and who seems like the kind of girl who can save him.
Here's the rug pull. On the night that should be their first date, she's murdered by a killer in a black trenchcoat armed with a blowtorch. And that killer is probably Artie, at least if the cops have anything to say.
And here's the second time that the movie switches gears, as detective P. J. Decker (Christopher Walken) just saunters in and takes over the movie, owning every single scene he's in, including one where he verbally harrangues a hostage taker until the man rushes out, only to be greeted by Decker's bullets. He gives a world weary performance here, a man who can't just sleep with an eighteen year old virgin who loves cops because he can't stop thinking about how his wife is now married to a cheesemonger who sends him a big wheel of the stuff every holiday, a man who his kids now call daddy.
You really need to see this scene with the hostage in danger inside a convenience store and Walken just rattling off lines like "I never forget a face...especially, if I've sat on it!" and "I thought jaws only moved that fast in water!" before starting to sing "Feelings." It's the kind of madness that makes me fall in love with a film, kind of like the minor moment made large when Don Rickles shows up in Dirty Work except that this is a drama.
Decker is that most rare of a giallo cop: one who knows what he's doing. And to do so, he gives Artie 24 hours to prove his innocence.
This is also a movie that knows to make things work, you need great actors even in the small parts, like Joanna Cassidy and Richard Kind. And to make this movie even more exciting, you get people killed by power drills to the head, via snakes and even by handgrenades, all broken up by reveals of illicit polaroids - of a teenager not under suspicion - and misdirection of who really is innocent, plus a scene of exposition told over laundry folding.
Also: a soundtrack that sounds like a combination of sitcom themes and the kind of weird funk that would play over a Dark Brothers scene. Sountrack songwriter Ted Mather wrote one of the songs in Berseker and Gary Griffin was in Gary and the Rippers on Full House and also wrote several pieces of music for that saccahrine show, which is very on brand for this very off brand movie.
*Ken Russell was originally going to direct this. I mean, if you can't get the visionary genius who made The Devils get the man who played a character whose nickname came from his love of clay. To be fair, Williams has had a pretty solid directing career.
If you're like us, you only need to know one thing: it was directed by Anson "Potsie" Williams*. Which is more than enough strangeness to get this at least one watch. It was written by Barry Sandler, who has plenty of experience in writing detective-style movies, with two Agatha Christie adaptions (The Mirror Crack'd and Evil Under the Sun) and the neo-noir as well, with the Ken Russell film Crimes of Passion. Actually, that's pretty much a giallo too, what with women changing their identities, a vibrator used as a murder weapon and a synth score by Rick Wakeman.
Charlie Schlatter doesn't seem like a giallo hero, what with 18 Again! And Police Academy: Mission to Moscow on his resume. And at first in this movie, hiis character of Artie Logan is too much the jokester, a stranger in a strange land of a new college who has a reputation for going against authority; a rich man's son out to rebel against anything you got. He meets cute with Tally Fuller (Josie Bissett, no stranger to the scumtastic world of the Italian thriller thanks to her appearing in Lenzi's Hitcher in the Dark and equally scummy American direct to video slashers like Mikey), a cheerleader who has it all together and who seems like the kind of girl who can save him.
Here's the rug pull. On the night that should be their first date, she's murdered by a killer in a black trenchcoat armed with a blowtorch. And that killer is probably Artie, at least if the cops have anything to say.
And here's the second time that the movie switches gears, as detective P. J. Decker (Christopher Walken) just saunters in and takes over the movie, owning every single scene he's in, including one where he verbally harrangues a hostage taker until the man rushes out, only to be greeted by Decker's bullets. He gives a world weary performance here, a man who can't just sleep with an eighteen year old virgin who loves cops because he can't stop thinking about how his wife is now married to a cheesemonger who sends him a big wheel of the stuff every holiday, a man who his kids now call daddy.
