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Sacrifice (2000) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) |
| Odd little film. A few days ago I wrote
that the Spinal Tap DVD might be the best DVD of the
year. This might be the worst. Run-of-the-mill movie with
no theatrical release, no widescreen version, very poor
transfer, no features except the trailer. And what the
helll good is a trailer for a movie that never made it to
the theaters? Michael Madsen plays a four-time loser jailed for bank robbery when he finds that his daughter has been killed by a serial killer. So, as movie fate would have it, he breaks free to go back to Pondscum, Georgia to solve the crime and take the killer down. Makes sense. If law enforcement is not competent to hold him, I guess they can't be counted on to find the killer either. |
| Along the
way he meets his sympathetic ex-wife, some unsympathetic
FBI agents, a hooker who wears high heels in the swamp,
crooked cops, and some drug dealers who actually did one
of the murders as a copycat crime. When he eliminates the
bogus victim, his analysis (performed with a full three
seconds to glance at the police files) shows that the
remaining victims all had abortions. In the meantime, we see a mysterious masked figure performing ritualistic burials in the swamp. It must be the killer, but what is the significance of the rituals and the abortions and the leftover Eyes Wide Shut costuming? That's the plot. Will Madsen get the killer before the FBI gets him? That's the sub-plot. |
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| Madsen subscribes to the movie division of the "All News About Me" channel. Every time he flicks on the TV remote, it is the beginning of a story about either him or the serial murders. He never tunes in the middle of a report. He never accidentally pops on Chico and the Man re-runs, or hears McGarrett say "book-em, Danno", or sees that coyote run into a painted tunnel after the roadrunner passes right through, or sees Mike the Sweater Guy doing infomercials. Nosireebob, he always hones right in on the exact channel he needs at the exact time he needs it, even when in an unfamiliar city. Valuable talent. | |||
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According to the IMDb,
Madsen will appear in more than a dozen feature-length
movies in 2000, including made-for-vids, TV films, and
the real thing. This places him in a neck-and-neck battle
with Eric Roberts for the title of King of the Crap
Movies. Nobody will accuse the man of being lazy. In this film he tries to speak with a Georgia accent at the beginning and end. In between, he is just regular ol' Madsen. To his credit, accent notwithstanding, he took this poor film seriously, although the acting of the other cast members must have made him want to chuck it at times (the two FBI agents are unbelievably wooden). Like rival Eric Roberts, he can be a great background guy, but he's obviously more of a dependable side character than a carry-it-all lead player kinda guy. |
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