Yay! Movies!

I saw this first when I was in college. It's the story of one eff-upped night in the life of Paul Hackett (played by Griffin Dunne). He keeps meeting people who seem normal but end up showing a weird side. Eventually, he sprouts a weird side himself when everything builds up so much. He goes off on a long story of all the wacky things that happened to him so far. The first wacky person he meets is Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) I noticed something about Arquette. She can sound just like The Beaver from "Leave it to Beaver." Here's a quote (I wonder if you can "hear" her as The Beav):

Dunne: Do you want another coffee?
Arquette: No, I'm going to head on over to my friend's house.
Dunne: Which way you headed?
Arquette: Downtown. Soho.
Dunne: Ooo, nice. Nice. A loft?
Arquette: Yeah. She's a sculptress. [here's where she starts sounding exactly like The Beaver] Lately she's been making these plaster of paris bagels and cream cheese.
Dunne: Really?
Arquette: Yeah, she's trying to sell them as paperweights. Wanna buy one?
Dunne: Paperweight? Uhhhh... yeah. I would. How much are they?
Arquette: I don't know. Well, if you think you might be interested her number is 243-3460.

The movie gets wild and weird from there. At one point, there's a vigilante mob accompanied by a music playing ice cream truck. It's not so much a funny movie--just strange.

I liked it better the first time I saw it. The appeal is in the unknown... the "what could possibly happen next?" factor.

Judge a movie by the DVD cover rating: 2 out of 5. Except for showing Griffin Dunne, the cover doesn't give any hint about the content of the movie. It makes it seem like there's a strong tie to the clock, like someone is racing time, but that's not really true.

More information and purchase: After Hours