LOWBALL

Produced by Eric Manes and Demian Lichtenstein
Directed and Written by Demian Lichtenstein
Edited by Stuart Levy
Director of Photography by Romeo Tirone

John - Peter Greene
Eddie - Erik Schrody
Paula - Amber Smith

What we have here is another in a long line of cops with a mission on their mind. To wipe out scumbags. To skim a little cash off the top. And to keep their noses full of the demon white powder. John (Peter Greene - Zed from Pulp Fiction) does a great job of a cop who is on the path of self destruction. His desire for cocaine is unquenchable. In almost every scene he has something going up his nose. And with scenes of him vomiting and pissing blood he's doing a great job of going up in flames. Coupled with his faithful partner, Eddie (Erik Schrody - lead singer of the group Everlast) they make it their business to bring down the drug lords of New York.

Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse when a routine investigation becomes a bloodbath and several mob boys are gunned down. This makes John a target. This sends the mob straight for his kid sister Paula (Amber Smith - American Beauty).

Now John has a deadline. He has to find the rival mob boss and whack him before time runs out for his sister. And to make matters even more difficult he's just been suspended from the force along with Eddie. What can I say? The movie does move along at a good clip. The actors do an adequate job. Especially Peter Greene. You can almost believe that he's riding the edge and conked out on drugs. It did surprise me that Amber Smith is so central in the ad campaign but is hardly in the film. We do, however get to see her in a tennis outfit, chained up and scantly clad and whipped while wearing some kinky little number. She barely utters a word. Which in her case is probably a good thing. Leading lady she is not. Eye candy she definitely is.

This brings me to Eddie. Erik does a good job. He plays the more level headed one of the duo. But, it worries me that he got the part because he's a singer in a popular group. Not because he can act. There are enough movies with rappers in them that really don't deserve the part, but got it because of who they are. This is pretty much the same thing.

I'm mildly surprised at how this movie could have gone farther and delivered more of an impact. It is dark and moody, to a degree, but it could have been so much more. This is surprising considering how much I liked director Demian Lichtensteins film 3000 Miles To Graceland. Of course that had a better cast to work with

So, is LOWBALL good? Depends. If you're looking for a quick way to kill 99 minutes you could do worse. It uses every genre cliche for the atypical action flick. To improve your viewing experience I'd recommend beer and popcorn.

MTI Home Video


Bio Info for Douglas Waltz

In the spare time afforded him between a full time job for the local phone company, Douglas is happily married with five, that's right five, children. He is a staff writer for the Print magazine Cult Cuts and does work for the webzine (www.cultcuts.net). He also publishes his own small press zine called X-Ploitation. In addition to that he's working on an annual publication of short stories from various writers called On The Night Highways. And if that wasn't enough he's about to shoot his first short film, Phone Sex, sometime this summer.