You really need to see this scene with the hostage in danger inside a convenience store and Walken just rattling off lines like "I never forget a face...especially, if I've sat on it!" and "I thought jaws only moved that fast in water!" before starting to sing "Feelings." It's the kind of madness that makes me fall in love with a film, kind of like the minor moment made large when Don Rickles shows up in Dirty Work except that this is a drama.
Decker is that most rare of a giallo cop: one who knows what he's doing. And to do so, he gives Artie 24 hours to prove his innocence.
This is also a movie that knows to make things work, you need great actors even in the small parts, like Joanna Cassidy and Richard Kind. And to make this movie even more exciting, you get people killed by power drills to the head, via snakes and even by handgrenades, all broken up by reveals of illicit polaroids - of a teenager not under suspicion - and misdirection of who really is innocent, plus a scene of exposition told over laundry folding.
Also: a soundtrack that sounds like a combination of sitcom themes and the kind of weird funk that would play over a Dark Brothers scene. Sountrack songwriter Ted Mather wrote one of the songs in Berseker and Gary Griffin was in Gary and the Rippers on Full House and also wrote several pieces of music for that saccahrine show, which is very on brand for this very off brand movie.
*Ken Russell was originally going to direct this. I mean, if you can't get the visionary genius who made The Devils get the man who played a character whose nickname came from his love of clay. To be fair, Williams has had a pretty solid directing career.
Bad everything.
g-hbe5 April 2020
Terrible. Bad acting from all cast members. Awful script packed with lines straight out of cheap noir detective novels. Bad direction and poverty-row production. We thought about giving up on it several times but a kind of morbid curiosity kept us watching. What makes it worse is that it can't decide whether it's some kind of dark comedy or a serious murder mystery/thriller, and it swings between the two. Then there's the scene which is so over-the-top it surely MUST be a dream but turns out to be real. Quite what Christopher Walken (who looked embarrassed throughout) was thinking of when he signed the contract for this is beyond me, perhaps he needed a pay-day. Be warned.
College can really burn you up
mtckoch26 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
All-American Murder seems to be your average college slasher/thriller, but it actually is quite entertaining. Sure, the plot is maze like, but that is what mysteries are. This managed to be dark without being suffocated, and sinister without being nasty. As I first watched this, the questions started. Why was the poor girl burned, instead of a quieter, less attention attracting death? Who hated the kid enough to frame him? How did all the blackmail, adultery, and depravity occur at a "good" college? All these were answered if not amazingly, at least well. Rather than leave us hanging, the suspense actually ramps to the climax. Which leads to my final point. The motivation of the killer actually makes sense, in a twisted way. Too many films like this seem to have someone kill for the thrill of it, and since this one doesn't, I give it serious applause. Also, the protagonist actually has some heart, always a plus. See this if you want a good, modern whodunit with a eighties- early nineties feel.
Walken Through a Murder Mystery
jamesdarwell15 August 2022
This isn't the kind of movie you expect to see Christopher Walken in, but he shows up and delivers a great, quirky performance. For a murder mystery, it's a little dry and can feel a bit like a TV movie, but all the actors are giving it their all.
Burn Baby Burn/Walken in his sleep
adambombnola8 April 2019
American Giallo
eibon0917 April 2001
All American Murder(1992) is an interesting murder mystery not because its a very good film but because it is one of the rare American film that uses many ideas from the Italian Giallo. The writer, Barry Sandler seemed to have a touch of Argentoitis when he did the screenplay. Reminds me in many ways of Four Flies on Grey Velvet(1971) in the sense that someone is playing a game of cat and mouse with the main hero. Combines the giallo with the slasher film, the rebel picture, the detective story, and the love story.
Christopher Walken lifts the film from being lousy to being entertaining. Uses elements from Agatha Christie and Ed McBain novels. Its obvious that All American Murder was influenced by the films of Dario Argento and Mario Bava especially in the use of a well deguised murderer as well as the motif of the deception of human nature that Bava showed in his films. The scene where Artie thinks he witnesses the murder of Tally reminds me of similar scenes from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage(1969) and Deep Red(1975).
