Search & Destroy

Caught this at its first public screening at Angelina on Houston Street. What a trip and I'm relieved to see positive reviews here. What a terrific script. I'm sure it would be trashed by General public.

This film deserves four, maybe even five stars. I love films about "making it" in the entertainment industry, and this is a hilarious comedy about trying to raise money for an indie film. A steller cast, from Dennis Hopper, to Christopher Walker, to Illeana Douglass, to John Turturro, to star Giffin Dunne. And fine cameos by Martin Scorsese, Rosanna Arquette, and Ethan Hawke.SEARCH AND DESTORY is to film financing what LIVING IN OBLIVION is to film production. I love this indie film and have seen it many times. But why did they release this CRAPPY DVD VERSION?* It's FULL SCREEN. Indie film fans are especially particular about seeing the whole film, which means wide screen.* There are NO SPECIAL FEATURES. Not even a trailer. With all these stars, surely there could have been an interview or something. Not only that, there's ...* NO MENU. Nothing. No chapter sections. Nothing. You pop in the DVD, then go straight to the full screen film, then that's it.Why release a great film like this in such a crappy DVD package? Perhaps because the studio wants to DOUBLE DIP. You know what I mean. They release a crappy DVD first, then when everyone who "must have" this film has bought one, they release a Special Two Disc Edition. An indie film like this, with so many indie stars, is a natural for this treatment.So this is yet another example of how studios RIP OFF DVD customers. Other examples include...* Crappy fall-apart DVDs that scratch easily, thus limiting the number of used DVDs on the market (studios earn nothing on used DVDs).* DVDs which FORCE YOU you to sit through long FBI Warnings and endless trailers, thus STEALING YOUR TIME.This SEARCH AND DESTORY DVD isn't guilty of those two offenses; instead it's guilty of dumping a BARE-BONES, FULL SCREEN version, so as to DOUBLE DIP with a decent, wide screen, two-disc version later on.Great film. Horrid DVD.

Great flick. Very strange--kind of a parody of things like Scientology and the like--"Strength needs no excuse." Walken, Griffin Dunne, Dennis Hopper, Ileana Douglass--all great performances. Based on a play that would have been great to see. This got trashed by Hollywood critics and it only goes to show what I think of that culture.

Poor directing and a loose script wasted the talents of some very good actors . See the other 2 star ratings for more detail .

I AM NOT "NEW YOUR QUICK" I THINK I MISSED A LOT OF IN JOKES, BUT THAT'S O.K.I'M NOT DESTROYED BY THAT.

scenes between Griffin Dune and Dennis Hopper, Ethan Hawke, Christopher Walken, John Turturro, Illeanna Douglass, et al are (IMO) some of the funniest ever scripted. I never figured out who won in the end.

this movie, directed by artist david salle, has some really funny weird scenes. if you like dennis hopper you should get this. highly recommended.

Great dry humor, some splendid performances, quirky plot idea, some interesting photography. A bit European some might say. Unique in some respects. A "smart" film.But right, not for everyone. For one thing -- my personal perspective -- a lot of the humor for me depended on some what I will call "insider awareness." That is, I have seen people get sucked into following these late night types of motivational gurus with cult-like devotion. They come out looking like enthusiastic wackos, to my eye. The principle characters in the film got this type across recognizably -- so lets call it dark humor. But if you have been lucky enough to have not been exposed to this social phenomenon directly through people you have known, maybe it will not mean so much. Admittedly some film stars are well known to have gotten involved in popular "motivational cults" and can get pretty strange, but the public may not see the nuances from a distance. The film "The Master" takes this on somewhat for one cult in particular but is almost too kind in terms of how these sorts of cults can affect followers. Maybe afraid of getting sued or harassed!!!! On the other hand "Search and Destroy" being a comedy is not really analytic and one should not expect that and should allow it some "poetic license."I should say again that the humor is rather dry (good) and I had to stop and remind myself that the Cohen Brothers did not do this one.I should also say that I don't think the film was a one trick pony that depended on the viewer being closely familiar with the motivational seminar/books subculture in America. There were enough quirky scenes and performances and interesting photography for the indy or foreign film viewer to enjoy. Christopher Walken makes another home run. I loved Illeana Douglas. Others were fine.But ... the sound quality could have been better or subtitles could have been added. Also I wish it had had a commentary track.

this great movie, i once copied from a tvbroadcast but lost that copy but i every time remember it, and so i looked for it through amazon and found it and within about a week it arrived on a brandnew dvd.the past is pointless, still, it's refreshing to watch this again.

Ich habe mir den Film aus zwei Gründen gekauft: 1. Christopher Walken und 2. wegen des Produzenten Martin Scorsese.Zusätzlich war natürlich das weitere Schauspielerkontingent richtig gut, sodaß man von einem mindestens passablen Film ausgehen konnte.Und dann die Enttäuschung: bis auf 4 Schmunzler hatten wir 85 Minuten tödliche Langeweile. Wirre Story, komische Kameraführung, diffuse Handlungswechsel sowie ein nicht deffinierbares Ende .... wofür hat sich der Altmeister Scorsese und die Mimengarde da hergegeben ?Ich kann nicht verstehen, wie man solch einen Mist auf den markt bringen kann. Absolut Hände weg von dieser DVD !!!