Acting on Impulse Movie Review

Reviews for Acting on Impulse were decidedly mixed, but it's a hoot! Linda Fiorentino IS angry scream queen Susan Gittes, who's had it with her Hollywood “career” and walks off the movie set. She checks into a hotel (as “Dee Dee Slaughter”) where a convention for pharmaceutical sales representatives is being held (zzzzzz…), leaving behind her boyfriend (Adam Ant), her P.O.’d director (Paul Bartel), and her murdered producer (Patrick Bachau), whose body is discovered in her trailer. That makes her a suspect, doesn't it? Detective Stubbs (Isaac Hayes) investigates! “Dee Dee” meets Paul Stevens and Cathy Thomas (C. Thomas Howell and Nancy Allen) at the convention, comes on to Paul, gets stalked by a fan, and then there's that suspicion of being a murderer that clings to her like underwear. And, speaking of underwear, there's this side-splitting sight gag about the physical illusion we have of scream queens that Susan/Dee Dee tears away with a single defiant gesture. Fiorentino has the ability to make a truly unpleasant character funny, which makes me like her and want to root for her in spite of myself. No comment on Howell, who's out of his league here, but Allen has a good time with her change-of-pace role. And look at the rest of that cast! Cult film freaks will have a feast! Based on a story by Sol Weingarten.

1993 (R) 94m/C Linda Fiorentino, C. Thomas Howell, Nancy Allen, Adam Ant, Judith Hoag, Patrick Bauchau, Isaac Hayes, Paul Bartel, Donny Most, Miles O'Keeffe, Dick Sargent, Charles Lane, Mary Woronov, Zelda Rubinstein, Nicholas Sadler, Peter Lupus, Kim McGuire, Cassandra Peterson, Brinke Stevens, Michael Talbot, Robert Alan Golub, Cliff Dorfman, Craig Shoemaker, Scott Thompson Stevens; D: Sam Irvin; W: Mark Pittman, Alan Moskowitz; C: Dean Lent; M: Daniel Licht. VHS