Latex Movie Review - Thursday

After the success of Pulp Fiction every independent film director wanted to be Quentin Tarantino, leading to a deluge of ultra violent crime dramas with a comedic twist. One of these up and coming auteurs was a director named Skip Woods who helmed his one and only film, a bloodfest called Thursday, before changing his career path to become a script writer for a number of formula summer bubblegum movies including Swordfish, Hitman, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The A-Team and the up and coming Die hard 5. So much for high art.

Thursday begins as any Tarantino clone would. Three thugs are trying to buy coffee from an all night convenience store and end up shooting the obnoxious Indian clerk through the head when the simple transaction winds up taking five minutes. Cue the police officer showing up to buy his own coffee and the leader of the thugs named Nick ( Aaron Eckheart ) quickly hides the body and masquerades as a clerk. At this point the film briefly becomes more of an Alfred Hitchcock flick as Nick tries to sell the cop his coffee and send him on his way without him being suspicious, but then goes right back into Tarantino territory when the same officer returns for the snack he forgot, notices the thick puddle of fresh blood pooling under the counter, and before he can react is himself gunned down.

The film then switches to a typical suburban home of work at home architect Casey (Thomas Jane) and his business woman wife Christine (Paula Marshall) who is just leaving for an all day business trip. No sooner has his wife left the house when Casey gets a phone call from old acquaintance Nick saying he wants to drop by to catch up on old times. After the brief reunion Nick asks Casey if he can borrow his car for a couple of hours, leaving behind a mysterious silver briefcase. Casey becomes suspicious and opens the case to discover several kilos of neatly packed drugs which he immediately chops up and dumps down the sink. After all, he has left his criminal past behind and no longer wants anything to do with drugs. But it is not that simple. It turns out that Nick had stolen the drugs from a Rastafarian gang along with six million dollars from corrupt police detectives, all who want their respective stuff back. In addition Nick has abandoned his thug friends from the convenience store slaughter, and they too want the loot. This sets the stage for one thug after another showing up at Casey's house, threatening to kill him if he does not turn over the stolen loot, and ending up either killed or tied up in the garage, including Glenn Plummer as a Jamaican hit man, Paulina Porizkova as Nick's slutty thug friend Dallas, James LeGros as Nick's psycho thug friend Billy Hill, and Mickey Rourke as the corrupt Detective Kasarov. And during this parade of thugs Dr. Jarvis ( Michael Jeeter ) sent by an adoption agency to interview Casey to see if he and his wife are fit enough to be parents.

The strange thing about Thursday was that it's weakest element was it's script. A glaring example of sloppy writing is the encounter with the Jamaican hit man. He shows up at Casey's house disguised as a pizza deliveryman. Casey tells him he has the wrong house, and the deliveryman begins to leave when Casey decides he wants to buy the pizza and calls him back to the house. The deliveryman tells him he can't sell him the pizza unless he is allowed into the house to use the phone. Once inside a gun is pulled and the deliveryman reveals that he is a hit man sent to retrieve the stolen drugs. The problem here is that the hit man's plan was to hope that Casey invited him into the house. Had Casey not decided he wanted pizza then the hit man would have never been called back. A few minutes later after the Jamaican has been given the order to shoot Casey he instead is talked into giving him a bong. The hit man momentarily passes out yet Casey does not attempt to grab his gun. Then while the hit man turns his back to perform a Rap song over the phone to a record producer Casey finally slugs him. While the clunky script somehow lead to Woods having a career as a top screenplay writer, his directing which is quite confident lead to nothing. Despite the scripts shortcomings and a predictable story that takes place mostly in the same house for the entire film, Woods is able to keep things moving, keep the actors from walking through there roles and somehow deliver a slightly emotional ending. Woods keeps most of the violence and gore off screen, but does not shy away from having a character's brains explode all over another character's face when it can't be avoided. Thursday is surprisingly enjoyable for a independent crime movie that went direct to video. While nowhere as good as a Tarantino's movie it is never the less entertaining enough to be a good time killer.

THE SCENE:
33 minutes into the movie Dallas (Paulina Porizkova) shows up at Casey's door wearing a semi-tight red rubber sun dress and ankle-height high heeled bootlets. Casey tries to get rid of her but she pushes right past him and makes herself at home. The dress is not exactly a tight fit. It was designed for a more voluptuous figured woman which is not the case with Paulina who's breasts are more of the pancake variety. There is also Paulina's more advanced age of then 32 which had her looking more like a housewife than the skinny young model from magazine covers and The Cars' Drive video back in the '80s. Otherwise it is Paulina Porizkova in a rubber dress. Director Skip Woods tries to make the most of it, beginning with an awkwardly edited quick closeup pan going from her feet upwards to show the outfit off. Once inside she begins to tease house guest Michael Jeeter by telling him what porno movies turn her on, and then telling him that by just discussing the topic she is getting horny, grabbing her crotch through the dress and simulating pleasuring herself. Paulina is wearing the outfit a good 12 minutes with two breaks to show flashbacks. She finally strips out of the dress and into the nude at 54 minutes when she she rapes Casey.