I owned this on DVD for a several years before I ever watched it. I'm sorry I did'nt watch it sooner. Dennis Hopper playing his usual bad guy role is really good. He plays a cop. Who is assigned to a case of a stripper who nearly got raped. He decides the stripper needs reforming so he kidnaps her and puts her in a jail cell in his basement. Once there he puts her on a point system. where she has to earn points to get something she needs. Like a shower, Fork, etc. I don't want to give away what happens from then out, but lets just say it was enough to keep me glued to my chair after 2 am on a work night. In my opinion this film is well worth seeing. Dennis Hopper is Great. I also enjoyed Asia Argento's portrayal of the stripper. Overall, A fun little movie I will re-visit again.

I don't dislike many films, but this is one of them. Admittedly I came in about half an hour into it and left long before the end, but I don't think I could stomach any more.I won't bore you with the plot that's outlined in several other comments and in the plot summary itself, but it's an interesting concept. Unfortunately, it isn't pulled off. This film could easily have made the viewers wonder about good and bad. This seemingly good man doing a job to benefit the community etc. has keeps a young stripper locked up in his basement.I love my slow-moving, dialogue driven films, but only when they have something to draw me in, be it the acting, dialogue itself or a well-deserving theme. However this has none. Dennis Hopper was a big disappointment with no emotion or conviction in his character. There was no clear difference between his character in the basement and his character out in public. Possibly a good thing, but not when the acting is so unenthusiastic and effortless. Asia's character was completely unbelievable, and I don't really blame her for this. I put this down to the awful script and bad directing. For the portion of this film I saw, she feebly and clumsily tried to escape and failed miserably, again, with no effort or conviction. After that, she seemed happy to be kept in the secret prison. Okay, possibly as a sort of two-faced reaction, except without the slightest hint of the face of hatred and desperation.I also noticed a considerable lack of mis-en-scene. The only thing I can point out and call mis-en-scene would be the constant feel of claustrophobia, even when out of the basement. Other than that, colours and lighting were always fairly bright and jolly, hardly the kind of emotions you want to give off. Also, on the note of lighting, the basement was hardly believable as a basement, because it had so much light. There seemed to be no shadows in this cramped, underground, usually dark room.If you want a decent thriller, watch something else...anything else.

When I saw the plot outline for this film, plus the fact Dennis Hopper was in it, I had a feeling it was a film I would enjoy-- and it definitely was.Dennis Hopper plays a demented cop in this film-- the type of role that he does so well.The story begins with an exotic dancer named Gina (Asia Argento) and her worthless boyfriend. The two of them run into some heavy trouble at the motel where they're staying, but that is just the beginning of Gina's problems.Lt. Krebs (Dennis Hopper) has some rather quirky ideas about what's best for Gina, and once she crosses his path, he implements them.The characters in this film were interesting, the script was well written, and everyone in the cast did a bang up job. The plot had plenty of twists, yet remained clear and easy to follow-- something I can't say about very many films that I see these days. It kept me guessing, and it also got me involved with the characters-- wanting to know more about them and caring what happened to them.I highly recommend this film for anyone who likes psychological suspense thrillers.9 Stars

Gerald Sanford, the writer, has given us a story about an unhinged officer of the law (Hopper) who kidnaps a rootless crime victim (Argento) and keeps her in a cell in his basement, where she must earn "points" to gain privileges. So far, nothing much original. "The Collector" had more going for it.But the script has Dennis Hopper delivering a couple of lectures to his prisoner which he pulls off with panache although, in fact, the logic is as twisted as Hopper's character. I wish I could repeat all of them verbatim but they go something like this.Hopper gives Argento breakfast and she dashes it through the bars of her cage onto the floor. When Hopper returns from work, he sees a rat nibbling at the breakfast. He blows the rats brains out. Then, in a patient but annoyed tone of voice, he asks her rhetorically: "Now, look what you've done. I make you a nice breakfast. You throw it away. A rat starts eating it. I blow the rat away. Who's fault is THAT? Is it MY fault for fixing you the breakfast? I was being nice to you. Is it Mister RAT's fault for eating it? Absolutely not. It is all YOUR fault. And I'll bet you never gave a thought to Mr. Rat's family. The starving Mrs. Rat and the little baby Rats." Hopper explains all this as if it makes perfect sense, no more complicated than one plus one equals two.In another scene, later, he tells Argento that he has to testify at a friend's Internal Affairs hearing. The friend, Officer Burns, gave a speeding ticket to a black man who claimed that it was racism. "I know Officer Burns," he says, "and he hasn't got a prejudiced bone in his body. He's even got a Jewish wife. He might even be a Jew himself. 'Burns' could be short for 'Bernstein'." When he returns from the meeting, he tells Argento, "Well, aren't you going to ask me how my day went? After I testified the judge asked me what Burns' Jewish wife had to do with the speeding ticket. I told him that I had checked the speeders background and it turned out that in the past year alone, he'd had other speeding tickets. Three of them. And two were handed out by policemen of his OWN PERSUASION." I won't give any more examples, I think, because those are the ones that leap most readily to mind -- and I don't want to stroke out laughing.Hopper, as Sheriff Krebs, is older and chunkier than we're used to. He was my supporting player in "Blue Velvet." Not that, as an extra, I spoke to him but we exchanged glances that were charged with indecipherable meaning. His face has plumped out a bit, gotten wider, and with his shades he looks a bit like the elder Truman Capote. He seems to switch smoothly from raging maniac to socially responsible sheriff and back again as the situation requires. A kind of Krebs cycle. (If anybody gets THAT pun, let me know and I will send you a personal check for fifteen cents.)Asia Argento doesn't really look much like anyone else. Everything about her appearance, from her plump lips to her throaty Italian-accented voice, seems to radiate a kind of feral heat. The first thing she spends her earned "points" on is a shower, which she takes nude on screen. All women in R-rated movies take showers on screen at one point or another. And the showers are not merely instrumental but expressive too. The actresses close their eyes and smile and loll their heads around and soap up their breasts. Not that I mean to devalue the functionality of the act. It's reassuring to know that these girls are so terribly clean.There's some kind of sub plot involving Hopper playing with puppets and Helen Shaver wanting to turn him into Buffalo Bob or Kermit the Frog or something. Shaver discovers the captive and tries to blackmail Hopper into becoming her permanent lover. This is foolish of her. You do not blackmail Dennis Hopper. Shaver gives the best, most modulated performance.Well, the story's ridiculous, though tense enough to carry an undemanding viewer along for most of its length. There aren't really any surprises in it. It could have been written by a computer. But there are a few minor gems sprinkled about in the dialog.