Genres

Visitors Review

2012-05-23 23:08:58

excellent breakout role for christina applegate!

I enjoyed this movie alot it was very well written and i think she made that character relatable and tangible. she was excellent very convincing and it showed her versatility. it was definately the role she needed from "kelly bundy". Even though that was an excellent role too. I really loved the xrated scenes. beautiful!!

2012-05-23 12:08:22

Classic Roger Corman

Although Roger didn't direct this film he produced it--and its 100% pure Corman. It moves along swiftly, has action, violence, partial nudity and ambigous moral themes (renegade cop, kind-hearted hooker etc).Corman's brilliance is in taking what's really a drive-in movie and incorporating themes that make it sound like an "important" film every teenager should see.None of this is to say its bad; when a young Christina Applegate says "I know how to have sex but I don't know how to make love!" I mean, wow, can life get any better?

mattkratz 2012-05-19 20:43:38

somewhere...

I'm not exactly sure how to rank or rate this film. On one hand, it gives agritty account of life on the streets, with good performances, as it focusesprimarily on the exploits of a teen prostitute (well played by Applegate),as she escapes from a killer and forges a relationship with straight kid Sy(Mendenhall).On the other hand, it also focuses too much on the psycho cop and featurestoo many of his killings as he tries to make his way to Applegate and keepher from revealing his secret. He tries to get the other street kids to tellhim where she is, and either kills them or maims them in some way if theydon't. This aspect of the movie all but ruins it. A minimal amount on thisaspect would have sufficed.If I had to rate this movie, I'd probably give it ** out of****.

2012-05-19 07:22:43

Christina Applegate is Superb!

Christina is no Kelly Bundy in this flick. She has wits and street smarts just to survive from day to day. She is young, beautiful and alone on the streets so she sells her body to make the money but she has intellegence to boot. She befriends a young man, new to the city and naive to what the world is like outside of his secure world with parents and money. He witnesses the way of life homeless people live who have been scruntinized by it's own society. Drugs, prostitution, starvation, all under his feet in the sewer drains, hidden from the world on top. Christina shows compassion through her hardened shield that she had to build to protect herself from the "real people" especially the law. This movie shows how well a character actor can change from a ditzy blonde in a sitcom to a serious actress. I applaude Christina with a standing ovation.

2012-05-10 01:32:16

Compelling characters and gripping action!

Christina Applegate stars as, Dawn, a heroine-addicted teen-prostitutefighting for survival on the streets of Venice, whose narrow escapefrom a psychotic cop (Ed Lottimer) armed with an explosive home-madegun and bent on raping and slaughtering runaways, initiates a bloodypursuit through the hardened world of homeless teens.After thwarting her attempted rape and murder, Dawn befriends Sy (DavidMendenhall), a naive middle-class teen runaway and aspiring musician,who's chosen a temporary life on the streets for seemingly artisticinspiration. Dawn takes Sy under her wing and gives him a guided tourof her world, along the way their friendship of mutual dependenceblossoms into youthful love.Dawn introduces Sy to an interesting array of characters. Most notablyBob (Patrick Richwood) a heroine dealer and eccentric metaphysicalphilosopher obsessed with the palindromic nature of his own name andits relation to his existence. Also look for a pre-Nog Aron Eisenbergfor those Deep Space 9 fans, and 2nd Unit photography by JanuszKaminski."Streets" is a compelling look at the lives of the forgotten andabandon children forced into early adulthood combined competently withgripping psycho-killer action. The violence is superb Corman-esquireexploitation with a nice amount of gore, mostly due to the killer's useof a special gun capable of blasting material into oblivion. Howeverone of the more violent executions is entirely off screen accompaniedby a descriptively muffled bang.The performances are convincing and Katt Shea's direction isoutstanding. There are many inventive sequences that utilize techniquesthat are often misused by others. There is a first-rate use of offscreen sound and dialogue, especially Bob's rants, plus a gorgeoustemporal ellipsis that brings the audience from one time to the nextwithin the same space. When watching this I was struck how the image ofthe motorcycle cop hunting down the innocence of a child is somethingthat we've assigned almost icon status to the villain in Terminator 2,however this film demonstrated that same notion of a symbol ofprotection and justice twisted into the complete opposite -and a coupleyears before James Cameron's version.This film is so underrated… why is it not on DVD???

