Customer Reviews

Wonderland

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've been looking for this movie forever!Val Kilmer's portrays John Holmes is excellent in this biopic of the wonderland murders.A must see!

Val Kilmer (Spartan, The Salton Sea) plays legendary porn king John C. Holmes during the time of the grizzly Wonderland murders in 1981. This centers around Holmes and the people around him, the fame, the drugs and the sex. Kilmer plays Holmes to the spark of the match. It's not like Boogie Nights because if you compare them together, then your dumb. I don't think the bludgened any one in Boogie Nights with a steel pipe. Plus Boogie Nights had a massive amount of nudity and this didnt. It had like one little scene where Val Kilmer and Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush, The Rules OF Attraction) are banging each other in Carrie Fisher's (Princess Leia) bathroom. The supporting cast include Josh Lucas (The Deep End, who delivers a mean role), a nice turn for Dylan McDermott (Tv's The Grid and The Practice), Ted Levine (buffalo bill in The Silence Of The Lambs) as another cop, hmm, Franky G. ( The Italian Job2003) in like his 3rd movie. an excellent Lisa Kudrow (Tv's Friends) as Kilmer's ex-wife Sharon Holmes. Tim Blake Nelson(Cherish), Eric Bogosian (Under Siege 2) as Eddie Nash, Janeane Garofalo (wet Hot American summer) in a small role, Natasha Gregson Wagner (stranger Than Fiction) in a small role as well.
Faison Love(Made)and Christina Applegate( Tv's Jesse) are also in a small role and a short cameo by the one and the only Paris Hilton (the classic paris hilton sex tape, which I havent seen yet). All in all I..ME....thought this movie was good. Blah to the rest of your snippy people. I have my own taste

I feel that the Wonderland Murders helped magnified the drug scene during the early 80's. The footage about John Hohmes is completely true according to what is known about due to public record, and the murders were very sadistic to say the least. I bought the tape because it is a piece of history of the era that some of us wish to forget. The characters( Josh Lucas, Dylan McDermont, Lisa Kudrow,Val Kilmer,etc.) played in a difficult roles to let us see what happen in real life. Unfortunately, it is my firm believe that anyone who would watch this tape remember that the Wonderland gang was just as vicious as Eddie Nash was!

Before viewing 2003 sleaze-fest "Wonderland," be prepared to wallow in a Hollywood-created world of drug addiction, bad hair, crappy clothes and blood-splattered walls. All of this excess is spiced with frenetic quick-cut editing in order to create the drug high of freebasing for three straight days. I liked "Wonderland," but then again I have a morbid fascination with crime. The story plays out in a he-said-she-said, "Rashomon"-like fashion confusing more than aiding. Three versions of this story are shown, so the viewer can decide for themselves. Director James Cox has gone to great lengths to make a stylish film about the most unsettling cretins in Hollywood history.

"Wonderland" is a true story that happened in 1981. Four people are found brutally murdered in a house on Wonderland Avenue, pounded by lead pipes and a baseball bat or two. Johnny C. Holmes, one of the most famous porn stars in history, is a prime suspect. The Wonderland house was a drug den, and Johnny who hadn't made a film in two years, hung around often. Investigators haul Holmes in and get a convoluted story detailing robbery, double cross and dope. It appears the Wonderland victims had robbed the home of Eddie Nash, Los Angeles nightclub owner and drug king. Nash suspected Holmes was involved, and forced the weaselly drug addict to lead his own goons over to the Wonderland house to exact revenge.

Everyone in this film is sleazy, and it's surprising such a strong cast to include Kilmer, Dylan McDermott, Lisa Kudrow, Josh Lucas, Kate Bosworth, Jeneane Garofalo, Carrie Fisher and Christina Applegate would take on such shady roles. The performances are uniformly good, though a lot of fine actors disappear in the shadows of communion dope smoke and coke snort. Some of the best scenes in "Wonderland" are when Kilmer (as Holmes) is figuratively flogging himself for the unparalleled loser he's become. He repeats over and over, "Please forgive me. I'm sorry. Please forgive me." But you will have to look quick to see this great scene because Cox, in obsessive MTV fashion, cuts away as quickly as possible. We eventually see the entire scene, only in snip-snip pieces, inter cut with Holmes' girlfriend sleeping with another man.

