Fairly compelling movie, scripted by Darryl Ponicsan from a book by none other than Ben Stein, is overall worth catching if for no other reason than to see the always excellent James Woods deliver another intense performance. He plays Lenny Brown, a hotshot salesman recruited by businessman Max Sherman (Steven Hill of the 'Law & Order' TV series) to sell real estate in California. Lenny has great success selling tax shelter investment deals to various people, but when the tax laws are changed, this marks the beginning of a sharp decline for Lenny. He ends up with very big money problems, and to try to forget his problems, he decides to start snorting cocaine and popping Quaaludes. As Lenny's situation just grows increasingly more grim and untenable, it becomes harder and harder for his wife Linda (Sean Young), an occasional user, to stand by him.Were it not for an actor of Woods's caliber, one may find it not too easy to sympathize with his character. As it is, Leonard Maltins' guide to movies points out that there's no major difference in Lenny before and after his drug addiction begins. Still, director Harold Becker, who'd previously worked with Woods on "The Onion Field" and "The Black Marble", does manage to keep you watching through all of the melodrama that develops. The film may be most notable for the off screen drama involving co-stars Woods and Young, but on screen they work together well enough. She's not exactly his match as an actor, but does look beautiful at all times. Hill is a standout in the decent supporting cast including John Kapelos, Kelle Kerr, John Rothman, Amanda Blake (in her final feature film), Grace Zabriskie, and an uncredited John Philbin. The music by Stanley Myers is one worthy component. In the end, it *is* commendable that the filmmakers are willing to get as grim as they do get, with seemingly no hope in sight.As a cautionary tale, this works to a degree, although the Maltin review is also right when it says that the film goes on for quite a bit before it becomes clear that's it's about dependency on drugs. It's an okay movie, with Woods raising the rating a bit by himself.Six out of 10.

An interesting movie, particularly if you enjoy seeing someone suffer even more than you.The tale is a familiar one. Ambitious salesman has devoted wife whom he loves. He gets into making money -- big money. Mercedes, a modest multi-million dollar house in a fashionable section of Los Angeles. Magnums of rare champagne at fancy restaurants. Half a million non-refundable dollars invested in real estate in Cabo, where they serve, in Sybaritic establishments, elegantly prepared and formally presented authentic Mexican dishes made entirely of ingredients from cans of Rosarita products.But the sales business hits a bump. Not a bottomless pit, just a kind of tombe. Down in the dumps, the salesman takes some cocaine to get a temporary boost. His wife advises him devotedly, "Why don't we get out of here? Can we just stay home and talk?" But his career continues to drop erratically downward into debt and degradation. He talks his devoted wife into trying cocaine. (She stares at the apparatus and asks, "Is that what I think it is?") Pretty soon they're doing several lines a day. He begins to slap her around, though she's pregnant now. (One guess at the fate of the fetus.) He spazzes out on some bad street s***. He humiliates himself in a public place. When he spills his coke on the floor he throws himself on his knees and begins sniffing furiously at the shag like a coyote in a garbage dump. They find a dead body on their doorstep. Their dog runs away. That kind of thing. I forget the end, but I suppose there was an epiphany. Something along the lines of "Money Doesn't Mean Everything," or, "Just say no to drugs," or both.In order to fully appreciate this film you have to perform a thought experiment. Think of the salesman, James Woods, the hypomanic, speech-pressured human-perpetual-motion machine. Got the image? Good. Now imagine James Woods on coke.If you've seen "Days of Wine and Roses" you've got a good idea of what this one is like, a kind of "Days of Coke and Roses." Did Ben Stein really write this thing? Did Darryl Poinicsan do the screenplay? Not that it's insultingly bad. It's just that it's so thoroughly pedestrian. Years ago, before anyone knew anything about drugs, I kept running into plants in Pago Pago that people said were magic "koka". I collected an armload of leaves, made an infusion of them, and applied the stuff to open sores and sometimes asked people to drink it. Nobody's pain went away and nobody got high, although I had my notebook at the ready. As I was told later, they weren't coca plants but cocoa plants. Humped by a single whimsical orthomeme and a complete ignorance of cultigens.

Directed by Vision Quest director, Harold Becker, The Boost is a fairly disturbing, though sometimes corny, illustration of the rise and fall of the late 80s yuppie--who's downfall usually came (at least in movies like these) from a coke habit. (See Bright Lights, Big City, Clean & Sober, and Less Than Zero...although the latter is more disturbing in it's original form as Easton's novel).This is the story about the tragic downfall of Lenny Brown (James Woods), a regular guy with a knack as a salesman who seems to falter in, I suppose, trying to impress his wife, Linda (Sean Young) that he is not going to be a struggling salesman his whole life. Opportunity presents himself when a wealthy real-estate speculator (in a business that is mostly a scam--selling property to the filthy rich for the purpose of a tax write-off) and Lenny Brown proves to his trusting boss, Max (Stephen Hill), that he is good at what he does. With his new job, comes a new life for Lenny and Linda, one with the luxuries of fast money and fast living. And with it, a rude awakening.Linda grows bored and skeptical of the new life, particularly when money is all Lenny talks about. Just like every party, it soon comes to an end, and when there is a chance that the tax shelter will be closed, Lenny's job is at risk. He's blown too much money already to just sit on his hands and wait for things to pick up. But, he's strapped for cash, gets fired from his job after his boss discovers he's been stealing, and there'll be no easy solution to his dilemma since he's adopted a new coke habit. He and Linda, both.It's hard for reality to kick in. For Linda, it takes a while, but for Lenny, one failure after another, taking him farther and farther away from the high-life he intended to someday return to, he never seems to recover. After a while, he just becomes pathetic, and incapable of really fixing himself up, although it seemed like for a while, he could. These are the powerful moments in the film, that there seems like nothing that could ever pull Lenny out of his slump, no matter how hard he tries. It's one bad circumstance after another and Lenny just keeps giving in, just a little more, just for that one "boost", to help him out, all the while ignoring that it is exactly what keeps him sinking deeper and deeper into a hole he's gotten himself so far into, he's never going to recover. The final scene makes this very clear as he joins the ranks of an insolvent coke dealer, mumbling about his wife, who had long ago left him.There are some cornier moments written into the film, particularly towards the beginning when we must see Linda and Lenny in their more romantic, newlywed sentiment. Some of Lenny's dialog in particular, seems a bit ridiculous, too, especially in his moments of grandeur. It does take until about half-way in the film to make the point, of the misery of addiction, very clear and very disturbing.The Boost is the yuppie meeting the inevitable fate of his dystopia.

This film is right up there with The Oscar and Moment by Moment as one of unintentionally funny films of all time.It is worth the rental for a some wildly great laugh's.The story is absolutely ludicrous.nothing in life would happen like this.it's so completely unbelievable. the way James Woods tries and hustle heavy hitters, than they give this supposed two-bit hustler a job 3000 miles away in LA what a jokeI love the old beat VW bug to signify how low they've gotten in life because of all the `tootski's'.Sean Young is as unbelievably bad as the, "I'll love you forever, no matter what, wife" you'll ever see.if it wasn't so funny you would throw up at how sugary sweet Young tries to project herself.and as bad acting as you'll ever see.James Wood overacts throughout the whole movie and he's so extremely funny and is way, way over the top, it's just not to be believed, Woods seems like a parody of a cocaine fiend off Saturday Night Live.but watching Woods on `ludes' is worth the price of the rental.I love it when Woods tells the guy who wants to give him some more `ludes' that he doesn't do that stuff anymore, right before that, Woods just did three giant lines of coke.This is some very funny stuff.The ending is so comical but right on par with the rest of the movie.