Jennifer O'Dell in Point Doom (1999)

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Point Doom (1999) is a direct to video Blockbuster exclusive. It features Jennifer O'Dell as a waitress in a strip club with an evil biker boyfriend, an epileptic sister, a rich high-power theatrical agent suitor who doesn't get a single phone call from a client through the entire film, and Andrew Dice Clay as a boss.

The film includes a spectacular fiery auto crash, lots of stunts, great sets and locations, hoards of strippers, a motorcycle gang, some very nice lighting, and some sex scenes. You would think these ingredients could be assembled into a good film.

My first clue should have been when they misspelled the name of the film. The final showdown was to be at Point Dume, California. As the climax of the film was indeed doom for some, but rebirth for others, the pun wouldn't be appropriate even if intentional, which I doubt.

Q. Where should we have the final showdown?

A. They keep talking about this Point Doom on the weather (small craft warnings from Point Dume to the Mexican border).

The continuity problems are staggering. For instance, the strip club is advertised as bottomless, but none of the strippers ever are. It would not have changed the rating to show at least one nude from the back. As we approach the final showdown, Jennifer is so bored with the plot that she takes a nap and sets the alarm. The alarm never goes off, because it is important to the so-called plot that she over-sleep. They even recycle some dialogue in several scenes.

The pace is dismal, with gun fights moving at the speed of the final scene in Bonnie and Clyde. The only quick scene was the lovemaking with Jennifer. Her exposure was about 15 frames as she got out of bed to rush to her apartment to help her sister whom she knew wasn't there anymore (she was kidnapped). She did fall asleep after sex with white panties on, by the way, although we only see them in one frame.

The plot, which centered around Jennifer's budding romance and bad guys killing each other over money and drugs, was very muddled, with some scenes not even making sense.

So where did this go wrong? First, nobody wrote an intelligent script. Second, the director got as little as possible from his cast. I can imagine the following conversation during filming:

Jennifer: So, my motivation in this scene is that I still have some feelings for Blackie because he was so good to me in the beginning, but am beginning to fall for him (Richard Grieco) because he seems to really understand me and is being so helpful, right?

Written by: Tuna ...courtesy of Scoopy.net