Death Friends - Bad Influence
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Death Friends - Bad Influence |
| Original title | Bad Influence |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1990 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Curtis Hanson |
| script | David Koepp |
| production | Richard Becker, Morrie Eisenman, Steve Tisch |
| music | Trevor Jones |
| camera | Robert Elswit |
| cut | Bonnie Koehler |
| occupation | |
| |
Death Friends - Bad Influence is an American thriller directed by Curtis Hanson from 1990 .
action
Michael Boll, who works in the financial industry, competes with his colleague Patterson for the vacant position of senior analyst at an asset management company in downtown Los Angeles. One morning an important file about foreign currency purchases went missing. His suspicions immediately fall on Patterson. However, he does not dare to confront him with it, but rather withdraws to his office under a pretext. He's under a lot of pressure to present the lost data to the board the next day. In addition, his fiancée wants to postpone the date for the planned wedding.
To clear his head, he leaves the office to have a beer in a beach bar. There he invites a young lady for a drink, which is misunderstood by her boyfriend, whereupon Michael presses him. His situation seems hopeless when a handsome stranger rushes to help Michael. The man lets go of him and disappears from the bar with his girlfriend. When Michael wants to thank the stranger, he has disappeared. Only when he gets home does he notice that his wallet has been lost.
The visit of his brother Pismo does not lift Michael's mood and leads to a discussion about his lifestyle as a junkie. In the evening while jogging on the Manhattan Beach Pier in Los Angeles, Michael meets the unknown rescuer who introduces himself as Alex. Michael quickly finds trust in him and tells him about his problems with his competitor Patterson and the missing files. Alex gives Michael advice and awakens his inner strength. He turns him into a different person who only stands up for himself and should follow his instincts.
The next day, Patterson feels this and the files that have disappeared reappear. Michael has found a confidante and friend in Alex whom he tells of his wishes and fears. On trips together, Alex goes straight to it and brings him together with Claire. Under Alex's influence, Michael becomes self-confident and successful.
The wedding is also handled in Alex's way by compromising Michael through a previously secretly recorded video of him and Claire. The two rise into a vortex of tests of courage. A night supermarket is robbed, a burger joint is robbed and Patterson is finally beaten up. At the same time, Michael has great success in the office by actively trading in the foreign exchange markets. Michael blossoms and now leads an exciting double life.
Happiness only changes when Alex demands the price for his help. Alex first steals all of Michael's possessions and then kills Claire in Michael's apartment. Michael and his brother make Claire's body disappear. After Alex tries to kill Pismo too, there is a dramatic fight in the course of which Michael shoots Alex when he attacks him. Then Michael turns himself in to the police.
criticism
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of March 9, 1990 that the film reminded him of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller The Stranger on a Train . It offers more fun at the beginning - when you don't know what Alex is about - than at the end when the film shows a " conventional cat-and-mouse game ". The film is a " dark ", " introspective " study of the protagonists' relationship.
Hal Erickson noted in the All Movie Guide that Rob Lowe, whom one could like, played the villain while James Spader, known from numerous portrayals of villains, played a sissy.
Rita Kempley compared the film in the Washington Post of March 10, 1990 with the earlier film Apartment Zero , for which David Koepp also wrote the script. Both films would thematize the “ seductive power of evil ” and the border areas of morality. However, this film is worse, it is too " slippery ". The film is " surprisingly tame and humorless ".
Cinema magazine wrote that Rob Lowe played " the psychopath as brilliantly as James Spader played the good boy ."
Awards
Curtis Hanson won an award at the Italian Mystfest Festival in 1990 in the Best Picture category . He was nominated for the Deauville Film Festival Critics' Prize in 1990.
background
The film was shot in Los Angeles . It grossed approximately $ 12.6 million in US cinemas .
Web links
- Todfreunde - Bad Influence in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Todfreunde - Bad Influence at Rotten Tomatoes (English)