Bruce Willis and Luke Wilson Investigate ‘Gasoline Alley’ (Movie Review)
Gasoline Alley
Rating: 7/10
Director: Edward Drake
Writer: Tom Sierchio (story) and Edward Drake
Style: Thriller
Time: 97 minutes
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvjYYrTWQ0A
Review by Mike Szymanski
This is one of the last of a handful of films that Bruce Willis did before he announced he was stepping away from acting due to aphasia, which is a language disorder that causes damage to the area of the brain responsible for expression and comprehension.
The “Die Hard” action star Willis once again plays a cop, with a good heart, and a sense of humor. His partner is played by a snarky wisecracking Luke Wilson who seems to get all of the best classic lines this time around.
The police team is investigating a brutal murder where four beautiful women are found dead, so it gets called “The Beauty Murders.” The only clue they’re able to find is a lighter that says Gasoline Alley. That is the name of a tattoo parlor run by Jimmy Jayne, who is played by Devon Sawa, a character actor from “Final Destination” and many other movies and TV shows.
This is a showcase for Sawa. It shows his true range of acting, playing a kind of creepy murder suspect who ends up getting mixed up in a lot more than he imagined.
Jimmy Jayne was recently in prison and he has a group of scary looking friends. He speaks to a prostitute named Star (played by Irina Antonenko). Star is one of the four who turn up dead, and the detectives obviously label him their prime suspect.
Another great character is Bourke played by Kenny Wormald (who was in the remake of “Footloose”) who is the star of a B-list action TV show that some of the cast perform in, but they all admit they do it only for the money, and that the project is a piece of trash.
This is the sixth collaboration that director Edward Drake has had with Willis and the second planned for release in 2022. “American Siege” was released last year and didn’t get great reviews, and they have another collaboration coming out called “Paradise City” with Willis’s “Pulp Fiction” co-star John Travolta.
Although Willis isn’t in the movie enough to bear star billing, Luke Wilson does enough of the wisecracking that is usually expected of Willis.
The film is a neo-noirish crime thriller that deals with the dirty underbelly of the porn business, human trafficking, drugs and of course, the Hollywood industry. No one is truly who they claim to be, and that results in some unexpected twists and turns in the story. The movie was filmed in rural Georgia, but gives an appearance of a gritty Los Angeles.
Drake said he allowed the actors to try a few things on their own, “I’m thankful for Luke Wilson because his ideas for the character’s tone balanced out Bruce’s natural charisma, allowing for us to plant red herrings.”
The director adds, “Every punch is thrown or bullet fired was given a purpose. The violence is fast, confronting and ugly, and the states are the souls of men.”
With Dashiell Hammer as a favorite author, and “Red Harvest” a particular inspiration, the director enjoys anti-heroes and the criminal underworld.
“Gasoline Alley” is now out on Blu-Ray and Video on Demand.”
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