Charming and brutal

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I think American Strays emerged when somebody got drunk in a film editing class and began splicing together outtakes. Bits and pieces from what could have been whole movies got thrown together to make one really disjointed piece of work.That's all I can say about American Strays. In a sense it's a good title for the movie because it is about strays as the bits and pieces are put together like so much flotsam and jetsam salvaged from an ocean wreck.A couple of the stories looked interesting like John Savage as the serial killer vacuum cleaner salesman, but in the end the whole thing is just a lot of mish-mash.

Quentin Tarantino gets under my skin, where Richard Rodriguez does not. Its a corner of myself I do not quite understand. If you have QT wonder, this could help.Tarantino places the viewer as a sort of museum visitor. He has this virtual video store of references, sometimes well arranged. You are not supposed to actually experience anything; you are supposed to slowly walk by while they blast something out, coming to meet you. Its cinema by advertising, experience by push.I like it better when a filmmaker builds something I can enter; it doesn't matter whether it is an escape or not. If he builds niches for me to enter and explore, if he invites or teases me in, then I commit, I invest, I experience and am changed somehow.This apparently trivial movie does that. Its just as brutally comic as the QT school, with its faux quaintness and engineered humor. It also avoids the challenge of long form film-making by assembling numerous small stories. It similarly is a pastiche of references from other, real films, films with actual identity. But it works.Three real stories here, all love stories. The suicidal loser who gets the sexy traveler; the outresourced husband who "finds" his wife and place again; and the two serial killers who find each other and ride off together. They are stitched by common local, similar upholstery and a temporally but not spatially shared climax.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Totally original ideas abound in "American Strays". This stylish black comedy where nothing is explained, has converging story lines. Among the bizarre desert travelers are a dysfunctional family, bickering mob figures, a vacuum salesman serial killer, and other quirky characters. The liberal quantities of violence are tempered by a fresh and unpredictable script. Incredible cast, incredible dialog, with above average character development. The beautiful desert locale photography adds immensely, and the soundtrack is memorable. I recommend going into this movie without reading any plot summaries, and simply coming along for the ride with these unforgettable characters. - MERK

He's a really nasty piece of work. This is His first encounter with Luke Perry's character, johnny, who is trying unsuccessfully to commit suicide, and answers a newspaper ad for the Exterminator.Exterminator: The world is small, but God is great, to reunite Me with My little buddy from schooldays past.johnny! Oh, you always hated to be called johnny, didn't you?Well, johnny, what's the trouble? you've run into a bit of bad luck? And you need your old friend to help you out? I would just be tickled f***in' pink to help you out, johnny. And I'm gonna do it for nothin, My old friend.[The Exterminator delivers several hard left punches to johnny's face.]Just like old times, huh, johhny? I told ya.[The Exterminator keeps punching. johnny's lip is bleeding. The Exterminator punches with more relish now. He is literally drooling with pleasure.]I told ya. I told ya I'd fix everything.