[.ca] Less Than Zero (Widescreen)

From Amazon.com:
Dreary, pointless late-'80s novel by literary poseur Bret Easton Ellis focused on listless, shiftless, drug-sniffing, sex-swapping, dead-end California teens with too much money and time on their hands. Which just about sums up this movie, though it's not nearly as interesting as that. This is mostly due to the ridiculously cleaned-up script and lifeless direction, which whitewashes the baser depravity and replaces it with perversion-lite and fashion shows. It doesn't help that director Marek Kanievska is saddled with Brat Pack lesser (make that least) lights Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz. The only things that lift this film above the muck are the performances by James Spader as a particularly heinous drug dealer and Robert Downey Jr. as a rich-kid addict with no self-control. --Marshall Fine

totally different than the book:
I read the book 1st then saw the movie and they were totally different. Really only the character's names were the same. The book is way more detailed (obviously) and graffic and told by Clay's point of view only. I think I would have really liked the movie if I had not read the book 1st. The book is better but way worse so if you can't take graffic nature stick with the movie. The performance of the actors were great though and in itself it was a good movie. Below are major examples of the differences between the two (spoilers). (...)In the book: The story focuses entirely on Clay not the story of 3 friends like the movie. You don't even "see" Julian in the book until much later and he is already established as a prostitute. He has no reconciliation scene with his dad and he doesn't die. He doesn't ask for $50,000 but rather money for an abortion and when he goes to get him his money back he makes him watch him prostitute for it. Rip is a dealer but not the pimp. Clay sits and watches Julian while he is prostituting himself for 5 hours - not just busts in and save him like the movie. Clay does just as much drugs as everyone else and has sex with another guy and other women besides blair. More characters are outlined and it is more detailed in 80's culture and music. They watch a snuff movie. They tie up and sexaully assault a preteen and eventhough clay doesn't watch or condone it he doesn't stop it and just leaves. There is no great love affair between clay and blair like in movie - he doesn't really care for her or love her anymore. People shoot heroine. They find a dead body and gawk at it and dont do anything about it.

To live and die in LA:
Ok, so it might be someone else's film title, but this is one of the essential 80s brat flicks and concerns the said heading in every aspect. Let's get the rubbish out of the way. The plot is twiddled with until it barely resembles the book. A lot of Ellis' humour gets lost in translation. Blair is a brunette unlike her published blonde doppelganger. Hmmm. That said, Less Than Zero is probably the one film that epitomises the 80s like no other for me. The opening shots, with the Bangles brilliant cover of 'Hazy Shade...' clanging in the background, still invites chills. Others have written the plot succintly, so I will say that if you want a cold, clinical, no exit look at being a rich, bored teen in LA, search no further. Blair (Jamie Gertz)is deliciously confused, drugged and flakey, and Clay, the solid rock in the middle of his friends' breakdowns is perfectly cast in a youthful Andrew McCarthy. Top honours go to Robert Downey Jnr, spookily playing out his own future as the drug addled Julian with frenetic highs and lows, insincere to himself and broken to his mates, and James Spader as the vile pimp and dealer Rip. Wonderfully photographed by Edward Lachman, it's simultaneously lush and sparse. If the end scenes don't get you sobbing into a pillow, then take that stone out of your chest and get a heart. Less Than Zero has been unfairly mauled by many, but it stands up today as a film with much more going for it than you may think. For starters, it may be one of the only teen flicks that doesn't make you howl/cringe because of ropey dialogue and cheeseball disco moments. Its 'drugs message' is played out minus politics and simply invites you take a journey with the characters. Death, it seems to say, is inevitable for everyone, some just go a little faster. Less Than Zero is sexy, frank and troubled. There could not have been a better antithesis to the whizz bang makeover! of other 80s teen films (John Hughes take note!). Helped by a storming soundtrack, this one should be in your collection somewhere.

Re: Downeys finest hour:
Two words apply to this movie: Robert Downey. He gives an incredible performance as Julian a drug addicted pal of two old high school friends. Its astonishing to me that he wasnt at least nominated for an Academy Award. Downeys performance is beyond convincing, it will literally send chills down your spine. See it for Robert Downey, it is truly his finest hour.

Love/Hate Relationship With This Movie:
Perhaps the movie looked better than it was. Maybe the book was better than the film. It could be that there was just something missing. All told, I wanted to like this film, a lot. All of the pieces are there for a good movie: compelling story line, sympathetic characters, interesting twists. For some reason, however, I was left feeling like something was missing. I just wanted more and I didn't get it. The movie is not a feel good movie or a preachy movie (although it tries to do so with its drug message), but it does have some great things going for it. The music was excellent, Robert Downey Jr. is very good, and some of the cinematography (especially the last few minutes of the film) was inspired. Still, you can't overlook some of the problems. The acting is simply uneven. Andrew McCarthy looks as though he is interviewing for a stuffy banking position. The relationship between Julian and his father is never really played out. Rip's henchman looks like a California surfer with an attitude problem, not a bouncer type that is out to do no good. The movie all but says that if you are 18, white, and live in Beverly Hills, your main entertainment venue is snorting cocaine. For me, this film was truly a love/hate relationship. I simply wanted more to love and less to hate.

"less than zero"---that's how I rate it!:
Bret Easton Ellis' contemporary classic about the spiritual lacking of LA youth is transformed into the biggest "Just Say No" public service announcement. Characters are taken from the book while the plot is thrown away for an entirely different one! In this bastardization, Clay (Andrew McCarthy, in a very wooden performance) comes back from college to rekindle with his old girlfriend Blair (Jami Gertz) and together they try to save their drug-addict pal Julien (Robert Downey Jr.) from the evil dope dealer Rip (James Spader). First of all, in the movie Clay is all sqeaky clean and compassionate; in the book, he does coke and seems pretty detached. Second, in the the book Julien doesn't really appear until near the end. Third, the character of Rip is one of Clay's friends in the orignal novel! Did the director actually read the book? Only Downey's performace (perhaps a little too good?) makes this film worth seeing. Some movies are so bad that you can't help but liking them--this movie just blows!