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Year:   1999
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Movie:  3/5
DVD:    4/5

Teaser

"Go" is a story told through three points of view via three mini-stories, much like Quentin Tarentino's "Pulp Fiction" which was the first movie where I saw this being used. First we have Ronna (Sarah Polley), a teenage cashier at the local supermarket. Adam and Zack want to buy some Ecstacy and since Ronna's dealer, Simon, is out of town she sees this as an opportunity to jump up the drug chain. Naturally, she drags her friends Claire (Katie Holmes) and Mannie (Nathan Bexton) to help her see the supplier, Todd Gaines (Timothy Oliphant).

In the second story, Simon (Desmond Askew) goes to Las Vegas with his friends Marcus (Taye Diggs), Tiny (Breckin Meyer) and Singh (James Duval). Simon is from England and he loves it here. He also wants to get laid and gets his friends into trouble with the hoods that run the Crazy Horse strip club. But it's ok since Simon used Todd's credit card so the hoods can't trace it back to him.

The third story involves soap opera stars Zack (Jay Mohr) and Adam (Scott Wolf) who are gay and together, though they're keeping it a secret. The duo get busted for Marijuana posession but if they help the police, in the person of Burke (William Fichtner), nab their dealer they can go free. What the duo don't know is that Burke has other designs for them.

Movie

As an overall story "Go" is ok. It's sort of a night in the life of young people. There doesn't seem to be any real point -- no message about morals or life -- which can be good or bad. Since the movie doesn't dwell on any one character too long I didn't empathize or identify or really liked any of the characters. And that's why the movie is only a so so for me. There's a lot of stuff going on but I had a hard time caring if anything happened.

Actors

Katie Holmes gets first credit and I guess she was the most famous of the group at the time (arguably Jay Mohr and Taye Diggs may be more famous now). Her character of Clair doesn't really get a story of her own -- she's sort of the closest thing to a first hand observer of all the events though of course she misses a whole lot.

I think Desmond Askew has the best performance in the movie. And he doesn't even get credited in the trailer, probably because this is his first American movie and the other actors are more known to American audiences. But there's something about a wacky Brit trying to act American based on what he's seen in movies -- it's quite funny.

DVD

There is a somewhat interesting commentary by Director Doug Lyman and Editor Steven Mariuni. They're into the movie and had some nice anecdotes but I found myself just not paying attention for some reason. There are three music videos: "New" by No Doubt, "Magic Carpet Ride" by Philip Steir and "Steal My Sunshine" by LEN. There is a theatrical trailer, a six-minute making of featurette, 14 deleted scenes and some bios. Overall a good amount of bonus material.

Recommendations

This movie is aimed at the twenty-something audience and I guess it delivers. Maybe I'm too old for it or maybe it really wasn't that good. In general I think it's barely worth seeing once.
Copyright (c) 2003 Kevin C. Wong
Page Created: November 29, 2003 Page Last Updated: November 29, 2003