The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

"All American Murder" is a fairly pleasant diversion in case you're looking for a light-headed horror/thriller and keep your expectations to an absolute minimum. I honestly don't see the point of harshly criticizing this modest little straight-to-video flick, since the makers themselves clearly never intended to deliver a groundbreaking masterpiece. The film has a good pacing, fresh faces, a couple of inventive murder sequences and – most importantly – another straight- faced performance from the tremendously awesome Christopher Walken who's still way cooler than any other major actor even if the script is inferior. Also, with a little bit of goodwill and imagination, you could state that "All American Murder" is some sort of tribute to the Italian Giallo of the late 60's and 70's. Most of the Giallo-essentials are well represented: luscious babes in peril, red herrings and far-fetched plot twists, sleazy supportive characters, black gloves and a grotesque denouement. Thanks to daddy's influence, the rebellious teenager Artie Logan is accepted at the respectable Fairfield campus for his absolute last chance at a proper education. He meets the impeccably perfect all- American girl Tally and really intends to make an effort, but then the poor girl is brutally killed when someone sets her entire body on fire. Due to his past and questionable reputation, Artie naturally becomes prime suspect #1, but the witty and seasoned police detective PJ Decker somewhat believes in his innocence and gives him 24 hours to prove it. During his search for the real culprit, Artie quickly discovers that behind Fairfield's prestigious reputation lies a network of perversion, blackmail and corruption. The first half hour of "All American Murder" can only be described as … very, very WRONG! Wrong 90's music, wrong teenage & adult stereotypes (the dominant father and his rebel son? Please!), wrong depiction of college differentiation and extremely wrong attempts at dry humor (Walken's hostage negotiation). The film gets better and even fairly compelling after that, with various murders and interesting enough plot twists. Some of the initial defaults remain throughout the movie, however. For some reason all characters, including the insignificant supportive ones, also insist on narrating jokes and anecdotes that are completely irrelevant to the plot. The acts of violence and sex also remain too brief and decent, but that's probably linked to the fact this is a low-budgeted video production. And Walken is too cool, period!

This is one of the most unconvincing, most terribly directed movies I've watched in a long time. It's so unprofessionally done, it's almost like a student movie. The story has some potential, I admit it's not the most predictable plot line, and some actors are quite good in their roles (Walken & Schlatter have some good chemistry), but scenes which are supposed to be scary are so badly done they come across as hilarious. Some scenes are so out of place and so unconvincing you find yourself thinking it's going to be a dream scene and the character will wake up, but no, it's for real. Then you just can't believe it. Background music is terrible. Character motivation is dubious. Many people's actions simply don't make any sense. It's basically C-production.

Listen, I've seen this movie a hundred times, showing it to friends and family as a lark. It's a hilarious buddy-movie/murder-mystery with witty, punny-yet-intelligent dialog ala Clue. No, there's nothing groundbreaking here, and the production values are what you would expect from something that, I believe, went straight to video. But why should that matter? This film is completely unpredictable, and has such classic lines as "The dean has knocked off more undergraduates than Kent State." (Hilarious, if you know some basic American history and get the double-ententre.) Most movies these days require that even simple verisimilitude fly out the window, so suspend disbelief, enter with no expectation, and enjoy. It'll keep you guessing, and laughing, until the very end.

Christopher Walken: what was he doing in this movie? What was he saying? The only thing this movie succeeded in, besides making me lose faith in Anson "Potsie" Williams filmmaking career, was making me feel sleazy. Everybody in this movie looked too cleancut to be involved with all that sex and I don't think there was a "Blue Velvet" double meaning of looking beneath the surface either.