Woodyanders 2012-05-09 18:17:47

A strong, gritty and disturbing portrait of the grim plight of destitute homeless kids

From the makers of the phenomenal, trend-setting "psycho murders peelartists" milestone "Stripped to Kill" and the outstanding offbeatexistential vampire horror knockout "Dance of the Damned" comes thisgrim, tough, unflinchingly realistic down'n'dirty exploitation thrillerabout young, strung-out, totally on her own illiterate Venice Beach,Los Angeles prostitute Dawn (a strong, unglamorous, very endearing andsomewhat startling performance by Christina Applegate; Kelly Bundy on"Married ... With Children"), a fiercely self-reliant teenager whoturns tricks in order to eke out a meager existence and support herheroin habit. Dawn has a near-fatal run-in with brutish,sadomasochistic sleazy teen hooker killing cop Lumley (a cogent,creepy, live-wire portrayal of frighteningly deep-seated seethingpsychosis by Ed Lottimer), who relentlessly stalks Dawn and savagelypicks off her scruffy homeless street people pals throughout the restof the movie. David Mendenhall offers a solid and likable turn as thenaive, slumming rich kid who develops a crush on Dawn and gets caughtup in her tawdry and thankless day-to-day lifestyle."Streets" is something of a surprise: it's a gritty, gutsy little Bpicture (Roger Corman gets credited as the executive producer) thatsuccessfully manages to relate a compact, seamy, highly credibleslasher narrative while simultaneously delivering a rich and vividexploration of how unemployed folks at the bottom rung of thesocioeconomic ladder somehow manage to barely squeak by and how peoplewith real power and authority in our society can get away with cruellypreying on those hapless and helpless individuals whose utterpowerlessness and political vulnerability make them easy targets forconstant victimization. Katt Shea Ruben's sturdy, no-nonsense,unsentimental direction (Ruben also co-wrote the rough-edged, pungentlyinsightful script), the garishly lit, evocative cinematography, abrooding melancholy score (the sad, haunting ballad that's beautifullysung by Elizabeth Daily which plays on the soundtrack during theopening and end credits is especially poignant and effective), thetop-notch acting (besides the three excellent leads, both Kay Lenz andStarr Andreeff have nice cameos as lady police officers), anauthentically grungy depiction of L.A.'s desolate beach-side milieu,and the uncompromisingly downbeat ending all give this shamefullyoverlooked and underrated scrappy gem a potent scroungy verisimilitudethat's extremely compelling and powerful. A real sleeper.

zineb 2012-05-05 13:55:44

Streets (1990)

I LIKE TO SEE THIS MOVIEEXCUSE ME I DONT SPEAK ENGLISH BUT I CAN SPEAK FRENCH DID YOU HELP MEJE VEUX VOIR CE FILM MAIS JE N'AI PAS PU LE TROUVER VOULEZ VOUS SVP M'ENVOYER LE FILM STREETS AVEC CHRISTINA APPLEGATE MERCII DID NOT FUND IT THANK YOUZINEB ALI