Josie Bissett was good in the role of Tally Fuller but I wished that he played in a duel role similar to that of Marisa Mell in One on Top of the Other(1969). Another film that seems to influenced this is Brian De Palma's Body Double(1984). Has small portions of the sleeze, sex, and violence that the Italian Giallo is known for. Unfortunately, the film does not have any of the flamboyant camera movement, the explosive soundtrack, the surreal images nor the artful and stylize violence that makes Dario Argento a genius of horror pictures.
Christopher Walken lifts the film from being lousy to being entertaining. Uses elements from Agatha Christie and Ed McBain novels. Its obvious that All American Murder was influenced by the films of Dario Argento and Mario Bava especially in the use of a well deguised murderer as well as the motif of the deception of human nature that Bava showed in his films. The scene where Artie thinks he witnesses the murder of Tally reminds me of similar scenes from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage(1969) and Deep Red(1975).
Josie Bissett was good in the role of Tally Fuller but I wished that he played in a duel role similar to that of Marisa Mell in One on Top of the Other(1969). Another film that seems to influenced this is Brian De Palma's Body Double(1984). Has small portions of the sleeze, sex, and violence that the Italian Giallo is known for. Unfortunately, the film does not have any of the flamboyant camera movement, the explosive soundtrack, the surreal images nor the artful and stylize violence that makes Dario Argento a genius of horror pictures.
All-American Garbage.
vertigo_146 July 2004
Another movie with Christopher "There's a clause in my contract that says I have to be in at least one scene of every movie" Walken where he wastes his talent.
All-American Murder is a pretty pathetic movie, especially the ridiculous ending. I would compare it to 'Blue City,' the Alley Sheedy/Judd Nelson "thriller" about some fast talking cocky kid who wants to avenge his father's death. But, he never stops with his cocky, mouthing off, even in the face of a mafia and corrupt government officials. And his adversaries only react with stupid, empty threats. Where's the action? Where's the suspense?
Like it was in 'Blue City', the main character (Schlatter) and many of those around him react too unbelievably, given the situation they're in, making it one laughable, ridiculous movie.
The story centers on Schlatter, who plays a similar fast-talking, cocky kid, but a well-meaning one. A student a college, he tries to sweet talk one of the sorority girls into going out with him. But, unfortunately, he should've just settled for 'no,' because when he shows up one night, she bombs out of the building and burns to death. And since he was the only one around, he must be the culprit. Well, surely a misunderstanding such as this calls for ample chase scenes, as Schlatter tries to prove his innocence, especially with a cold cop breathing down his neck and giving him a deadline, basically, before he hauls him into jail, his patience wearing thin.
But, neither the killer's identity, nor the motives, nor the finale, are all that interesting, and the end is just plain stupid. At least if the rest of the movie were just simply mediocre (it is actually worse than that), than a strong ending might've saved it. But it didn't. Not at all.
I can see why Schlatter was in this movie. This is basically his schtick--the happy-go-lucky charming guy who tries to get the girl (see 18 Again!), and he's good at it, except this kind of story doesn't call for that kind of character throughout the whole movie. Everybody seems to be too passive in situations that require emergency, making the whole thing seem pretty stupid. Schlatter's good nature humor may've worked if there was anything really going on in the story. But there isn't. And of course, just because Christopher Walken is in a movie, doesn't make it a good movie. Here, he is a good actor in a bad movie.
If it's thrillers you're in the mood for, even cheap ones, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.
All-American Murder is a pretty pathetic movie, especially the ridiculous ending. I would compare it to 'Blue City,' the Alley Sheedy/Judd Nelson "thriller" about some fast talking cocky kid who wants to avenge his father's death. But, he never stops with his cocky, mouthing off, even in the face of a mafia and corrupt government officials. And his adversaries only react with stupid, empty threats. Where's the action? Where's the suspense?
Like it was in 'Blue City', the main character (Schlatter) and many of those around him react too unbelievably, given the situation they're in, making it one laughable, ridiculous movie.
