Product: Communion (1989)
Rating: 3.0
Walken through the Alien Sunset
Let me begin this review by stating that I am a huge fan of Christopher Walken. OK, I'm done. Do yourself a huge favor and buy the VHS version of this movie. The director's cut is so bad in places it's cathartic. At the very least, it's enough to make you want to wash your brain out with soap, and Walken's as well.I bought this because it is supposed to be one of Walken's finest works, and it truly is. He is such a sensitive, honest actor that even the most miserable script flows like water across his performances. I think he's a national treasure, and like national treasures, subject to horrific abuse. This movie unequivocally abuses Christopher Walken, and lends credence to the rumors that the actor suffered a breakdown of sorts in his 40s. Just watch the out-takes of him cavorting in the most explicitly banal ways with plastic jumpy things that vaguely resemble a very bad joke by Arthur C. Clarke.ONCE you climb back down from the walls, and IF this DVD survives a well deserved fling across the room and a naughty chuckle, you may want to watch it again. This is not a joke. You spent money on this DVD, you deserve to get something out of it. IF you discount the whole alien nonsense, and view it from the perspective of a man coming to grips with a disintegrating mind, complete with cheesy special effects (as most maudlin breakdowns entail), it really is quite good. Toss Whitley Streiber, his wife and kid, WATCH Walken as he rationalizes all this bizarre information in his intensely personal performance, which is extraordinary. Read your own meaning into it, achieve what you want, and see a truly gifted actor dance perilously close to the edge of madness.