Dennis Hopper Movie:

The Blackout [Region 2] Reviews:
One of Abel's worst films
2008-05-02 - Matty (Matthew Modine) is a successful actor who despite his fortune, fame and hot French girlfriend is a major drunk and drug addict. He wants to settle down with his girlfriend whose name is Annie but she refuses to marry him since he is an addict. That is also the reason she had an abortion because she didn't want their child together to have to grow up with a drunk for a father. Matty is devastated by not only her rejection but the fact that she had his child " cut out from her" body. Never mind the fact that Matty suggested she get the abortion and that he thinks she is sleeping with all his friends. It is not hard to see why she leaves him. Matty's friend is played by Dennis Hopper. He is a director who believes himself to be a God who is making a film with that has aspirations to be a serious artistic film but deteriorates into a snuff film full of sex and violence. Alone Matty decides to hang out with Mickey and do drugs and have sex with two of the "stars" of Mickey's film. Matty goes on and on about how much he loved Annie and about how lost he is gonna be without her. Matty is too out of it to realize that Mickey is filming everything. Soon Matty goes to a restaurant and meets an attractive young woman also named Annie. She resembles his lost love and he begins to see her for one night. When Annie 2 as Mickey has now dubbed her appears in Mickey's film Matty's life will never be the same since something horrible happens that night. The problem is that Matty can't remember a thing since he blacked out. The only person that does know is Mickey since he caught the whole thing on camera. Cut to a year and a half later and Matty is now sober and living in New York with his new girlfriend Susan (Claudia Schiffer). He is still obsessed with finding both Annies and when Susan leaves for three days he goes right back to Miami looking for either one of his Annies. He immediately hooks up with Mickey and starts drinking and doing drugs again. This film is a complete mess. At first it seemed like it could be interesting if Abel followed in a Vertigo mode of Matty meeting the new Annie and trying to start a life with her but that never materialized. Instead we get treated to scene after scene of Modine, who is not a great actor anyway, whining on a camcorder about Annie and how he wants to see her. Dennis Hopper is typical Hop which is to say crazy and overacting terribly. His scene where he films Annie 2 on a camcorder and tries to get her to do or say anything sexual seems right out of any uncomfortable porn where the director is trying to "interview" his terrified young star. Claudia Schiffer is good looking but cannot act at all. The Annies played by Beatrice Dalle and Sarah Lassez are both good looking and Abel gets both of them to strip but their characters are not interesting. You never learn anything about them. The film is just a complete disaster, definitely one of Abel's worst. It makes the films which preceded it (New Rose Hotel) and followed it (R'Xmas) look like masterpieces in comparison. There is absolutely nothing to recommend about this one. Truly disappointing for Abel fans. I will say this though this is the second Ferrara film I have bought in as many months the first being Cat Chaser. Both films concern a man who is obsessed with a woman from his past who goes back to find her and puts their lives at risk. Both films feature lots of sex and nudity which isn't particularly erotic or needed but it lets you know that Abel is the director. That film at least had a better object of lust in Kelly McGillis, and three good leading performances from Peter Weller, Charles Durning, and Frederic Forrest. I thought that film sucked but believe me after watching this one Cat Chaser ain't that bad.

This is terrible.
2006-06-05 - Matthew Modine is a fantastic actor but lately it seems his fortunes have turned. He's rarely in anything decent and I guess his TV show "The Bedford Diaries" has been cancelled after 8 episodes. How low do you have to go to get cancelled from the WB?

Anyway, I was excited to find a film with Modine in the starring role that I had not seen.

This movie is terrible! I expected nothing and got it three-fold. I don't even know where to begin. The writing is bad and the characters just keep repeating their lines as though they can't believe the garbage they have to say. The plot is totally corny. I think the only reason I kept watching is because I don't recall ever seeing Modine so skeevy before and that was actually interesting.

But don't let that sway you.

Believe me, if I Could give this film negative stars, I totally would.

Ferrara one of the best American makers of foreign films
2002-03-21 - If you appreciate films by the likes of Antonioni, Lynch, Bunuel and Franju and you enjoy entering the inner worlds of characters then you'll probably find much to admire in this movie... it is unapolagetically dark, meandering, atmospheric, sometimes half baked, but ultimately haunting and utterly poignant. The DVD is bare bones with a decent transfer.

A deep dive into human loss and desperation
2002-01-13 - This movie is mainly about a guy who gets trapped into drug and alcohol abuse but manages to escape it. Somehow, as in real life, the your history will never be erased and he is trapped again in tragic circumstances with his new wife, pregnancy, memory loss from his 'wild days'. This film will not give much to viewer which has not experienced heavy drinking or drug use. For those which has bad experiences or any experience at all, will have a wake-up call and hopefully watch this film in awe. The film can be watched in the same session as 'Requiem for a dream', an uncredible film about drug abuse and the society that not only sells drugs 'illegally' but also a society in which one can get heavy drugs prescribed and legally.

ONE OF THE WORST MOVIES- MAYBE THE WORST!
2001-12-03 - I rented this film not expecting too much because it looked sleazy on the video cover. What an understatement! There is nudity throughout especially with the scenes with Dennis Hopper, but this is not the kind of nudity I find attractive in the least with women degrading themselves and most of the scenes seems out of place and unnecessary (trust me on this). Well, I have sat through many a "bad movie" on HBO late at night and found the movie satisfactory because of certain actors I enjoy

watching (Hopper comes to mind)or some type of interesting plot devices. Well, the actors are all shallow individuals and not worth the time to watch WITH THE EXCEPTION of Claudia Shiffer who is both beautiful AND a caring person (MY dream come true!), and what makes this picture deserving of LESS than 1 star is the character of Matthew Modine (the actor I like) who repeatedly fails to take control of his life EVEN WHEN HE HAS SOMEONE AS WONDERFUL AS CLAUDIA'S character helping him! (...). Anyway, this movie depressed me for days and left me feeling sad and empty- don't say you weren't warned!