sol1218 2012-05-04 20:11:07

Street Without Joy

**SPOILERS** Hard hitting and thought-provoking film about life on thestreets in one of the most depressing and run down section of the cityof Los Angeles that's so barren and lifeless that it looks like it washit by a nuclear explosion. Even the color in "Streets" is so washedout and lackluster that it comes across like an black white andlight-brown film. Surviving on the streets since her prostitute and drug addicted motherdeserted her as a little girl Dawn, Christina Applegate,has beenturning tricks to support her self and her heroin habit. One day asshe's talking business with one of her Johns under the boardwalk hesuddenly attacks and tries to strangle her to death. Rescued from thepsycho by vacationing music student Sy, David Mendenhall,the two becomealmost inseparable for the rest of the film due to circumstances beyondtheir control.It just so happens that the psycho who attacked Dawnturned out to be LA motorcycle policeman Lumby, Eb Lottimer, who's sickobsession is into both taking as well as giving pain.Being stalked by Lumby, who we find out is a serial murder of local L.Aprostitutes, who's sick mind just can't accept that Dawn got away fromhim with Sy's help. During the rest of the movie h murders a number ofDawn's friends in order to get from them information where she'sstaying at in order to both torture and murder her. The scenes of Dawnliving and surviving on the cold hard and unfriendly streets of innercity L.A are about as realistic as any movie that I've ever seen aboutstreet people. The film also shows how their lives are nothing morethen being able to survive from one day to the next with death as theonly way out for them in this hell on earth. Which in many cases is notof their own choosing but whatever fate or providence choose for them.The psycho on the loose angle of the movie is it's weakest point withLumby being made to be an L.A policemen who thrives on inflicting painon himself. We also see him going out on the streets and murderinghomeless people who don't have anyone who as much as cares if theiralive or dead like Dawn. It would have been more believable if Lumbywere just your average solitary and rootless psycho-killer who couldget away with his crimes a lot easier then a member of the local policeforce. Who's constantly supervised by his superiors and watched by hisfellow police officers whom he works the streets with.The film "Streets" doesn't at all cop out in it's depiction of Dawn whocomes across as a hard and bitten street hooker who's seen her best andmost productive days long pass her by and rarely if ever as the girlnext door type in both her lifestyle and her taste in the good thingsin life. All Dawn wan't in life in a mattress to lay down on, every nowand then with a John customer, a roof over her head and her occasionalshot in the arm, with a needle of heroin, to keep her from rememberingthe depressing life that she's living.Christina Applegate the hot as a pistol teenage sexpot Kelly Bundy of"Married with Children" fame is eerily convincing as the down in thedumps unwashed and unwanted teenage hooker Dawn and her acting in thefilm is about the best that I ever saw her do on both the big and smallscreen. Eb Lottimer as the Psycho cop Lumby also making the best of avery difficult role that seemed forced into the movie to spice and heatit up a bit. 18 year-old actor David Mendenhall whom I once saw in afrightening futuristic Twilight Zone episode about mind control called"Examination Day" is both heroic and touching as Sy who tries to notonly save Dawn from being killed by her former John, Lumby. But latertries to turn her life around by offering her to come back home withhim to his family, something that Dawn never had. Despite a better lifeand family to love and care for her Dawn in the end goes back to theonly life that she ever knew and felt comfortable with the one on themean bitter and hostile streets of inner city L.A.

moonspinner55 2012-05-02 10:39:01

Mixes exploitation with heartfelt scenes

A psychotic cop in Southern California is targeting prostitutes forexecution; meanwhile, a pretty blonde urchin tries getting her lifetogether. I rented this because I was very impressed with director KattShea's work on the underrated "Poison Ivy" and I was not disappointed.The psycho stuff doesn't really jell with the homeless kids angle, butit's a commendable attempt to mix genres, and Christina Applegate givesa superb, surprisingly serious lead performance (her final scene in abus depot is riveting and heart-rending). Much better than I wasexpecting, "Streets" is a good, hearty try at both social drama andcrime thriller. **1/2 from ****

Scott LeBrun 2012-05-01 13:50:17

A truly fine movie with an excellent lead performance.

