Lewis & Clark & George
A sultry woman joins an illiterate killer and a brainy hacker, both escaped convicts, to search for gold.
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- Cast:
- Salvator Xuereb , Rose McGowan , Art LaFleur , James Brolin , Paul Bartel , Suzanne Mari , Tamara Clatterbuck
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Reviews
best movie i've ever seen.
Absolutely brilliant
A Masterpiece!
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
"Lewis & Clark & George" is a road movie/crime thriller/black comedy about two scumbags who escape from a New Mexican prison, Lewis (Salvator Xuereb) and Clark (Dan Gunther), the former's a murdering psycho with a charismatic spirit and the latter's a computer geek. The escapees immediately start searching for a gold treasure in a lost mine whereupon they hook up with literal gold-digger George (Rose McGowan), who happens to be mute.The movie has that quirky, "hip" flare of movies of the mid-to-late 90s, like "Pulp Fiction," "Michael," "Mojave Moon," "The Way of the Gun" and "American Psycho." If you have a taste for these types of films you might like "Lewis & Clark & George," which I find better than all of 'em except the first two.The fact that the two main protagonists are criminal scum and George isn't much nobler works against the movie because it's impossible to root for them, but the film makes up for it in numerous ways. For one, it is consistently amusing and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, like the massacre of a group of annoying vacationers. Once you get the joke, you're able to kick back and enjoy the zaniness despite the characters' moral offensiveness. Secondly, the style of the film is entertaining, including the cool soundtrack (I realize describing it as "cool" is lame, but I didn't want to use "hip" again; and "pop" doesn't quite fit). Thirdly, there are at least two quality females in the cast with the focus on McGowan's character. Although George is an increasingly despicable character, Rose is certainly a uniquely alluring and curvy woman and she's in her prime here. Needless to say, this film's a must for McGowan fans. The other female is Paula Sorge as the lonely and hyper-sexed trailer trash. Fourthly, the climax offers a fitting ending for the ignoble "protagonists."Another comparison would be 1966's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" as both films take place in the American West, are very stylized, and feature three characters vying for treasure with the inevitable mishaps and double-crosses thereof. The differences being that "Lewis & Clark & George" takes place in the modern day and one of the three protagonists is a (hot) woman (there are, incidentally, zero notable women in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), not to mention the movie's only half as long at 83 minutes, which is a good thing in my book as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is definitely overlong, good (bad and ugly) as it is.The film was shot in SW New Mexico, specifically Hillsboro, Kingston and Truth or Consequences.GRADE: B
Rose McGowen is one of those actresses who always have got me spellbound whenever on screen. For me it's the selling point of the dark, tongue-in-cheek neo-noir crossed southern cross-country road movie 'Lewis & Clark & George'. She radiantly plays George a mute, but her body language, kooky habits and that way she smokes that cigar is voluptuously presentable. It hard not to be infatuated, and there's one great sequence with her lip-syncing an old song number in the back of a pink Cadillac. Surrounding her are Salvator Xuereb and Dan Gunther as the two escaped cons. Xuereb brings random energy to his loose-wired, gun happy Lewis and Gunther's nerdy and squirmy take of Clark brings out the varying sides of the human nature between the three as they track down the hidden gold. Other than the three leading performances everything else falls down to being conventional even with its off-kilter and kinky strokes. The story (purely fantasy) is minimal with plenty of witty and trivial exchanges for comical effect (maybe they took a shine to Tarantino, but it reminded of the even better road movie that came out the same year 'Kiss or Kill') with numerous offbeat characters (look out for James Brolin, Paul Bartel, Aki Aleong and Art LaFleur) and fashionable objects. Even though it's thin on substance by virtually being tied up of bits and pieces, but it breezes by in no time nor does it outstay its welcome. It can get predictable (the usual mischievous and devious acts), but its relaxed vibe and stimulating character edge and chemistry are sure-footed. Writer / director Rod McCall uses some flashy, sped up (you know those hip) techniques (Michael Mayers smoothly rapid and inventive almost interpersonal photography style) and smartly inserts the rural locations into the action. Nothing about is fresh or stylish, but it's productively done for a slight production. The music soundtrack has a rock steady country swing that fits right in. A curious and involving low-key low-budget enterprise, but not without it lapses.
A bad Quentin Tarantino rip off, at least I hope that's what they were going for because at least then I could respect the director for admiring Tarantino. One scene a "singing" scene with Rose McGowan is far to well done and genius for this film and could have only been stumbled on by mistake by this director. So besides his Quinton inspiration and Rose McGowan and her one good scene this film sucked. Some of the crappiest dialogue I have ever heard, I'm willing to bet why McGowan doesn't speak much is because of how crappy her dialogue would have been. Tries to be funny, never is, tries to be dark and isn't, tries to be stylish and is just bland. Who dishes out the money to make movies like this, I'm hoping it was all the directors so no one else's money was wasted. If not for McGowan the whole cast is awful and when McGowan is your best hmmm, I gotta wonder.
If you are the type who loves those road [indie] flicks, then this is definitely the movie for you. The acting is great and the plot is interesting, although the ending is predictable.First off, I and many others, probably agree, that Rose McGowan saved this movie. Her beautiful face and EXTREMELY good acting is purely brilliant. Dan Gunther and Salvator Xuereb are good too. They are really good together, these three.If you like indie-road-flicks or Rose McGowan, this is the movie for you.