If you pick up the "Wonderland" DVD, you have a lovely little extra which is the actual LAPD crime scene video taken at the scene. In all its crimson, hand-held glory, you can see the infamous Wonderland pad, complete with close-ups of the dead kids. I turned it off quickly, and am frankly stunned such an insensitive extra would be included. Dope dealers and criminals granted, but these kids deserve a bit more respect than to have their indecent murders serve as an extra on a DVD.

There's not much character development in "Wonderland," and motivation is about as thin as a sheet of recycled toilet paper. Brief stardom and falls from porn grace have been brilliantly documented in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 film "Boogie Nights." In fact, Dirk Diggler was based on Johnny Holmes. The robbery of Eddie Nash was covered in the unforgettable scene where Alfred Molina dances around to Night Ranger in sweaty speedos. I suppose "Wonderland" is the seedy next-day truth to "Boogie Nights," as Diggler-er-Holmes is forced to go to Wonderland Avenue and pound out a bloody revenge against his friends. To "Wonderland's" credit, we never see Holmes' member. He is forced to pull it out at one point - away from camera view - for party guests.

"Wonderland" accurately portrays a horrible crime and the days leading up to its resolution. Like watching a crime scene video, you'll find yourself wanting to look away. But like the party-goers staring wide-eyed at Johnny's infamous member, you won't.

This film tries way too hard to be cool but ends up luke-warm.

It truly does not succeed on any level. John Holmes is the "star" of the film, but he is the least interesting and most two-dimensional character here. I did not find myself engaged in the story or caring about any of these characters. An attempt at tension or dramatic suspense just fizzled for me.

What is of interest here are the extras on the DVD, including an unbelievably graphic and grisly crime scene video. Now that was engaging... There is also an interview with Dawn Schiller, Holmes' then teenage girlfriend. Even though she seems to be cashing in on her connection to the story, it is always interesting to hear from the real people.

Forgettable as a film -- somewhat intriguing as true crime.

There was a fascinating movie to be made here.....while everyone knows who John Holmes was, very few people know what kind of lowlife he happened to be, using every person around him to his advantage and getting people murdered in the process.

That fascinating movie isn't here, though. For some reason, director James Cox decides to bury the screenplay under a mish-mash of MTV camera tricks, hyper-fast editing, and distracting CGI effects (like newspaper photos coming to life, etc.) Only once or twice does he slow down and just let the actors do their thing, and its those scenes that are the most remarkable, especially the riveting and emotionally complex scene where Holmes bullys, coaxes, sweet-talks, and beats his girlfriend into pimping for him. Another highlight is a confrontation between Holmes and his estranged wife played by Lisa Kudrow, where you see 15 years of marriage summed up in a few minutes of vicious arguing.

Could have been a great film, had they hired a real director who knew something about constructing a film narrative.

A great low key film that shows various seedy lowlifes crumble in The Conservative Reagan era.
Despite all the negative publicity regarding Val Kilmer, he is a great actor. His portrayal of John Holmes is excellent, he comes off as a deperate hasbeen who' s drug abuse has taken his toll, also the respect and power he had in the 1970s has been taken away from him. The very underated Eric Bogision is a dead ringer for the equally infamous Eddie Nash.
The actual crime scene video on the DVD is very hard to watch , but compelling at the same time. The second disk has a good documentary on the real John Holmes.
This is not the most easiest film to watch/own , but it is worthing seeing/buying.

Val Kilmer, even more dazed here than he was in Oliver Stone's The Doors, plays porn king John Holmes in this gritty, documentary style approach to the infamous Wonderland murders in the summer of 1981. Director James Cox allows the viewer to see the events unfold through different perspectives before leaving the decision up to the viewer as to whose story to trust. What makes Wonderland unique is that it doesn't deal with Holmes' career, it deals with his life when his career seemed to be on the downhill and his drug raddled involvment with the people associated with the crime. Kilmer is solid as Holmes, while the standout performances go to Lisa Kudrow as Holmes' estranged wife and Josh Lucas as an ill-fated drug peddler. The rest of the ensemble cast includes Kate Bosworth as Holmes' young girlfriend, Tim Blake Nelson, a near un-recognizeable Dylan McDermott, Christina Applegate, Eric Bogosian, Carrie Fisher, Janeane Garofalo, Ted Levine, and Paris Hilton in a blink and you'll miss her cameo. Included with the DVD is actual police footage from the crime scene, which can be either worth watching for some or just too much to handle.

