 | | List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Ardustry Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 84577
Released: October 19, 2004 | | Our Price: $6.40 | | Used Price: $3.78 | | MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD | |
American Strays Reviews:
Multi-dimensional 
2008-02-06 - A classic Quentin style film with ending ecclipsing True Romance. Diverse character profile. Advice: don't sell a vacuum to Tilley, look at the mother,and sometimes driving a Caravan may yeild the American dream.
DEADLY DESERT 
2005-04-01 - AMERICAN STRAYS is a disjointed, sometimes frustrating movie, but it is outrageously funny at times, and the cast is superb. Sure, there are a lot of unanswered questions as to how these guys all end up in the same cafe; why and when did they do their respective crimes, etc., etc., and ultimately, why the suicide storyline is needed at all, since it doesn't tie in with the remaining storylines. But it has some unusual storylines, and as they all kind of mesh toward the end, we can see writer/director Michael Covert's assessment of violence and how easily it has become such a "normal" thing in our society. Luke Perry is the suicidal young man who hires the Exterminator (Flash Gordon's Sam Jones, still a strong force in this film) to help him commit suicide. Vaccum cleaner salesman John Savage (in one of his best performances) is scouring the desert looking for "lonely" people he can bump off under the pretense of selling his wares. He meets his match in the seductively flaky Jennifer Tilly (superb) as a lonely woman who bumps off traveling salesmen; James Russo and the late Joe Viterelli play a couple of hitmen who have a cop in their trunk and who argue about Viterelli's family lineage; Carol Kane plays the accented owner of the cafe who has little to do but as always does it well; Scott Plank and Melora Walters are bank robbers who are planning to get married since she is pregnant with his child; Anthony Lee and Vondo Sweet as two "bruthas" whose past we don't know a whole lot about, but it is Lee whose assessment of the Star Spangled Banner resonates in the final shootout; and finally, we have Eric Roberts and Toni Kalem as a married couple with two obnoxious children who are obviously moving to a new home since he has somehow lost his job and has no money. His attempts to feed his family are tragically noble and hilarious when the shootout begins.
AMERICAN STRAYS is not your average movie, but it kept me highly entertained and that's what I look for in any kind of movie.
Nothing to see here folks... 
2004-09-22 - Using elements from several other more popular films, American Strays brings together six different stories with the meeting room being a cafe in the desert. In one story we have Luke Perry as a man who cannot cope with his life and hires an "Exterminator" to help him end his existence. The second story is about two hit men who are driving through the desert. One is cut up really bad and is wearing band-aids, the other is an overweight gentlemen with stomach problems. They really don't have much plot other than they provide the ending with some more bodies. The third story is about two people who are driving through the desert. They have a moment in their car where you question their friendship. Nothing becomes of this moment, and eventually they make it to the cafe. The fourth story is about a vacuum salesman. For more than half the film, we follow the path of Dwayne, a salesman who is willing to try any pitch to try to get his vacuum sold. Interestingly played by John Savage, this is the best story of the film. He travels from door to door in the desert demonstrating to potential buyers the effectiveness of his vacuum at a "killer" price. The fifth story is about two lovers on the run from the law. Constantly in some sort of sexual embrace, these two have just robbed something, and are driving around and having sex whenever they want. The sixth and final story has to do with just a random family. Eric Roberts plays a man who is lost in the desert with his family in a minivan. All of these stories interweave together when they should all be going in separate directions.
What happened in 1996? This film made no sense at all. I felt like I began the film in the middle of the actual movie. There is no discussion at all, there is not even a hint, as to how all these characters happened to be in the same desert. All this film is meant to show is violence can happen to anybody.
While other are happy with comedic lines, I actually needed some pre-story to bring this film together. Literally, we jump right into the middle of the robber's story. We have no clue how he got the cash, or how long him and his lady friend have been together. We have no history of Roberts family. No clue what happened to him prior to entering the desert, or where they are headed to. All that we know is that they are as lost as I was in this film. What was the point of the train that Luke Perry kept seeing? Was it to symbolize that his life was about ready to arrive? How did the hit men get the cop in the back of their car, and why were they still carrying it? Who were the gangsta's and what was their part in this film?
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS......I NEED ANSWERS ANSWERS ANSWERS!!!
There were some decent ideas in this film, but without building a story it is hard to develop these ideas. My feeling is that perhaps the director made this film, and found that he only had the budget to release the second half. If that was the case, here is my advise to the director...scrap the project...there is no reason to beat a dead horse. A self-conscious, contrived gallery of oddball characters are simply derived from parts of David Lynch, and the Coen brothers, with some sub-Tarantinoesque dialogue thrown in.
Unless you, as a viewer, enjoy picking out odd character actors, then I suggest slowly backing away from this film because "there is nothing to see here folks...."
Grade: * out of *****
Memorably funny movie
2004-02-27 - I thought this movie was hilarious. I love the guy w/ the dolls: "Hey girls, brought you a new little sister. She's a little different, let's try to get along." Of course, offbeat dark humor is my thing.
Unpublicised Pulp Fiction
2003-01-24 - I read the reviews on [this site] and was surprised they were mixed. "American Strays" is only for offbeat viewers who have experienced the wierd side of life along with David Lynch and Robert Rodriguez. Don't take it serious but as an everyday dry humor flick. The bungling frustration of Eric Roberts and pseudo naievity of Jennifer Tilly make this a GREAT film for those who take life very lightly. I liked it enough to make the purchase.
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