Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Pretty Good

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I found a copy of this movie paired on the same DVD with the 1997 Gary Cole movie "Santa Fe". It was an apt pairing, because I found both movies to be extremely strange (though each was strange in its own original way.) Anyway, on to "American Strays"... As others here have pointed out, there is a strong Quentin Tarantino feeling to this movie, with its multiple stories and its quirky characters. Admittedly, with the movie jumping from one story to another every few minutes, the movie certainly never gets dull. But all the same, at the end the movie is somewhat unsatisfying. I think a big problem with the movie is that many of the characters are TOO quirky, coming across as live action cartoon characters instead of believable yet quirky people. Another problem is that while the movie tries to bring all the stories together at the end, there are two stories that don't really have a connection to the other stories that unfold during the movie. This movie really needed a few more rewrites before filming started. It's not an awful movie - as I said, it's not boring - but its unsatisfying edge will probably turn off a mass audience. In the end, the only people who will probably embrace the movie warts and all are those who are big fans of quirky low budget independent movies.

Quentin Tarantino gets under my skin, where Richard Rodriguez does not. Its a corner of myself I do not quite understand. If you have QT wonder, this could help.Tarantino places the viewer as a sort of museum visitor. He has this virtual video store of references, sometimes well arranged. You are not supposed to actually experience anything; you are supposed to slowly walk by while they blast something out, coming to meet you. Its cinema by advertising, experience by push.I like it better when a filmmaker builds something I can enter; it doesn't matter whether it is an escape or not. If he builds niches for me to enter and explore, if he invites or teases me in, then I commit, I invest, I experience and am changed somehow.This apparently trivial movie does that. Its just as brutally comic as the QT school, with its faux quaintness and engineered humor. It also avoids the challenge of long form film-making by assembling numerous small stories. It similarly is a pastiche of references from other, real films, films with actual identity. But it works.Three real stories here, all love stories. The suicidal loser who gets the sexy traveler; the outresourced husband who "finds" his wife and place again; and the two serial killers who find each other and ride off together. They are stitched by common local, similar upholstery and a temporally but not spatially shared climax.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This movie is basically a satire of the American west and the crazy people who live there - here in my case.Contrary to some other reviewers - the script of this movie is a work of art - the acting nothing short of total excellence.It's the kind of movie that deserves an academy award - much like Mullholland Drive did - but the academy seldom gives awards too truly brilliant movies.I'm not writing this review to explain the plot - but just too put some words down on paper stating how really good this movie is.Perhaps if anything the movie - the script - the acting - is all too beautiful - too intelligent and too brilliant - because apparently some people - some reviewers - lack a soul or have an empty one and simply can not see outwardly what does not exist within.The mesmerizing acting of Jennifer Tilly is worth the price of admission in itself - but all the acting in this movie goes beyond just good.

He's a really nasty piece of work. This is His first encounter with Luke Perry's character, johnny, who is trying unsuccessfully to commit suicide, and answers a newspaper ad for the Exterminator.Exterminator: The world is small, but God is great, to reunite Me with My little buddy from schooldays past.johnny! Oh, you always hated to be called johnny, didn't you?Well, johnny, what's the trouble? you've run into a bit of bad luck? And you need your old friend to help you out? I would just be tickled f***in' pink to help you out, johnny. And I'm gonna do it for nothin, My old friend.[The Exterminator delivers several hard left punches to johnny's face.]Just like old times, huh, johhny? I told ya.[The Exterminator keeps punching. johnny's lip is bleeding. The Exterminator punches with more relish now. He is literally drooling with pleasure.]I told ya. I told ya I'd fix everything.