Boulevard is awful. It's dire, bleak, uninteresting and void of any fun.There was always a good chance it would be terrible, so I have no-one to blame but I will watch anything that has Kari Wuhrer in it. Every character other than Kari's is awful, even Henriksen's, which was a bit of a surprise as I remember liking other roles he's played.

This is a story about an abused woman named Jennefer who leaves her awful husband and flees to Toronto. She gets tangled in the world of prostitution. Jennefer is kind of stupid and dramatic. For some reason, while she is homeless on the streets of Toronto, she confides in a pimp named Hassan (which is a weird name, since it is Arabic and Lou Diamond Phillips looks East Asian). You're just going to step into a car with suspicious dude? She even goes to his apartment despite Ola's warnings and hardly knowing the man. Also, although Jennefer is adequate and healthy, she is unable to get a job (which is also weird), so she turns to become a prostitute like Ola (which is even weirder because Jennefer said at the beginning that she could never do a job like that). And when she's not being stupid, she is screaming and crying all the time. Like ALL THE TIME. She's just too trustworthy and naive. I just feel that her character is overdone. Hassan: Hassan is an interesting character. He is violent and if his prostitutes mess with him, they pay with their lives. I like his pimp rod. Lance Henriksen is the police officer, who for some reason doesn't do anything when he knows about this prostitution ring. If he knew all about these prostitutes, I would expect him to know about Hassan and the prostitute who was killed, so why not just arrest Hassan in the first place as a suspect in the crime? Ola: When Hassan was arrested, I don't understand why she didn't just leave like she wanted to. Hassan is no longer threatening her to prostitute herself, so why does she bother? Instead she chooses to stay for some reason. I also think it's odd that Ola let Jennefer prostitute herself. If you're trying to protect Jennefer and you hate your life as it is, why would you want Jennefer to be entangled in it? And like another person has posted, I don't understand why the ticket salesman told that creepy husband of hers where she went. Also, there is a lot of nudity in this film that is not really necessary. Why must I see Jennefer naked in the shower like three times?!? Overall, this is a movie that seems to assume that men are bad and women are good. I think it conveys a good depiction of the lives of prostitutes. From this film, I feel more sorry for those who lead these types of lives, but some parts of the film didn't really make much sense.

There's some nice cinematography and atmosphere. The film makes you feel the cold of the Toronto streets where the prostitutes ply their trade. It has a nice streets of the city, Scorsese "Taxi Driver" atmosphere.Unfortunately the characters, despite some nice acting by the cast, are pretty one dimensional. They are constantly doing things that are required by the script, but make no sense. For example, why does the lead character Jennifer stand freezing on a street after arriving in Toronto instead of getting help? Why does she go with a pimp (Lou Diamond Philips) who she has seen abusing women, including her best friend, Ola. Why does her best friend, Ola, befriend the prostitutes on the street, but not report the pimp to the police when he kills a prostitute? Why does the pimp kill the prostitute? Why does the cop threaten to kill the pimp whom he knows is a murderer, but does not arrest him? Why does a ticket seller for Greyhound tell a psychotic looking boyfriend which bus she has taken, when he can just say, "I don't remember." The answer is that they are following a script that makes them all look stupid at every turn.The movie's solution to the prostitution problems it raises is simple. Prostitutes and abused girlfriends should get guns and kill their tormentors. Police should just turn a blind eye when this happens.Three stars for the cinematography and acting. Zero for everything else.

I have no idea if writer Andrea Wilde and director Penelope Buitenhuis intended to make a feminist exploitation film, but that's what Boulevard is. Kari Wuhrer plays a young woman who flees to the big city after getting knocked up by her abusive boyfriend (Joel Bissonette). Once there she tries to ignore the advances of local pimp lord Hassan (an oddly effective Lou Diamond Phillips), instead preferring the company of independent hooker Ola (Rae Dawn Chong). They're soon sharing a bath, a bed, and a Maya Angelou book. Wuhrer and Chong both deliver surprisingly good performances and the always excellent Lance Henriksen is also on hand as a vice cop. And for once, this filmed in Toronto production is actually set in...Toronto! Much better than you would expect.