Many were iffy about Wim Wenders' Faraway, So Close (available on video) and The End of Violence (also available on video), but those films have a lot going for them. The Million Dollar Hotel is the director's true "disasterpiece". The story, co-authored by U2's Bono, is fit only for Bonio dog biscuits, and lead-performer Jeremy Davies is as annoying as anyone ever has been on screen. Spiky-haired semi-cracked Tom-Tom (Davies) takes a running jump off the top of the eponymous refuge for Los Angeles deadbeats, then flashes back to the aftermath of the last fatal fall from the hotel, taken by his junkie friend (played by Tim Roth in a climactic flashback). The hotel is shaken up by the arrival of FBI Special Agent Detective Skinner (Mel Gibson), a maniac in a back-brace who turns out to have had a functional third arm amputated. Other resident weirdoes include saintly slut and bibliophile Milla Jovovich, bogus-Indian artist Jimmy Smits, mad hooker Amanda Plummer and bogus Liverpudlian Peter Stormare (who claims to be a lost Beatle). Just when you think it can't get worse, Julian Sands shows up. Ugly, hectoring and trite. --Kim Newman
Release Date: Oct 30, 2000 Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1
Video:
2.35 Wide Screen
Subtitles: English Features:
Interactive Menus Scene Access Original Theatrical Trailer Featurette