This old VHS tape was resurrected and dubbed to DVD (with little skill) because and only because Christian Slater's name has come to have commercial value. Without his presence in this film, there is no DVD. From the IMDb reviews I've read it seems unlikely anybody got rich on this threadbare scam. Most reviewers here seem to have found their copies in 99c bins. Slater is fine and so are the actors around him. The person of greatest interest to me was actually Veronica Cartwright (who plays his mother). I've seen the face (and those haunted eyes) before, although perhaps not so young-looking. What really amazed me though was how many acting credits the woman has. It looks like she didn't take many holidays during a peak 20 year period. Seriously, have a look at her resume. Can you name a lot of TV shows she HASN'T appeared in? Just to use up my spoiler warning, let me point out the question many of you did: Who dun it? Are we supposed to assume Christian did? That was far from clear to me.

Good lord, what a terribly boring made-for-TV movie this was! I assume that all of the good reviews (of what few reviews their are to begin with) are from those who's nostalgic overload clouded good judgment because this certainly isn't anything I'd recommend to anyone was looking for entertainment.Based on a true story, Christian Slater, Brian Bloom, and Tammy Lauren play three high school friends in rural Georgia. Bloom plays the pretty boy jock who's chances of moving out of the Georgia town are high since college prospects come naturally to a football talent. Slater is socially inept and isn't likely to go anywhere. Like his dad, he assumes that people expect his only mobility beyond their town will be the state pen. And Lauren plays a naive teen who is desperate for the attention of Bloom's character. We've seen this a billion times before (Promised Land was one of the more depressing versions, and mostly told as an outcome of this narrative).So, Bloom's parents don't like Lauren's crazy father and forbid him from seeing her, which I suppose is fine with him since she won't stop nagging him about getting married. Meanwhile, Slater doesn't think that Bloom's character treats the girl (who he is secretly infatuated with) right and yada...yada...yada...you can figure out what he's on trial for murder (this being told in flashback format).Unfortunately, the characters are a bunch of self-important whino's, especially Lauren and Slater's characters. And characters like that evoke little empathy in a story where they may be misunderstood kids or whatever, so then what's the point? There is nothing remotely interesting, and very little social commentary to at least accompany the events. Sure, I got lured into it because it was a late 80s Slater and Bloom team-up, but you'd be wise to avoid the eighty minutes or so of boredom and take my advice--skip it.

Paid less than the price of a rental for the DVD, but it was clearly printed from a VHS tape in mediocre condition. The editing was brutal, but I'm not sure that it was the tape's fault, I think the software used to master the DVD was crap. The result is a very chopped (jarring) feeling ... I felt like the last 10 seconds of every major segment was lost.Anyway ... the acting is quite good in my opinion. Christian Slater gives a good account of himself, but it's another dark performance, which is his specialty. The girl emotes well, as does the mother. All in all, I found it easy to get and stay in the story.The plot is pretty standard, but since it is based on true events, it would be kind of hard to criticize on that anyway. I have to say that I enjoyed it. It is certainly worth the low price being charged these days, especially if you like Christian Slater.

i'm a hardcore christian slater fan and i couldn't even watch this entire movie.. it's awful... maybe i didn't like it because i'm not a small town white trash cow girl.. [at one point Christian Slater actually talks about how he can't do his "raising a bull" school assignment because his family needed money so they had to sell it].. i bought the movie for $5 and i'm willing to give it to the first person who wants it.. i haven't even watched the whole thing.. i couldn't stand it.