Search and Destroy

Plot synopsis:
Middle-aged Martin Mirkhein (Griffin Dunne) is a complete failure. He's run a successful business into debt, his marriage is falling apart, and now he owes the IRS $147,956 in back taxes. Martin may not have much going for him but he has read "Daniel Strong," a best-selling, self-help novel by the popular TV guru Dr. Waxling (Dennis Hopper). Now he wants to turn the novel into a major motion picture. To do that, Martin needs the rights and the revenue. Given his grating personality and terrible track record, it won't be easy to get hold of either. He sets out to meet with Dr. Waxling but ends up sleeping with Waxling's screenwriter-assistant Marie (Illeana Douglas) instead. Determined to make a movie, Martin and Marie move to New York. There, they get involved with wealthy Kim Ulander (Christopher Walken), an enigmatic businessman with quirky tendencies and a repressed desire to live dangerously. If they aren't careful, this daring duo may not come out of this deal alive.

Tags: satire

Review:
A great movie that somehow slipped under everyones radar..
Hope it sits well with you....I have to say that this movie is one of the rare pieces of film that shows what can be accomplished with no money at all, or little money.Scene to scene, moment to moment, it is the essence of what a "low budget movie" can accomplish, it does not wallow in what it cant do, and focuses on what it needs to do, to tell a story.
There are moments in it, where you totally don't realize how little it took to create the scene, and its because your lost in the story, and thats what gives the film so much strength.True enough, if you have the cast this film has, you can do little wrong.
But its great to see that each member does their part, and keeps up with the story, and makes it all seamless.The travel scene to NYC with Douglas and Dunn is a perfect example of what can be accomplished with creative thinking and attention to character.
without a airport being shut down to accommodate a production schedule that is based more on ego than need.There are moments of sheer perfection in this film that i, as a avid lover of film and movies have rarely seen.
for over ten years now i have proudly listed this film in my top favorites, as its eccentricities grow more and more lovely upon each watching.The arc is there, and so is the commitment to the ideas that it presents almost immediately as its thesis.
Waxling is the truth sayer in this piece of fiction, and he lets you know right away what to expect.i remember being up late, watching HBO, High, Bored, and finding this film.
As it is a complete work, not quirky for the sake of it, as so many other movies rely on...
but quirky due to the fact that life is quirky, off, odd.You can be what you want, you can do what you want, this movie sums that up in a rare way that i have not often seen, and i appreciate upon each watching...Dr Waxlings comments are gold.
All and all i am proud to be in the small group of people that promote this film to no advantage of self, as it addresses many of the same issues that other films like Fight Club go in to in a more serious, bigger budget way.Check it out.
The first time I saw this film I thought that it was bizarre, yet in some odd way compelling.
The humor is dark and unconventional, and the dialog is odd in that it is difficult to determine whether or not its meant to be funny or is simply poor writing, I still have not figured that out which is probably one of the reasons I love this film.The cast is of course outstanding, which is why I first rented this film knowing nothing about it.
Dennis Hopper, Ethan Hawke and produced by Martin Scorcese, how could you go wrong?
But the truly outstanding performance, and the majority of the quotable lines are spoken by Christopher Walken.
His characters name is Kim Ulander, classic, and walken does what walken does best in this role, he plays a psychopath.
It's got fantastic dialog and terrific performances from Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper.
But so did Glengarry Glen Ross, and that too was a terrific movie.I don't know if the film is really any sort of meaningful commentary on modern life.
I can't say enough good things about this movie.
Great movie, probably one my favorites, although I'm not sure why.
Technically, it's pretty sloppy but I just love the cast, the crazy rapid-fire delivery of Turturo, the eerie deadpan Walken, the manic Dunne.
Griffin Dunne performs a souped reprise of his role in "After Hours", although he overacts at times, he has the desperate loser role down pat.
The movie title, to me, is about searching for what you love and then destroying it, something most of us seem to do over and over again.
I like this movie more and more each time I see it, although the sloppiness bugs me increasingly as well.
This movie seemed to be a snowballing sequence of mishaps - similar to what happens in "After Hours" from 1985.
Dennis Hopper is an interesting character in this one.
As usual, Chris Walken steals the show as a business man and somewhat "off-kilter" character who enjoys an evening of Karaoke.
I would recommend it to people who enjoy strange movies.
Why the hell has David Salle never done another movie?
He got famous as a painter back in the 80s and, like his contemporary, Julian Schnabel, got signed on to direct a film with a great cast and decent distribution.
This movie is as fun as a trip to Coney Island!This is a really nice ensemble comedy with surprises lurking around every turn.
If you're a fan of Illeana Douglas, John Turturro, or Christopher Walken, this is certainly not to be missed..
This is indeed a quirky movie, so Walken is clearly in his element.
