I went to see this at the Seattle International Film Festival in 1995. I went because the synopsis sounded interesting. Plus the guy who had written and directed it was connected with the Simpsons, surely a major plus when it comes to comedy. The audience was filled with teenage girls, obviously drawn by the name of Jason Priestly on the marquee. It made the subsequent viewing of the film THAT much funnier (well, at least to me) to sit there and wonder what these girls were thinking as the film progressed and Priestly started killing folks with such wonderful deadpan indifference. This movie is incredibly funny. Peter Reigert is top-flight comedy gold in every scene he has as the burned-out veteran hit-man but the real revelation is how funny Jason Priestly can be when given a chance. His character here is almost like Peter Sellers from BEING THERE; he is so impassive and deadpan, yet the film revolves around his performance and it must be good for a film like this to work; well, Priestly delivers. His character is goofy and sweet and yet somehow chilling too in his casual attitude to murder. Why this film has languished in total obscurity is a mystery. When i saw the film, most of the audience didn't know what to think; the teenage girlies were rather shocked;they didn't find it amusing to see their 90210 heartthrob pistol-whipping people before icing them, but I did. When the film ended, the director, Wallace Wolodarsky, was just sitting there, alone.He had introduced the film briefly beforehand and said he'd be happy to field questions when it was over. I approached him (since no one else was going to) and I think I frightened him a bit with my exuberance; I had a shaved head at the time and i looked a bit weird and I said, too loudly, "That movie was brilliant! It was hilarious!" He said,"Thank you," and slowly backed away from me. I thought, "Well, you can't win them all." And I left him in the theater filled with people who didn't understand his movie.
Review of Coldblooded
