Hey! Anyone out there want to see a truly bad movie? It might even be too bad to qualify as "so bad it's good." You never know - but it's tough to envision this one ever becoming a cult classic.
Written and directed by Brian Petsos, in his full-length debut, "Big Gold Brick" takes parts and styles from lots of different films and squishes them all together into something, but I'm not quite sure yet what. I think it's supposed to be a dark comedy, but that's only because I can't figure out what else it might be.
"Big Gold Brick" opens with Samuel Liston (Emory Cohen) floating in space. Eventually we find out that Sam has just been hit by a car and we are watching his hallucination. Again, that's what I'm pretty sure what's going on. However, throughout the film, reality and fantasy often bleed over into each other. The overall result is the audience not really caring what's real because it doesn't matter.
Sam has left his home, gone for a bus ride, exited the bus in the middle of nowhere, and wandered into the middle of the road. Floyd (Andy Garcia) is driving his Cadillac while enjoying ice cream. He's not paying close attention and smacks Sam into the air. For some reason, Petsos has very loud music playing behind all of it. It adds to your annoyance.
Most of the film is a peek back into the past where Sam, a very successful author, is recounting his time spent with Floyd. In the past, Sam is somehow a more obnoxious version of Bobcat Goldthwait at his most obnoxious. In the present, he is less obnoxious, but not by a whole lot.
After Floyd runs over Sam he gives him free room and board in his very lovely home, in exchange for Sam writing Floyd's biography. Why there should be a biography of Floyd is a mystery.
Floyd's wife and kids are strange, but of course the females are beautiful. They're almost throwaway characters, with each having a scene or two to demonstrate that they are quite strange, too.
Throughout the film there are things to remind you of other directors, including the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson, Robert Altman, David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick. In fact, there's one character who is almost identical to Peter Sellers's Nazi persona in "Dr. Strangelove", minus his being a Nazi. But, he looks like him and talks like him.
Do not waste your money or time on this.
| Movie title | Big Gold Brick |
|---|---|
| Release year | |
| MPAA Rating | NR |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | This supposed dark comedy starts by throwing together a bunch of ideas stolen from other directors and ends up a mess. |
