That was an excellent one.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I didn't see this when it came out, and just saw it over 25 years past its release. As I loved "The New Kids", from 1985, which starred James Spader, I purchased a 2 movie DVD that included this film. It started out well, and had a really intriguing premise, where an uptight young professional meets a free spirit, Rob Lowe, who takes it upon himself to loosen up Spader and get him to enjoy life more. For a while this works well, both entertaining and often humorous, but as it goes on, it gets more and more unlikely, and ultimately seems totally implausible. Curtis Hanson is a fine director and has done far better films, including "L.A. Confidential", and "The River Wild", the latter one of my all-time favorites. This is really a "B" movie, which is not an indictment, but while it was watchable and fun, it kind of tailed off as it often went over the top. First half 7, last half 4.

I think the real surprise of "Bad Influence" is that James Spader's not the bad guy. He's actually the good one, or this movies version of one anyway. The real sleaze is the fresh-faced Rob Lowe, going full-psycho.This movie pulls you in because Spader's a weakling, whose fortunes really take a positive turn after a chance encounter with the supportive Lowe. It's nice to see someone take charge and make things happen in their life; but that only lasts so long before the relationship sours and things get really bad. But there's also the moral quandary involved (Spade can't go to the police because hands aren't exactly clean) and that keeps things from settling into a tired stalker/prey groove.A good script and stylish direction really make this stand out as a noirish thriller. The two leads (on paper) seem better suited to the opposite roles, but they pull it off. And even though the ending has its surprises, it still stays true to the story.The influence might be bad, but the movie isn't.

"Bad Influence" is an example of that sub-genre of the thriller which I have come to think of as the "……. from Hell" film. The basic plot of such films is that a stranger comes into the life of the hero. At first this stranger seems affable and friendly, but quickly reveals himself or herself to be a dangerous criminal or psychopath, and the hero finds that he is in danger. The genre is an old one; this is, for example, the plot of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train". It was, however, given a new lease of life in the late 1980s and 1990s by the success of "Fatal Attraction" (or "One-Night Stand from Hell"). Other examples include "Pacific Heights" ("Tenant from Hell"), "Single White Female" ("Flatmate from Hell") and "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" ("Nanny from Hell"). This last film, like "Bad Influence", was directed by Curtis Hanson. There are also elements of the "…. from Hell" plot in "The River Wild", another Hanson film from the nineties.The plot of "Bad Influence" can be summarised as "Bloke-you-meet-in-a-bar from Hell". The hero, Michael is a young business executive, the sort of person who in the eighties or nineties would have been described by the now-dated slang term "yuppie". Yuppies during this period were normally characterised as pushy, aggressive, go-getting types, but Michael is anything but. He is a wimp who lacks self-confidence and allows himself to be pushed around at work by his unscrupulous colleague Patterson, his rival for an important promotion, and at home by his domineering fiancée Ruth. (Marcia Cross in the days before she became a desperate housewife).One evening Michael tries to chat up a girl in a bar, and is saved from being beaten up by her jealous boyfriend by a mysterious stranger, a young man named Alex. (Interestingly enough, the female antagonist in "Fatal Attraction" also bore this same unisex Christian name). Alex not only befriends Michael but also encourages him to be more self-assertive. Under Alex's tutelage Michael finds the courage to stand up to Patterson. Alex also engineers the break-up of Michael's relationship with Ruth, something which does not unduly concern him, partly because he was never really in love with her, partly because Alex finds him a new girlfriend, a sexy good-time girl named Claire.And then, of course, it all starts to go wrong. It always does in films of this nature. Alex turns out to be not only a criminal but also completely mad. Under his influence Michael takes part in two armed robberies, following which the two men break into Patterson's home and beat him up. Michael, alarmed at the way things are developing, tries to end his association with Alex, only to find that Alex is not a man to take no for an answer. He not only steals all of Michael's possessions but also murders Claire and leaves her body in his apartment. Not that Alex has anything in particular against Claire; he just wants her dead so that he can frame Michael for the murder.Well, it's not just Michael's life that's going Pete Tong. The film itself has been teetering on the edge of absurdity for some time, and it is around this point that it stops teetering and plunges in headfirst. Hanson and his scriptwriter have ignored two cardinal rules of the "….. from Hell" movie. The first is that the hero or heroine must be someone with whom the audience can identify. Michael Douglas's character in "Fatal Attraction", for example, may have been guilty of a moral lapse when he cheated on his wife, but he nevertheless remains an Everyman figure with whom we can sympathise, someone being punished excessively for a single error of judgement. James Spader 's Michael, by contrast, is less an Everyman than a prize jerk. Someone who will happily participate in no fewer than three violent felonies as some sort of virility test suggested by a casual acquaintance can only be described as both mentally and morally defective.The second rule that the film ignores is that, in the most successful "….. from Hell" movies the villain must also be someone whom the audience can at least understand, even if they cannot identify or sympathise with him or her. Both Glenn Close's Alex in "Fatal Attraction" and Rebecca de Mornay's Peyton in "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" commit evil deeds, but both are motivated by very understandable, and all too common, human emotions, sexual jealousy in the first example and desire for revenge in the second. Rob Lowe's Alex is not motivated by anything other than an insane urge to commit crimes at the behest of the scriptwriter in order to make the film as lurid and sensational as possible. Alex's character might have been more comprehensible had the film explored in greater depth the latent homosexual attraction which is implied between the two men, in which case his villainy, like that of his female namesake in "Fatal Attraction", could have been explained as the result of anger following rejection by a lover. Even in the nineties, however, Hollywood could often be coy about turning gay subtext into gay text- see also "The Talented Mr. Ripley", etc- and this angle was never pursued.I watched this film largely because it was directed by Hanson who also made the excellent "L.A. Confidential", perhaps the best neo-noir of the nineties, and was also responsible for good thrillers like "The River Wild" and "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle". "Bad Influence", unfortunately, is just not in the same class. It is an over-the-top, implausible thriller whose ostensible hero is nearly as unsympathetic as its villain. 4/10