The story centers on Schlatter, who plays a similar fast-talking, cocky kid, but a well-meaning one. A student a college, he tries to sweet talk one of the sorority girls into going out with him. But, unfortunately, he should've just settled for 'no,' because when he shows up one night, she bombs out of the building and burns to death. And since he was the only one around, he must be the culprit. Well, surely a misunderstanding such as this calls for ample chase scenes, as Schlatter tries to prove his innocence, especially with a cold cop breathing down his neck and giving him a deadline, basically, before he hauls him into jail, his patience wearing thin.
But, neither the killer's identity, nor the motives, nor the finale, are all that interesting, and the end is just plain stupid. At least if the rest of the movie were just simply mediocre (it is actually worse than that), than a strong ending might've saved it. But it didn't. Not at all.
I can see why Schlatter was in this movie. This is basically his schtick--the happy-go-lucky charming guy who tries to get the girl (see 18 Again!), and he's good at it, except this kind of story doesn't call for that kind of character throughout the whole movie. Everybody seems to be too passive in situations that require emergency, making the whole thing seem pretty stupid. Schlatter's good nature humor may've worked if there was anything really going on in the story. But there isn't. And of course, just because Christopher Walken is in a movie, doesn't make it a good movie. Here, he is a good actor in a bad movie.
If it's thrillers you're in the mood for, even cheap ones, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.
Every bad cliché is buried here
carlos-pires12 December 2021
This is not a movie. This is a shake: take every bad cliché you can find in murder-mistery-slasher movies, put them in a blender with a spoon of syrup, then watch it go as it liquifies into a goo: you're done. Managing to write such an outlandish and yet highly predictable script is a feat in itself. There should be an Oscar category for that.
I guess anyone who watched this only did so because of Christopher Walken, who just phones-in his lines: he knew this was a piece of crap, and was only in it for the money, as so many others have had to, and still do to this day (case in point: Bruce Willis).
Definitely not worth the effort. Not even for Walken.
I guess anyone who watched this only did so because of Christopher Walken, who just phones-in his lines: he knew this was a piece of crap, and was only in it for the money, as so many others have had to, and still do to this day (case in point: Bruce Willis).
Definitely not worth the effort. Not even for Walken.
All American original- thank you Potsie
videorama-759-8593916 January 2021
Here's a thriller which stands completely alone, with great casting and a great twist. And we have the charismatic and handsome rebel, Schlatter, who this time, receives a much higher education, he didn't want. One involving survival. The new kid at school, and falling head over heels for the most popular girl, hot Bissett, he soon becomes the prime suspect in her murder, her burning and charred remains at the campus's footsteps. Walken is fun as narcissistic detective , only one of 2, who believes Schlatter to be innocent, where soon, lone investigator Schlatter, becomes in over his head as acquaintances, like the hot Cassidy he beds, are taken out, so who is the killer. All American Murder is a really fun thriller and juicy entertainment, where an unclad Bissett, makes us see how sexy she really is., with our feasting vision. A couple of red herrings, not enough thrown in, AAM is a low key thriller, but it works, due to Schlatter's charismatic and enthusiastic performance, the film opening up, with such a weird amusing scene or more correctly WTF scene. Good music too, showing the 90's up, for what they were. Some nasty gore too
Good movie... Definitely NOT deserving the negative comments I've been reading here
adamgutterman21 June 2005
Listen, I've seen this movie a hundred times, showing it to friends and family as a lark. It's a hilarious buddy-movie/murder-mystery with witty, punny-yet-intelligent dialog ala Clue. No, there's nothing groundbreaking here, and the production values are what you would expect from something that, I believe, went straight to video. But why should that matter? This film is completely unpredictable, and has such classic lines as "The dean has knocked off more undergraduates than Kent State." (Hilarious, if you know some basic American history and get the double-ententre.) Most movies these days require that even simple verisimilitude fly out the window, so suspend disbelief, enter with no expectation, and enjoy. It'll keep you guessing, and laughing, until the very end.
