I guess you shouldn't judge a film by it's poster, but that's the main reason I've been putting this one off. That poster is just terrible. But, tonight was the night and in the end it was actually a pleasant surprise. Well, not pleasant as such, cause the film itself is actually pretty nasty.
Melissa Leo plays Cookie, a high school drop-out who, together with her little brother, runs away from an alcoholic mother and abusive stepdad and goes to New York City. Before long she find herself on the streets, hooking for a mean-ass pimp called Duke. When Duke beats up Cookie's friend Heather, she decides she has had enough and tries to leave Duke for "better" pimps. Duke is not impressed and he's not going to let her go without a fight. So, everyone is looking for Cookie. Who's gonna get to her first?
I think I originally wanted to check this one out because of it's New York setting. I'm a sucker for old footage of Times Square and its surroundings and even if this is a bit past its sleazy prime, it still features some cool shots of the place.
Now, there's a pretty awesome title screen!
Anyway, I'm not going to do the whole run-through of this one. There's not much of a story here and we don't really get inside the heads of any of the characters, but it's still a surprisingly tense little film, well worth watching. Melissa Leo is pretty good as Cookie and Dale Midkiff is pretty terrifying as psycho-pimp Duke. It made me want to re-watch some of his other things. I remember him being pretty intense as Louis Creed in Pet Sematary (1989).
So, one for fans of old New York in all its seedy glory. This one has it all...crazy hookers and even crazier pimps, tricks wanting to be treated like cattle (well, like a cow anyway), shootouts and so on. It drags a bit at times and could do with a bit of a cheese/humour injection, but you know, you can't have it all.
Soooo, verdict is...not bad...pretty good even.
It's available on DVD from Shout! Factory
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