Search - Choke on DVD

ALL CHOKED UP

Michael Butts | Martinsburg, WV USA | 04/25/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Made on a rather small budget, CHOKE is one of those films that has some good things going for it, but in spite of that, it still remains a misfire. The movie has an original plot, but sometimes originality doesn't always make a film great. It's what one does with that inventiveness that elevates a mediocre film to greatness. Dennis Hopper plays a businessman who has been doing some shady deals with a man named Ron Sloan. But he finally decides to shake this loser, but Sloan has other plans. The movie opens with a teenage girl getting loaded with her boyfriend, but then she suspects he is still in love with his ex-girl friend who has just shown up at his house. She leaves in a fit of anger, and on the way home, she hits and kills a young law student with her Mazda. She tells Daddy, and his sleazy ex-partner overhears the conversation and decides to blackmail Hopper with this knowledge. They get in a fight in the restroom of Hopper's company building, and Hopper strangles Sloan, but stops before he kills him. Or does he? Enter the irrepressible Michael Madsen as a man who has witnessed Hopper's deed and decides to help him. Come to find out Masden is himself a serial killer, and the movie focuses on the warped personality of Masden and the questionable sanity of Hopper. The movie's deliberate pace and talkiness ultimately sabotages the film, but the surprise twist ending does have an impact. Hopper gives a restrained performance most of the time, and Masden is effectively morose and witty. The supporting cast as a whole is pretty terrible and if they had stronger people in those roles, it could have helped the movie's overall effect. However, CHOKE gets choked by its own indulgences and we're left with a quasi-interesting film."

Madsen at his best as usual

Michael Butts | 08/21/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"this was a good video. It had Dennis Hopper in at as well. Hopper and Madsen were 2 different people from very opposite walks of life that became connected. Although it seemed a little unbelievanle at times, it is a must see for a madsen fan. I especially liked the ending. one of those movies where you thought you knew what was happening and the last 15 minutes of the movie gave the movie new meaning."