Director Katt Shea deserves a lot of credit for "Streets", a gritty,honest, heartfelt little movie that serves as more than mereexploitation, creating a hard hitting portrayal of runaway youth inVenice, California, personalizing the story by focusing on Dawn, playedby TV star Christina Applegate in a wonderful, tour-de-forceperformance. Dawn is a heroin addicted, teenage prostitute attacked bya john, and who forms a friendship with a kid named Sy (DavidMendenhall) who distracted the cop long enough for her to get away. Thebudding relationship between Dawn and Sy forms a solid basis for therest of the movie, written by Shea and producer Andy Ruben, whichdevastatingly illustrates the kind of hard scrabble existence led bypeople like Dawn. Applegate delivers a performance that is alternatelytough, feisty, sympathetic, kind, and vulnerable - but, most of all,it's believable. Mendenhall also does well as the nice guy who is newto the life being lived by Dawn and her contemporaries, who can'treally identify with them as he is definitely not of their world.Enjoyable contributions are also made by Patrick Richwood as Bob, AronEisenberg as Roach, Mel Castelo as "Elf", and Alan Stock as Allen. Thiscoming from Concorde, it's still exploitative enough for those watchingwho expect a certain degree of trash. Applegate does bare her breastsfor a scene, but this particular scene is played for romance ratherthan just sex. And the ongoing subplot with the deranged john, amotorcycle cop named Lumley (played with convincing intensity by EbLottimer), is standard enough stuff, although the viewer may be takenaback by Lumley's home made weapon that metes out brutal punishment.The music score by Aaron Davis is supremely effective, as is thebeautiful and haunting composition "Dawn's Theme" sung by Elizabeth"E.G." Daily. The use of the locations is excellent, and in generalthis is quite well made and stylish. Although mostly played (very)seriously, it's not without its humorous moments. Cameos are made byladies who'd previously starred for director Shea: Kay Lenz ("Strippedto Kill") and Starr Andreeff ("Dance of the Damned"). This is genuinelypotent stuff, right up to its riveting ending, and worth watching, bothfor Applegate fans interested in seeing her show off her dramatic chopsearlier in her career and for exploitation film aficionados. It's toogood to miss. Eight out of 10.

Brandon L. Sites 2012-04-28 00:03:55

*** out of 4.

A police officer is loose on the streets killing runaway teenagers who wereforced into prostitution in Venice, California. His main target is a wouldbevictim (Applegate) who escaped.Compelling look at homeless teenagers manages to blend in a thrillingsuspense story also. Applegate is very good in the lead role, thesituationsare done realisticly and the direction is terrific. Very well madethrilleris highly underrated.Rated R; Extreme Violence, Lanuage, Brief Nudity, and a Sexual Situationinvolving teenagers.

goya-4 2012-04-27 05:05:14

Underrated film about life on the street

Christina Applegate stars in her movie debut as a runaway teen who can'tread. She learns about life on the streets of Venice Beach..not as bad asitsounds.. Applegate does well and the story isnt half bad..the requisiteprostitute killing cop kinda pushes it though...on a scale of one to ten..a 6

2012-04-26 20:39:32

Excellent

An unjustly overlooked movie about a teenage prostitute (Christina Applegate) who rescues a runaway boy from being shot. Then she shows him life on the streets filled with desparation and despair where you must do anything you can to survive. Applegate plays Dawn with vulnerability and sympathy but also with bitterness and a hardened attitude needed to protect herself. I hope this movie makes it to DVD with a commentary by Christina Applegate.

Wayne Malin 2012-04-26 05:25:38

This could haven been much better

Forgotten movie which barely got a release. I didn't even know itexisted until I saw it while casually browsing at a video store.Homeless teenager hooker Dawn (Christina Applegate) angers psychoticcop Lumley (Eb Lottimer) who wants to kill her. She runs into a nice,normal teenage boy (David Mendenhall) and, together, they try to getaway from the cop.Supposedly factual movie on the lives of homeless kids in Vencie,California. It was obviously made on a VERY low budget and looksappropriately grimy and gritty. It is well directed and Applegate isjust fantastic as Dawn. Mendenhall has his moments too and it has anincredibly sad (but realistic) ending. Still, two things really lessenthis film.One is some truly terrible dialogue--the situations are believable butthe dialogue isn't. The second is Lottimer as the killer--he's not abad actor but his character is given NO depth or insight. Also thebursts of VERY graphic violence are jarring. With a little more polishto the script and more depth this might have worked. As it stands it'sonly worth seeing for Applegate and some nice direction. I can onlygive it a 7.