Release Date – 5/6/2011 (limited)
Nate Poole is a down on his luck trumpet player. Once famous, he let drugs take him down a beaten path and now struggles to get by. When he gets involved with a gangster’s wife, a hit is put out on him. When he’s miraculously saved at gunpoint, he’s left to wander the desert in search of help. He stumbles upon a small carnival where he instantly falls for a girl with wings, yes REAL wings. Thinking she’s an angel, he wants to save her from her lonely life at the sideshow. When she agrees, they run away together. But Nate has other motives behind saving this winged beauty. This movie was just absurd. Even laughable at points. I really don’t know what the filmmakers were thinking, or the actors even. Hard to find any redeeming qualities.
Mickey Rourke plays Nate Poole and I guess he’s the one redeeming quality saving this from absolute garbage. But its really nothing new from Rourke. He plays the loser, which he’s good at from lots of life experience. He may be a fancy dresser and a skilled musician, but he’s broke and lonely and plays the role well. Bill Murray takes an turn as the villain. He’s local gangster Happy Shannon. Poole slept with his wife and now Happy wants him dead. Even though he’s the bad guy, he still has a couple little funny moments but this wasn’t the right role for Murray. Megan Fox plays Lily, the girl with wings. Not an angel, just a freak of nature. A beautiful freak of nature though. It’s a shame there’s nothing beautiful about her performance. Besides being half nude in most of the scenes, she makes some silly faces and acts in a very weird way. Maybe just her take on playing a sideshow freak raised all her life by the head of the carnival, but it was just hard to take her seriously. If she played an emotionless mute that dressed scantily, I think the movie might have actually been better. Plus her relationship with Rourke was just beyond creepy.
Director Mitch Glazer took a lot of flack for debuting this movie early at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2010. It received mostly negative reviews and hurt it chances for a wide release, even though it packs some serious star power. Well even this final cut didn’t change things. Its just not a good movie. And the end was funny when it shouldn’t have been. They even threw in a twist to make you think you just got fooled into possibly watching a good movie. But don’t be fooled. Its not good. This is Glazer’s first directorial effort and it might hurt his chances for a second. If he does get another chance, he better put out something Oscar worthy to wash the taste of crap out of the audience’s mouth.
IMDB – 4.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 4%
Movie Wiseguys – 3/10
