It's got a bit of "This is America! Go for your dreams!" quality but it's surrounding by themes of greed, violence, and the lure of young flesh. I'm not entirely sure what KING COBRA has to say. Keegan, though playing a dimwitted child, effectively navigates the troubled past of his character, making his actions all the more believable. Clayton's Corrigan is a bit of a blank, but I enjoyed the twinkle in his eye as he starts to recognize his power. Fortunately, Slater steps right in and delivers a sad, touching portrayal of a complicated man who covets his star but fails to recognize the contributions he has made to his own success.
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Suddenly, this small town movie started to feel a lot like Hollywood! Like a lot of Franco's output of late, he's more interested in shaking up the status quo with his insane antics than he is in delivering a performance of any sort of subtlety and nuance. It's exactly what I imagine every narcissistic sociopathic climber to scream instead of, say, "Namaste". I did, however, enjoy watching him and Harlow working out while screaming their success mantra, "No little bitches!" over and over.
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Good things can't come about when these two stories intersect, especially when Stephen has no intention of letting anyone else use Corrigan's famous name in any other productions but his.įranco, in full SPRING BREAKERS mode, yells most of his lines, which tends to grate after a while. Harlow and Joe, like Stephen and Sean, are a couple, but instead of confidence and financial success, they exude desperation, trauma, and a will to do anything to get ahead. Unfortunately, Joe is a completely unhinged psychopath who has his own young budding porn star Harlow (Keegan Allen of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS) under his wing. Meanwhile, a rival company headed by Franco's Joe takes note of Corrigan's fame and wants to lure him his way. Being a controlling producer, Stephen doesn't want to pay Corrigan what he's worth. Being a rising star, Corrigan wants a much bigger piece of the pie. The relationship works for a while and Stephen is raking in cash. Stephen takes Sean into his home, becomes his sexual and business partner, but Stephen maintains ownership of the name, Brent Corrigan. It's the early 2000's and porn has found a cozy spot on the internet. Played with a slightly smarmy confidence by Garrett Clayton, best known as a Disney kid from TEEN BEACH MOVIE and about to appear in HAIRSPRAY LIVE, he captures the attention of Stephen (Christian Slater), a lonely, closeted, insecure film producer who sees dollar bills in his young charge. As long as you don't take the film too seriously, it's a small, creepy look at two trains hurtling towards each other, and you spend most of the running time waiting for that big crash. Moreover, the film captures a touching feeling of loneliness and that frantic feeling that you just might not have enough money to live. In fact, when Silverstone first appears, she says to Corrigan, her son, "It's so great to see you again!", and I thought to myself, "It's so great to see you again too, Alicia!" A victim of underwriting and under-lighting, Ringwald appears almost unrecognizable in her two scenes as Stephen's worried sister. Despite some very limited screen time, I loved seeing Alicia Silverstone and Molly Ringwald back in action. Writer/Director Justin Kelly (I AM MICHAEL) has created an intimate psycho-drama here, and your enjoyment of it depends entirely on your ability to accept audaciousness and silliness concurrently.įor me, I had a pulpy good time. James Franco, the busiest (Over) Actor in the business has another one for you, and like so many of his others, it's salacious, lurid, often over-the-top, and GAY, GAY, GAY! Fairly shallow but always entertaining, KING COBRA tells the ripped-from-the-headlines true story of the battle to represent gay porn star Brent Corrigan (real name Sean Lockhart) and the resulting murder of one of those involved.
THE UNION OF THE SNAKES - My Review of KING COBRA (3 1/2 Stars)