James Warwick

Just plain awful. I couldnt get through the first 10 minutes. If a picture doesnt grab me in the beginning, im already suspect.

I remember the original with James Caan, and as a young film student in 1974, thinking it was great. It brought back the fear of living on the edge, as I did at the time in NYC, wondering where my next dollar was going to come from. However, I did not take chances, nor did I have a death wish, which was the subtle background message in the original. Lauren Hutton was Caan's girlfriend and so desirable in this film. And New York, was the back ground shooting on Columbia U. campus. This film takes place somewhere in California, I think. Walberg in the later film plays a sad, pathetic, hard to like loser and he's hard to watch, so he never becomes the hero or anti-hero. Goodman is given awful lines. Although the film is physically beautiful, it's still snake eyes - Could it be that I have changed? No longer is the risk ever worth the reward in addiction. This film idolizes the corruption of the soul, the destruction of people, and it has no moral or compassionate ending that is worthwhile - so what is the point? The producers took a huge risk of changing the film, and they lost.