Sure the movie is a little cheesey, but if you like Charlie Schlatter, you'll love it!
nicole-3811 September 2000
This movie is your typical, cheesey, college murder flick, but it's not THAT bad. It is a little predictable, still it was fun to watch in a humorous way. As an huge fan of Charlie Schlatter, it was great to see his early work and to see how he has grown as an actor. I give the movie as a whole a "C," but if you watch it for a laugh, or to see Schlatter, it could easily rate a "B+."
Interesting anti-Establishment feature
lor_8 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
My review was written in March 1992 after watching the movie on Prism video cassette.
Barry Sandler's quirky "All-American Murder" is an unusual fil debunking the American Dream within the format of a murder mystery. Picture is being aimed directly at the video market, bypassing theatrical exposure.
Sandler's scripts for the gay-themed "Making Love" and Ken Russell's "Crimes of Passion" are solid preparation for this very strange tale. Russell was set to direct it for Vestron in 989, but the project was canceled when that distributor's financial woes hit home, with former TV actor Anson Wiliams getting the helming assignment two years later.
Young Charlie Schlatter strs as the new kid in school, immediately seduced by the dean's wife (Joanna Cassidey). After the conquest she tells him: "Last month alone I knocked offmore undergraduates than Kent State", typical of Sandler's unrelenting black humor and fresh wit.
Schlatter gets a crush on beautiful blonde coed Josie Bissett, and when she's burned to death in a fire, he gets blamed. It seems that Schlatter has a history of pyromania, making him an excellent fall guy.
With weird, tongue-in cheek detective Chrisopher Walken assigned to the case, Schlatter is given a long leash to investigate himself. As a string of murders ensues Sandler injects effective red herrings (Schlatter's dad is a prominent judge, while Bissett's pop is a right-wing senator). Final twist is true to p;ic's anti-establishment theme and very surprising in its revelation about the true facts.
Schlatter is quite effective in a role reminiscent of Christian Slater's definitive turn in "Heathers". Film's chief drawback is that top billed Walken is written out of most of the middle section, a shame since his flippant attitude is a key element to enjoying Sandler's off-kilter point-of-view.
Bissett makes a strong impression as the heroine hiding a secret life. Film's message and unclassifiable genre present a challenge to find an audience. Since direct-to-video releases are usually routine genre pics or left-over, would-be theatricals, its release experiment could prove to be interesting.
Barry Sandler's quirky "All-American Murder" is an unusual fil debunking the American Dream within the format of a murder mystery. Picture is being aimed directly at the video market, bypassing theatrical exposure.
Sandler's scripts for the gay-themed "Making Love" and Ken Russell's "Crimes of Passion" are solid preparation for this very strange tale. Russell was set to direct it for Vestron in 989, but the project was canceled when that distributor's financial woes hit home, with former TV actor Anson Wiliams getting the helming assignment two years later.
Young Charlie Schlatter strs as the new kid in school, immediately seduced by the dean's wife (Joanna Cassidey). After the conquest she tells him: "Last month alone I knocked offmore undergraduates than Kent State", typical of Sandler's unrelenting black humor and fresh wit.
Schlatter gets a crush on beautiful blonde coed Josie Bissett, and when she's burned to death in a fire, he gets blamed. It seems that Schlatter has a history of pyromania, making him an excellent fall guy.
With weird, tongue-in cheek detective Chrisopher Walken assigned to the case, Schlatter is given a long leash to investigate himself. As a string of murders ensues Sandler injects effective red herrings (Schlatter's dad is a prominent judge, while Bissett's pop is a right-wing senator). Final twist is true to p;ic's anti-establishment theme and very surprising in its revelation about the true facts.
Schlatter is quite effective in a role reminiscent of Christian Slater's definitive turn in "Heathers". Film's chief drawback is that top billed Walken is written out of most of the middle section, a shame since his flippant attitude is a key element to enjoying Sandler's off-kilter point-of-view.
Bissett makes a strong impression as the heroine hiding a secret life. Film's message and unclassifiable genre present a challenge to find an audience. Since direct-to-video releases are usually routine genre pics or left-over, would-be theatricals, its release experiment could prove to be interesting.
See also
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