Movies
Albino Alligator
Small-scale and stagy thriller about a standoff that results when ATF agents, tailing a Canadian gunrunner at the wheel of a stolen car, get thrown off the scent and pick up the wrong car, but still a hot car, occupied by three penny-ante criminals (Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise, William Fichtner) fresh from their own felony, who take refuge and a handful of hostages in a windowless basement tavern with only one way in or out. The working-out of this impasse is marginally more contrived than it is clever. Actor Kevin Spacey, in his directorial debut, orders the camera around as if making up for lost time and/or as if there were no tomorrow. Faye Dunaway turns in a solidly professional job as the captive New Orleans barmaid. And Joe Mantegna, as the agent in charge, makes the most of his hilarious moment of discouraging a "telegenic" reporter from Channel 7 Action News. With Viggo Mortensen, Skeet Ulrich. 1996.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: R
