Review of Boost, The

Introduction

Drugs are bad, mmm-kay. That`s the usual Hollywood take on the subject, preachy, overbearing and just a tad patronising. It comes from the curious dichotomy of such a conservative nation, where on one hand the moral majority just want to ignore the problem, wish it away as if it didn`t exist, yet on the other hand they feel the civic responsibility of educating and informing the masses. They cannot in good conscience address the problem directly and humanely, as that will mean trying to understand it, so their only response is to demonise it completely and treat it as a horror story. "Kids, this is what happens when you smoke pot!" Cue image of head exploding. This, for a long time is how mainstream Hollywood has treated drugs, with the occasional exception. It all boils down to Grange Hill, Zammo and Just Say No! The Boost made in 1988 certainly didn`t give me great cause for hope, but I`ve been wrong before.

Lenny Brown has a perfect personal life, married to the beautiful Linda and both of them head over heels in love. However his career selling investment opportunities in New York isn`t going as swimmingly, as he struggles to make ends meet. All that changes when he learns of the money to be made in Los Angeles, and when they move there, he`s soon making more money than he could have imagined selling tax shelters. Unfortunately, he`s living the lifestyle to match his income, so when the IRS close that particular tax loophole, he`s left high and dry. What began as a recreational usage of cocaine in high society L.A parties, soon descends into a full-blown addiction as Lenny`s career and marriage fall apart.

Video

The Boost comes in a nice clear unexciting 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. It`s your standard MGM back catalogue job so I have little else to really say.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 2.0 Surround English and Spanish, or DD 2.0 Stereo French, German and Italian. Again there`s nothing terribly awe-inspiring about the mix. The dialogue is crap throughout. I mean clear, clear! That`s one hell of a Freudian slip.

Features

A trailer and substantial subtitles for your delectation.

Conclusion

The Boost is 90 minutes of pure sanctimonious claptrap. Utterly predictable, poorly written, performed and ill conceived, it failed in every way to engage or inform. The saccharine love between Lenny and Linda rapidly began to nauseate, but the filmmakers made sure that the seeds of Lenny`s downfall were sown early by demonstrating his obsessive personality. A quick `bad-apple` signpost that instantly jarred with the way his character was being established.

The story is pure soap opera, with the hard working Lenny and his wife, painfully in love, heading off to La-La land to sell property. They hit it big, and as you do in high society, they start living it big. So at one of these high society parties, they meet evil influence Joel. Go on, try a little coke, it`s not addictive; it`ll give you a boost. And they`re trapped! So begins the movie cliché of the drug assisted downfall, as these affluent yuppies make more and more mistakes and spiral into addiction. Despite everything they do, they`re on a roller-coaster to oblivion. Frankly, I couldn`t care less about the rich and greedy as shown in this film succumbing to the perils of substance abuse. This story has been done to death, and it has little relevance to modern society where drugs are a far more insidious and damaging problem than this film tends to make out.

The acting is laughably bad from all concerned, and they`re not helped at all by the excruciating dialogue. The golden couple of Lenny and Linda played by James Woods and Sean Young are stomach-turning at the best of times. Linda is at best simpering, at worst just plain wet. The character has no strength or conviction and is at most an appendage of Lenny. I`m still trying to figure out the difference between James Woods, and James Woods on coke. There isn`t any. And these are the two best performances in the film. I`ve never been so tempted to turn off a disc. With bad films there is always the hope that something interesting may happen, or something laughably bad. The Boost though, follows a thoroughly predictable course through its ninety minutes. After the first ten minutes, I knew with depressing finality what would happen in this film, and not one moment came as a surprise.

The one thing in the film`s favour is that it doesn`t mince words. It does try to show drugs as plainly as possible given its naturally conservative viewpoint. So when Lenny goes into addictive shock, you see him on the floor convulsing, losing control of his bladder. You see drugs being used in this film, powder goes up noses, crack gets smoked, `ludes get taken and there is no effort at doing this by implication, nor glamorising it.

But it`s hard to care about the characters; the film is dull, preachy and derivative. After 90 minutes all that I had learnt was, Drugs are bad, mmm-kay.