Wonderland
- The Disc:4.0
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. SRP: $39.95The Film: When we meet the infamous John Holmes (an...
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. SRP: $39.95
The Film: When we meet the infamous John Holmes (an excellent Val Kilmer), his days as the reigning king of seventies porn are long gone, and his famously huge schlong is now more of a party trick than a starring part. Holmes is dating a young starlet (Kate Bosworth), doing drugs and mixing with a bad crowd. And this is where he comes undone, jamming himself between a crew of would-be gangsters (Josh Lucas, Dylan McDermott) and the real thing - sleazy, perverse dealer Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian). When he tries to play one off against the other, it leads to a bloodbath. Director James Cox delivers a bleak, hard-hitting film and fills the screen with a succession of alarmingly seedy characters. And though the film uses John Holmes as its obvious hook, he's only one part of the puzzle; this is a film about the drug murders on Wonderland Avenue, and Holmes was only one participant. The other players are just as richly drawn, particularly Josh Lucas's bullying madman. Wonderland is grim and gritty stuff, but like a car crash, you can't tear your eyes away from it.
The Features: Most of the interesting stuff here comes from the real case, with some LAPD footage of the crime scene clicking in with the film's seedy vibe, while a five-minute tabloid-style doco from "Court TV" traces the Wonderland case through interviews with some of the film's cast and crew, as well as some former cops who worked on the case. There are also brief EPK-style interviews with the ever-odd Val Kilmer, Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson and Eric Bogosian. The deleted scenes are largely inconsequential, save for one which gives the criminally under-used Janeane Garofalo a chance to shine, delivering a funny riff on the TV show Fantasy Island, while another shows the true malice and perversity of Bogosian's drug dealer.
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