Thursday (1998)

This week's review is on a fantastic indie black comedy that is really hard to find on DVD (even VHS for that matter). Skip Woods' Thursday, starring Thomas Jane, Aaron Eckhart, James LeGros, Paulina Porizkova and Mickey-Fucking-Rourke! Before Skip Woods became a screenwriter for Swordfish, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and G.I. Joe - The Rise of Cobra he made this terrific little flick and if you ask me, he should have stuck to making movies like this instead of those other two winners (Swordfish wasn't that bad and it deserves another chance!) but I digress. Thomas Jane plays Casey Wells, an ex drug dealer from Los Angeles who has recently moved to Texas to clean up his act, start a family and become an architect. He has met and married a woman he loves, they own a house together, plan to adopt a child and have the every day problems married people have like scheduling conflicts and arguments that really don't mean anything. Life is good for Casey...until one Thursday when Nick arrives at his doorstep.

Casey's old drug-dealing partner, Nick (Aaron Eckhart) shows up at his house with a couple of suitcases (uh-oh!). The two friends remember the old days and Nick is amazed at how domesticated Casey has become. Nick asks to borrow Casey's car for a few hours ("A fucking station wagon!") and leaves Casey alone. Casey discovers one of Nick's suitcases in one of his bedrooms and finds it filled with heroin. Fearing the worst, Casey dumps it all down the sink drain and breathes a sigh of relief, that is until he receives another visitor at his doorstep.

A Rastafarian pizza man shows up and turns out to be a hit man, looking for the heroin that Casey just destroyed. When the Rastafarian is about to kill Casey, his last request is for a little ganja and what Rastafarian can resist that? They smoke together and when Casey gets a chance he incapacitates the Rastafarian and holds him captive in his garage. Not a minute after he has secured the Rastafarian, Casey receives visits from a representative from the adoption agency and another one of Nick's acquaintances, a hot little spit-fire of a woman named, Dallas (Paulina Porizkova) who scares away the adoption agent with a "Casey Wells Story" from the past seen in flashback. Once alone with Dallas, Casey is tied to a chair and what follows is one of the hottest rape sequences committed by a female committed to film.

Billy Hill (James LeGros) shows up looking for the heroin and doesn't care that it is gone because he plans on torturing Casey for the sheer fun of it. James LeGros make you laugh with his portrayal of a sadistic hillbilly and will make you think twice about the way you say "cauterize" in the future. Mickey Rourke comes into play as a corrupt cop (as if there were any other kind of cop these days) who wants Nick and a large sum of money that was in suitcase number two. Rourke isn't in the film too long (most of Casey's visitors aren't) but as always he plays a great bad-ass.

Now it would be evil of me to reveal the rest of the movie for you (I feel I've already said too much as it is) but when you watch it you may be thinking that it's a Pulp Fiction imitation, which it is, but it happens to be one of the better Pulp imitators by blending black comedy elements with jokes about suburbia along with a few hit man/drug dealing movie cliches that don't leave a bad taste in your mouth. The beginning sequence is about the only thing that I have a problem with and once you watch this, you'll know what I mean. It is funny and suspenseful at first but if viewed a second or third time, it comes off as annoying and cliched.



It's great to see two of my favorite actors (Jane and Eckhart) in a movie that really shows off their acting chops, not to mention good performances by other lesser-known actors in supporting roles (James LeGros as Billy Hill, Michael Jeter as the adoption agent and of course, Mickey-Fucking-Rourke!) Like I said before, this movie is a Pulp Fiction imitator and while it isn't perfect, it's not terrible either; it fits into a small niche of films that I like to revisit every once in a while when I need solid gold entertainment and a few good laughs.

The rest of the movie is great and worth the DVD (needle) in the hay hunt, that is if you are lucky enough to come across a copy. The unrated DVD has been out of print (OOP) for a while now due to the bankruptcy it's distributor, Polygram/USA films and apparently only 1,000 copies were produced. Other films injured by the bankruptcy were, Topsy-Turvey, The Last Days of Disco and some movie called, No Looking Back (which stars Lauren Holly and Edward Burns so who cares?) The Big Lebowski and Being John Malkovich were also originally released under the Polygram/USA banner but weren't affected and remain in print.



4 Drug-Filled Briefcases (Out of 5)

Check Out The Trailer!

Eat Your Snackie Cake and Pick Up the DVD:



The DVD pictured above is a nice alternate to the official USA Films version. The only drawback is that the few title cards in the movie are in a language different than English.

USA Films Official DVD:

UPDATE!

Thursday has now been added to Netflix Instant Queue!