I just watched this movie on account of being a big Boston Legal, I am a big James Spader fan, and this movie really delivered!Generally, for those who have not seen the film, it is about a guy named Michael Boll played by James Spader, who gets intoxicated at a party and ends up robbing two places late a night with a psychotic good for nothing named Alex played by Rob Lowe. A colleague at Michael Boll's place of work ended up getting beaten up very bad by some thugs, and and Boll think's he was responsible for it as his knuckles were beaten up and bloody and he cannot remember what happened. Throughout the plot, questions are answered about Boll's involvement with the colleague getting beat up, and eventually the character Alex starts to go loony on Boll and try's to frame him for a crime.The rest of the film is a suspenseful ride in which (the big moment for Boston Legal fans) Christian Clemensen comes into the movie, playing Spader's character's brother. The two of them go through the movie alert that someone may be out to kill them, and they have to get the story straight on the crime(s) committed once and for all. Of course, to make the most sense of the movie, you have to see it, but my debrief of what this movie is about should help you determine if you want to see it or not. I have seen a few other of Spader's films (Pretty in Pink and Secretary) and I think this is my favorite so far. Spader puts on a very convincing performance and one thing I have to say about this film is this; it's an enjoyable suspense movie because it does not drag on for too long. One thing I really hate about modern suspense movies is they drag on for too long. Eventually, the suspense and thrill of a modern suspense movie die off because of the movie being dragged on with special effects and crappy acting. Well Bad Influence has neither one of those attributes to make the movie suck. It focuses on a simple and suspenseful story line with questions of the plot answered fast enough that you don't get bored of the movie. This isn't the best movie in history, but it's definitely one worth seeing whether your like suspense movies or not.