This is a good film that is creatively shot(CSI style crime sequences)and excellently acted. Val Kilmer turns in another great performance(looking almost identical to his Jim Morrison persona in the Doors)as the legendary king of porn John Holmes. All the supporting cast turn in great performances as well but the movie mostly revolves around Holmes and his misadventure. One person asked what are we supposed to feel about Holmes? If this film is said to have done one thing, let it be said to have not had any biased lookout on events. You see every person's account and you see stuff as it happened. Holmes and most every living person got off very easy and he and his woman driving off into the sunset for Florida really happened so as for what you are "supposed to feel" is up to each individual's perception. The DVD contains great extra features and the real crime scene footage. The movie also sports a great soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop and the Cars to name but a few. Anyways highly reccomended to those that saw Boogie Nights and wondered what happened after or anybody who is intrested in the Wonderland murders.

Val Kilmer has played a variation of the John Holmes persona - strung out, teetering, past all kinds of primes - for half of his career, so it makes sense he plays the man in "Wonderland," a "Rashomon"-style retelling of the brutal 1981 murders in Laurel Canyon to which porn star Holmes is forever linked.

Writer/director James Cox fashions a straight police procedural, fixated on the murder of drug addicts like it's a Tuesday night cop drama. Consider that the climax of the picture involves Ted Levine and M.C. Gainey, of all the pairs, hashing out their theories on the crime, and you begin to understand the characters serve as pawns in Cox's conspiracy theory flick.

Though it took years to put anyone in jail, the court of public opinion knew at the time that the victims at Wonderland Avenue were drug addicts and second-rate crooks who, with help from Holmes, stole a pile of drugs and money from nightclub owner/gangster Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian). Nash ordered their deaths execution-style. Of the thieves only David Lind (Dylan McDermott) wasn't at the apartment; he initially fingered the coke-addicted Holmes for the crime, and the first half of "Wonderland" is, essentially, his testimony. Holmes rebuts in the second half, and it's striking to see how little of a difference resides in their stories.

The question was this: Was Holmes forced to show Nash's gangsters the hideout after Nash discovered Holmes's role in the robbery? Or did Holmes willfully lead the hitmen to their prey, then participate in the crime?

Padded around these interviews are small details of Holmes's life, including the odd arrangement where he remains estranged-yet-married to a woman entirely outside his scene, Sharon (Lisa Kudrow), while living with a nubile, teen surfer girl Dawn (Kate Bosworth). The best scenes of "Wonderland" are Kudrow's, where she calls her husband's every bluff and kindly warns Dawn of the trouble to come. Dawn, strung out and turned out by Holmes, is a good change of pace for Bosworth, a smart, genial actress who alternates vulnerability, nurturing and extreme stupidity in this role with some skill.

Kilmer, shaggy, bloodshot, alternating between mumbling and manic, convincing in his interview, delves deep into Holmes, but Cox breaks the performance into a series of flashbacks and reenactments, filtered through the lens of two different recollections. Which performance do we trust? The real center of "Wonderland," when he's onscreen, is Josh Lucas as Ron Launius, the guts and bravado of the robbery. A paranoid bully with charm and ambition, Launius likes to shame Holmes, and maybe short Holmes his take of the cash and drugs. His performance is reminiscent of Thomas Jane's work in "Boogie Nights."

In fact, "Wonderland" aspires to the entirety of "Boogie Nights," - which is itself is a riff off of Holmes's life - with its close-ups of newspaper headlines and attempt at PT Anderson's camera virtuosity. But there is no sly humor in this movie or, for anyone remotely familiar with the crime and its various trials, mystery.