Shadow Hours Movie Review

Bad movies described as “a swift descent into sinful pleasure, decay, and debauchery” are hard to watch. Bad 2000s movies that resemble bad 1980s films are even harder to watch. Shadow Hours falls into the latter category, a mish-mashed train wreck of B-movie actors (including Michael Dorn, aka Star Trek’s Worf), an uninteresting plot, vain attempts at capitalizing on the “underground” scenes of seedy Los Angeles, and really, really bad directing and horrendous music video-esque ballistic editing that was taught to me in film school right before I decided to drop out.

The film revolves around the life of Michael Holloway (Balthazar Getty) who is trying to restart his life with his one-dimensional wife Chloe (Rebecca Gayheart) after a nasty bout of drug and alcohol addictions. Michael takes a job of working the graveyard shift at the local gas station and is bombarded by the ugliness and weirdness of the nightlife of L.A. One night, he meets a strange gent named Stuart (Mr. Buckaroo Banzai, Peter Weller). He drives a Porsche, smokes French cigarettes, and drones on about life, eventually coaxing Mike into exploring the “underbelly” of L.A. together, a tour of punk bars, S&M clubs, and bare-knuckle fights.

The film then throws in a murder mystery with a cop played Peter Greene, acting like he wants to get the chance at a reprisal of his role in The Mask 2. The film then simply dissolves into a cheap rip-off of Dante’s Inferno mixed with an old Stephen J. Cannell television pilot.

The pace of the film is jarring and utterly without focus. Other horrors include the endless montages of people pumping gas and the Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Richard Grieco-esque acting of Balthazar Getty. Peter Weller clearly knows his career is completely gone and doesn't give two shits about it. And after the cheap exploitation of bondage clubs, dance clubs, and brothels – damn, isn’t anyone safe any more from the ugly eye of Hollywood!?

Way back in 1984, a great but crazy director named Abel Ferrara made his worse film and called it Fear City. Shadow Hours reminds me of an almost perfect sequel.



Two man enter, one man leave!