Nice effects though.

An action-packed slog

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This really is a nice slow burner, with plot elements reminding me of 'Fight club', 'The usual suspects' and 'American psycho', while it mostly looked like the latter (even if that one was mostly filmed in Canada, no less). David Koepp has written some interesting stuff over the years, and this one is pretty good. Not all of it is always credible, but if you're willing to go along for the sensational, nihilistic ride that it essentially is, you may just have a ball.James Spader and Rob Lowe play their parts with enough conviction, but let's not forget about Christian "I guess we can close the file on that one(!)" Clemens and the beautiful Lisa Zane. The story is perhaps a little far-fetched, but it fits right in with a lot of those over the top thrillers that were there aplenty in those dear '90s. 'Neo-noir', I read somewhere, and that it is in a way, and with lots of nice twists and turns and psychological baggage to keep you on the edge of your seat.8 out of 10.

This psychological thriller, puts a spin on it's story, compared to other thrillers around this time. Here's a new wave original, the first film I actually saw to start off 91, and I must say, I was not the least bit disappointed. Actually shown at the cinema, in it's M version, it's R version which I saw, made me glad to wait, till it hit VHS, which was primarily the reason I hired it. Wimpy yuppie Spader avoids a close shave with this big rough dude, in a bar, after discreetly trying to crack onto the girlfriend, although Spader, wasn't aware he was around. Not backing down, at the sound of a beer bottle cracking, in steps new dude, psychopathic, manipulative and charming Alex (Rob Lowe in his best role yet). He forms a friendship with Spader showing him how to live, but he doesn't know where this is leading. Michael (Spader) soon realizes Alex's fun can get out of control, costing him some embarrassment, a marriage, where he inexplicably gets involved in a robbery while intoxicated, where the final show has him been set up by Alex, for a murder, all of it Alex's spared amusement, until Spader, with help from his geeky drug addicted brother, who I liked, must outwit him and if necessary kill him. Lowe does help him though, overthrow a rival worker, who's been involved in some funny business at work, where later he's beaten up by Lowe. Now this rival buries his head, when he sees Spader in the hallway of their workplace. Violence is occasional but BI is a well steered machine, intelligently written with some smart dialogue, and Lowe's chillingly cool performance is worth the rental fee. Koepp went onto to wrote the 2002 hit, Panic Room. Marcia Cross, way before her Desperate Housewife days, is really cute as Spader's disgraced girlfriend.

Handsome and charismatic, Rob Lowe is also one amoral sociopath who moves into the life of yuppie James Spader and leads him into things he never thought he'd be involved in. Lowe is truly one Bad Influence.This is quite a bit younger James Spader we see in this film, not the confident attorney who moved in and took over The Practice with Denny Crane. Spader is a stock trader, an eager young man looking for promotion in his company that's run by John DeLancie (can you imagine having Q for a boss). He and Tony Maggio are up for the same promotion, but Maggio is unscrupulous in his pursuit of it.One night when a jealous boyfriend threatens to clean Spader's clock after he tries to make some clumsy moves on his girl friend, Spader gets saved by Rob Lowe. Later on he meets Lowe and the two of them strike up a curious relationship. Spader needs lessons in unscrupulous and Lowe's a good teacher.It's all fun and games at first even when they pull a convenience store robbery, but it gets real serious when Spader has second thoughts and tries to break from Lowe. The film gets real intense.This is one of Rob Lowe's best acted films. In character Lowe is very similar to Tyrone Power's Stan Carlisle from Nightmare Alley. In fact Lowe is the closest thing we've seen to a reincarnation on the screen of Power when he does his hero/heel thing. Rob's never played the straight out hero though the way Power did also. But he's sure got the bad aspect of Power's portfolio down.Lowe dominates Bad Influence completely, but it's that kind of part. The rest of the cast performs ably and Curtis Hanson's direction to his cast is first rate. For Rob Lowe's fans not to be missed.

***SPOILER*** Being pushed around all his adult life yuppie financial analyst Michael or Mick Boll's, James Spader, abusive life made a sudden turnaround when he accidentally ran into his "Knight in Shining Armor" the mysterious Alex, Rob Lowe.Just trying to be a nice guy Michael paid for a drink that Karen,Susan Lee Hofman,didn't have the cash for. In pops Karen's jealous boyfriend Willie, Jack Kaake, who in finding out that Michael acted like a gentleman to his now estranged girlfriend tried to plant, by slamming it, his face into the counter! If it wasn't for Alex coming to Michael's rescue, with a broken beer glass, the movie "Bad Infulance" would have been over almost as soon as it began.Taking the wimpy Michael under his wing Alex gets him involved, after getting Michael stone cold drunk, in a number of armed robberies that he later uses to blackmail him with. Alex also has Michael's rival, for senior financial analyst, at his firm Patterson, Tommy Maggio, beaten to a pulp in order for Michael to get the coveted job. Not that Patterson was an innocent party in his screwing Michael by erasing all the hard work, on his personal computer, that he did to get the job.It's later that Alex really gets to work on Michael in not only getting him in bed with hooker Claire, Lisa Zane, but video taping the sleazy and sordid event. Alex uses the incriminating video to destroy Michael's wedding plans to rich well beard and sweet Ruth Fielding, Marcia Cross, whom he was engaged to marry! Later in order to keep Michael in line Alex kills Claire, with Michael's favorite golf club,in his apartment leaving him as the police's prime suspect in her murder!As it turns out Alex's plan to have Michael under his control backfired in Michael becoming almost as smart and manipulative as he is. In fact Alex in trying to make Michael into his personal slave created a Frankenstein monster instead. A monster who in the end with the help of his even more scared and wimpy older brother Pismo, Christian Clemeron, would put the arrogant and sure of himself Alex in his place! By having him take a long walk off the end of a short pier on the Pacific Ocean!You never get to know what Alex's fascination with Michael really was. Alex like the "Lone Ranger" just shows up at the bar and takes control of Michael's life as if, Michael's confrontation with Willie, was planned far in advance! Alex getting Michael involved in his murderous antics also didn't make much sense in that Michael can, like Alex did to Michael, implicate him in them as well!The only explication I can see in Alex's actions is that he just wanted to corrupt, like the Devil, a harmless and innocent person. And as it turned out it was that person, Michael, who used Alex's underhanded tactics in his own self preservation by having them boomerang on him!