Wonderland *** (2003, Val Kilmer, Lisa Kudrow, Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucas) – Classic Movie Review 1687

In an excellent tour-de-force, Val Kilmer continues his bid to restore his reputation in co-writer/director James Cox’s wild, extreme 2003 movie about a real Hollywood murder. It focuses on the 70s porn movie superstar John Holmes, who was implicated when a drugs gang was slaughtered on LA’s Wonderland Avenue in 1981, leaving four people dead.

The great cast all score, especially Lisa Kudrow as Holmes’s estranged wife Sharon, Kate Bosworth as his teenage girlfriend Dawn Schiller, Dylan McDermott as his biker courtroom nemesis David Lind and Josh Lucas as Ron Launius.

Lind tells the cops that the fading, drug-addicted star Holmes set up the whole job and how the planned robbery of ‘The Arab’ turned out to be a theft from kingpin Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian), prompting Nash’s revenge killing of the gang, apart from Lind. But Holmes tells an entirely different story.

Boogie Nights influenced, Wonderland is as riveting as it is grisly and repellent.

Also starring Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson, Christina Applegate, Eric Bogosian, Carrie Fisher, Franky G, Scoot McNairy, M C Gainey, Janeane Garafolo, Ted Levine, Faizon Love and Natasha Gregson-Wagner.

Michael Pitt and Alexis Dziena suffered the ignominy of having their scenes deleted as Gopher and his girlfriend.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1687

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