Did you people see the same film I saw?

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Honestly one of the worst movies I have ever seen! Really if you have something else to do you should definitely prefer it.

So we are introduced to and follow a group of hustlers living on the very buttom of society. We zoom in on Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanou Reeves) each with their sad story that slowly unfolds.Mike is really tragic and sad. His mental state seemed to be infantile and instead of dealing with diverse inner conflicts in a manner that could have some sort of therapeutic effect he escapes into one narcoleptic seizure after another. It was as if he needed to start life all over again by returning to the very time of birth and here being nurtured as supposed.Hollow as a result, responsibility that follows an adult life was by any standard not possible. The relationships that could be established was superficial and more driven by common destiny with the others in the group than by an explicit choice. With one exception. Scott. Their friendship though still rested on the premise that Scott needed to stay in a position as the grown up who could be in charge.Otherwise Mike only had short moments of joy when luxury in a hotelroom etc. could be enjoyed as a prelude to the exchange of sex for money. Luckily the director had chosen not to depict these scenes - it would have very unpleasant, maybe even as watching a peadophile scene, and without a real purpose. It was easy enough to imagine.Scott is finally able to break his social heritage and with that the friendship with Mike. This is depicted in the most beautiful ending scene where both Mike and Scott attends a funeral at the same church yard at the same time and the estrangement between the two is shown with great effect.The acting in itself makes the movie worth watching. One thing is the undeniable talent of both River Phoenix and Keanou Reeves but the directing seemed to provoke different modes of acting.At certain times it seemed as if the acting had an almost theatrical quality to it. It consisted of monologes that seemed to be spoken out to an audience all the while the actor walked around, like on a theater scene.At another time it seemed as we were watching an interview with two hustlers telling about their first experience selling sex.And then we had the two scenes, surreal in their quality, where sex and a strong and odd narcissistic tendency blended together which gave the feeling that this was a way of dealing with a topic in a more humerous way that didn´t correspond with the more general narrative. They existed in their own right. And right they had! The target audience to this movie is hard to define. You must find out yourself...Regards Simon

I love watching River Phoenix act in this movie. He creates such a style and performance originality, in this real out there offbeat film, we are still reminded, of what a super great or more correctly, unique actor, he was, his acting talent and versatility, stretching more, than that of De Caprio. Along with Reeves, who's fair here, they're homeless hustlers, who dirty old pervs, mainly men, pay them for their services. Phoenix is on a search to find his mother, that takes him, with best friend Reeves, across a few states, to no avail. The film has comical moments, as well as some intriguing scenes, this fascinating piece of work, is not tainted one bit, in it's twenty two years of it's existence when watching it. Rich handsome, older perv, Hans (Udo Kier) has one trademark scene, where he's doing an exotic dance, lamp and all, to an old fifties tune, for our two hustler's benefit. A later scene has the three in a naked menois de trois of pose shots, Phoenix wearing bra and panties, that honestly wanted to make me puke, as a couple of other scenes did, like one young hustler, describing some sexual wants of his customer. I loved James Remar in this, his confrontation with Phoenix, when trying to pass him off as not his real father, his corny story I loved. The scene stealer here, was the veteran homeless drunk, Bob, a deep charismatic, and thespian orchestrated performance. What was the real heartbreaking moment of the film to be honest, was the severing friendship of Phoenix and Reeves towards the end, as Reeves falls for someone of the opposite sex, while turning his back on his whole homeless troupe. Reeves living up the high life after pop passes away, had me questioning if this was real, as it just seemed weird, in light of all that happened before this. o me this part didn't seem real. A lot of images to this film (dolphins flying through the sea, a barn crashing down, etc) and many other offbeat attractions, make this film, one of those fascinating and undying classics of peculiar tastes. I couldn't understand though as a hustler in this, Phoenix, wasn't attracting much female clientele. The whole attraction to this film is it's weirdness, and it doesn't stop, being weird right up to the end. If you love River Phoenix, you have to watch this film. Gus Van Sant's most daring work. I mean how often do you see Keanu atop River, rolling around under covered sheets.

Every time I see this film, I forget how incredibly amazing it is. Yes I'm a huge fan of of the late, great, River Phoenix, think Keanu Reeves is highly underrated, and love Shakespeare. This is a modern adaptation to Henry IV, based around two hustlers Mike and Scott (River and Keanu) and their relationship, with the added wrinkle that Mikey is a narcoleptic and trying to find his long lost mother. Scott is the rich boy who turns his back on his street life when his inheritance kicks in. River's performance is astounding, tender and powerful, and it's a brave pair of best friends (in real life) that take on roles like this but the affection between them is palpable and somehow makes the story of unrequited love even more heartbreaking.The Shakespeare gets confusing if you aren't familiar, as it washes in and out, and if you haven't seen Gus Van Sant before you might not quite follow the surreal imagery and the trippy nature of the film. It's arty, weird and dark, but has a lot of humour and sensitivity, despite being a little bawdy in places, however for all it's adult subject matter it's quite discrete! River and Keanu are astounding in this, and it's a film that River should be remembered for as the bright star he was.