In the heyday of the dominance of physical media, I used to spend countless hours of free time traveling across town, north to south, east to west, and high and low hitting up as many used DVD outlets as I could find on payday. I’d have my routes mapped out like a UPS driver. If it were an open weekend, I’d make trips to other towns to do the same. Buying a full tank of gas seemed worth the potential of finding a used Criterion disc for five bucks because the pawn shop owner, and most likely the person who stole the disc to sell it, didn’t know that version of Robocop had been out of print for two years – and would normally cost about five or ten tanks of gas on EBay.
Finding a long-out-of-print gem didn’t happen often – rarely even, but that was just the romantic side of the treasure hunt. That was the One-Eyed Willie. What was more common, and just as enjoyable when they panned out were the treasures you didn’t expect along the way and that you’d take a chance on, knowing little-to-nothing about the title other than what you could discern from the package. It was the wishing well of Ralph Mouth’s President Kennedy coins cashed in for dreams, and you didn’t know if it was Kennedy or Martin Sheen when you picked it up – but it was worth five bucks to take a chance on and find out.
Over the years I’d accrued hundreds of films I’d previously never seen, but decided were worth the expense in the chance that I might have found something I’d really like even if it were ten bucks, but having found it for five bucks…even better! And, if I didn’t like it, I’d just sell it back and it wouldn’t have cost me much more than a movie ticket would have.
There really aren’t many specialized second-hand media shops around anymore to peruse for titles I’m oblivious to but possess some gnarly superficial quality about it for a decent price. These days, those times are spent on my couch searching my phone for what’s currently for sale on FandangoNow, Apple, and the other film streamers. Such was the case for this article’s subject, the 1991 film from Jeffrey Reiner, Blood and Concrete.
What Did It Cost? – $5.00
What Sold Me?
The cast and genre. Billy Zane is / was nothing if not wholly entertaining in almost anything in the 90s. Titanic happened, and suddenly people forgot that the man was the most charismatic hell demon in film history up until then. Zane in a crime comedy alongside Darren McGavin and Harry Shearer seemed worthwhile. Jennifer Beals never hurts either.
Why It Was Worth It
Pound-for-pound, this might be the most Nicolas Cage movie a movie has ever been without having Nicolas Cage. Everyone in it is some version of Nicolas Cage. I don’t know Jeffrey Reiner’s directorial process, but I think his singular note to each actor was, “what would Nicolas Cage do?”
Even small roles are Caged up. The murder that sort of kickstarts the plot is of a character that shouts regressively clever obscenities in a 360 degree spin-cycle for about one minute in two separate scenes – and then he’s floating with a bullet in his head in a blood-soaked swimming pool for the rest of the film.
Plot devices are similarly Caged up. The drugs at the center of the conflict between Zane’s Joey Turks and the crime…boss, I think? (Nicholas Worth as Spuntz) is a drug called “libido.” Which, I’d be willing to guess the drug walked up to director Jeffrey Reiner and asked how it should affect people, and Reiner responded with, “imagine you’re ecstasy, and you just snorted Nicolas Cage – action.”
This is most prevalent with Bart (Mark Pellegrino), who is perhaps the most hilariously terrifying libido addict you could imagine.
I lied, you can’t imagine it.
He’s a walking boner set to an AI-created dance music soundtrack with a gun, gym membership, and sadistic sense of humor. It’s belly laughs for days in this film, a comedy – in another film it’s a tormenting nightmare of discomfort. It’s the best thing about the film.
That’s probably what made the picture so special in retrospect. What I’d expected to like I did like. Billy Zane is equal parts a likable low-life that’s somehow in over his head even in a low-stakes game of criminality. Darren McGavin as Detective Dick (yep) is basically Mr. Parker from A Christmas Story who can say the words he has to actively mute in front of children in that movie. Plus, Jennifer Beals gets to sing.
Oh yeah, even the music within the film has been Nicolas Caged. I don’t really know how, but I’ll bet it had something to do with director’s notes.
However, those weren’t the best parts about it. The best aspects were how deliberately aggressive the other performances were. A fat guy shovels Chinese food in his mouth while giving Joey Turk information, and then he’s dead a few minutes later with a gunshot and opened mouth full of noodles. I’m not certain this didn’t inspire Se7en.
Combine that with Bart, and Spuntz, and obscenity-spewing-bullet-in-the-head guy who chases Billy Zane around an uphill driveway while Zane has in-hand the eight-hundred-pound tube television he’s stealing from the guy (remember when theft of televisions required an American Gladiator?) and you have a nothing-if-not-unforgettably-entertaining picture.
I don’t know how to describe it. It doesn’t take fun seriously – it takes serious funly. Well worth $5.00.
