Review: Crack House

Cher Butler and Gregg Gomez Thomsen are teenagers trying their best to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately they live in a shitty, crime-ravaged part of L.A. so it’s only a matter of time. When Thomsen’s cousin gets gunned down by a rival gang, Thomsen decides to rejoin his old gang for some payback. Revenge is sought, someone is murdered and Thomsen goes to prison. Meanwhile, piranhas are circling poor Butler who is quickly turned into a drug addict before being sold for sex slavery. Who is she sold to? A kingpin named Steadman (Jim Brown), that’s who. It only gets worse from there for poor Butler, who is constantly used and abused and hooked on crack. Anthony Geary plays Butler’s school counsellor, who deals heroin that is supplied by Brown, Angel Tompkins plays Butler’s alcoholic mother, and Richard Roundtree is the cop in charge of resolving all of this mess.

 

Distributed by the fine folks at Cannon, this 1989 urban crime flick from director Michael Fischa (“Death Spa”, anyone?) is a favourite of Quentin Tarantino who has even set-up public screenings of the film. I’m normally of a similar taste to Tarantino in my cinematic loves, but I gotta say this one I just don’t get. The wonderfully schlocky grindhouse title is actually the best thing about this awkward bridge between Cannon FodderTM and the more serious-minded urban crime dramas that would be a part of the next decade like “New Jack City” and “Menace II Society”. The film’s got something with its characters who are all a bit compromised to say the least. However, it isn’t executed anywhere near to satisfaction at least not mine. It may have been more serious and well-intentioned than expected, but not being total exploitation junk is hardly something to praise. In fact, I may have actually preferred exploitation junk.

 

The two biggest issues here are that our two main characters are played by actors who are entirely out of their depth, and top-billed Jim Brown only turns up at the 55 minute mark. Richard Roundtree is in more of the film early on and is in fine form. He’s used to doing solid work in junk, but he’s no miracle worker. Lead actress Cher Butler (billed here as Cheryl Kay) was a former Playmate who never acted again and that certainly helps explain her dud performance somewhat. In quite a gruelling, demanding role she has no idea how to convincingly emote for the camera. I felt sorry for Butler for the situation she’s in, not the character or their situation. Casting her in such a serious, heavy role was a huge mistake and I don’t think casting TV and B-movie actress Angel Tompkins as her mother was helpful either. Gregg Gomez Thomsen has a few more credits to his name than Ms. Butler (most of them on TV), and is slightly better. Just not better enough. He’s still quite amateurish, again, the film doesn’t have the appropriate cast for the material and intent.

 

On the plus side, well even that is a mixed bag really. Familiar face Anthony Geary is suitably creepy but the idea of a teacher being a drug dealer doesn’t come across convincingly in an otherwise fairly gritty and realistic treatment of these themes. He comes off like a character in a “Death Wish” sequel or maybe an episode of “21 Jump Street”, and this seems to want to be more worthy than that. Jim Brown is very late to arrive but he turns out to be a pleasantly unpleasant surprise – he’s our main villain, a no-nonsense drug dealer. The man was no great actor but he’s got the size and intimidating presence to make it work. Jim’s a straight-up mean bastard in this one, so it's a shame the film surrounding him isn’t better. Look out for a brief appearance by future director F. Gary Gray (“The Negotiator”) as a gang member.

 

Being grim and serious alone do not make a film worthwhile. Quentin Tarantino may see more in this film than I did, I just saw a lot of flaws. Mediocre in the extreme and unsurprisingly not very well-known even with QT’s endorsement. Jim Brown and Richard Roundtree are much better than the film itself. The screenplay is by Blake Schaffer from a story by the film’s producer Jack Silverman. Like Ms. Butler, neither of them have any other IMDb credits.

 

Rating: C-

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