Dangerous Men is America seen through the eyes of someone who only knows it through poorly translated episodes of CHiPs and Miami Vice.
As directed by John C. Rad, an Iranian filmmaker who left after the fall of the Shah, it's a pastiche of most of the films you flipped past while watching cable at 3:00 am in the 1980s.
Here's what you can expect: a spindly heroine threatened with rape by every man she meets; a roving biker gang that hangs out in a bar resembling a TGI-Friday's; extended sex scenes between rather unattractive men and women; a surfer dude kingpin named Black Pepper; police that carry Uzis; and a porn-style soundtrack that reigns supreme over it all.
But whereas many "so bad they're good" moves can get slowpaced, especially in the third act, Dangerous Men is fast-paced and consistently inconsistent. Characters come in and out at a breakneck pace. Plotlines are dropped and picked up. And every scene contains some sort of oddity that makes it worthwhile and that, eventually, we begin to gleefully anticipate.
However, I don't think Dangerous Men is merely a happy accident. Director Rad not only had the stamina to keep the delirium going (through the 80s and 90s when it was shot), but also approaches the material with a sincerity and sweetness that play straightman to the film's eccentricities.
I saw Dangerous Men in a one-off screening in L.A. and, checking the film's website, am pleased to report it will be playing in other cities nationwide.
See it if you have the chance -- you might not get the opportunity again.
February 06, 2006
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