Griffen Dunne does seem like he's playing the same character in After Hours, only he has fallen on hard times.
Dennis Hopper's character, Dunne thinks, holds the key to a brighter future, but only if he can raise the money to turn Hopper's book into a film.
That's where Walken's character comes in.
He's read Hopper's book too, and wants to help Dunne empower himself, by finding a deal that can help Dunne raise the money, which is where Taturo character comes in.
If quirky comedies that chug there way over the top are your thing, this movie is for you!.
This is surely one of the funniest comedies I´ve ever seen - especially in terms of strange characters.
Those who compared this movie to Mr. Scorseses "After Hours" are right!
best movie ever.
this movie is great.
Walkens best performance ever.hopper is great.it's flawless.
not a bad scene in it.levels upon levels.the more you watch it the more you get from it.iv'e seen it over ten times and have never fast forward in any parts.
Also John Turturro is hilarious.great great great this movie should be huge.I wish David Salle would make another movie.i love the way its directed.
when Walken, Dougless, and Dunne are sitting at the table in the restaurant a different color comes up behind them i love that.and when Dunne is running and they repeat it over and over i love that..
but the film is way less than the sum of it's parts .......
Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Illeana Douglas, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, and John Turturro, all jumped on board, only to be torpedoed by a script that seems like nothing more than a Hollywood in joke.
Attaching Martin Scorsese's name to this was probably the draw, but the end result is way less than the sum of it's parts.
"Search and Destroy" is nothing more than abstract, stylish, self indulgent nonsense, and the entire film is decidedly dull..........
christopher walken.
christopher walkens best preformance ever!!!
if you are a fan of walken or dennis hopper you must see this movie.it's weird but never boring.
and you can read into it endlessly if you want to know what it's trying to say,or you cad just sit back for the ride.
Search And Destroy is an exceptionally weird, nearly impenetrable satire of Hollywood, produced by Martin Scorsese (he also cameos).
It's essentially just a series of odd, puzzling vignettes vaguely based on business and movie archetypes we've all come to know, and love to make fun of.
You may however enjoy it's oddball characters, and you've got to do a double take when you see how many awesome actors are in the cast, in a film you've probably never heard of.
Griffin Dunne, who started in Scorsese's excellent After Hours, plays Martin Mirkheim, a shameless moronic suck up desperately trying to get his awful script sold to some show business bigwigs.
Along the way he meets a host of hives inducing freaks that one might expect to find in early 1990's film scene.
Dennis Hopper lurks into the frame as Dr. Luther Waxling, a batty self help guru and author of a pretentious psychobabble book starring an allegorical man (Robert Knepper).
Roseanne Arquette is Dunne's hampered wife, Illeana Douglas is great as Hopper's oddball girlfriend who takes up with Mirkheim.
Stealing the show, however, and can we expect anything less from him, is Christopher Walken.
He plays Kim Ulander, a wondrous Walken creation, a shady, pleasant mannered ad exec who goes absolutely postal at the drop of a hat, the funniest sociopath you could ever hope to meet.
Enjoy it for its abstract, absurd dialogue, weirdo fucknut characters, and darkly silly, nonsensical, self destructive aura.
Just because it happened to you...doesn't make it interesting...That's right.The international name for this movie "The Four Rules" (the above being one of them) is infinitely more closer to the truth than "Search and Destroy" which sounds like a Dolph Lundgren vehicle and must bear some responsibility for this golden nugget to be relegated to the movie alternate reality version of the "missing sock syndrome".Turrito is better here than in Barton Fink, Hopper is at his merciless best, while Walken steals the show.If all movies contained the relentless WIT of this screenplay...well...it would be a wittier world.And a world full of wits is decidedly more humorous and fun than a world full of half-wits....*sigh* oh well....
I think this is a very underrated movie.
I think this is a very underrated movie, unfortunately i've noticed so few people seem to have really enjoyed it.
It's a typical 90's indie movie, with odd characters and something to say, not the usual blockbuster automatic pilot.
Our  60's rock stars, for instance, could be represented by the Dennis Hopper character, only interested nowadays with the movie producer's wallet and the money he can offer for his book's rights.
And the bored grown up kid, leading a tedious life as an executive, trying to get rid of his yuppie routine by following the book's rules by every word,  even if it means killing someone.
Christopher Walken in one of his best maniac performances.
Turturro's performance is outstandingly quirky; Walken is frighteningly strange and unhinged.
petty good (but same old Walken).
Very nasty satire on the problems with having a single vision when approaching the art - and business - of film-making.Most of it is quite good - neatly written, acted, filmed, and nicely paced.The film has a big weakness - Christopher Walken.
I won't tell the whole story here - but his character should have been offed in the first third of the movie.
Unfortunately, that character is pivotal - and that's a big mistake - he's too slimly to carry this film, he drags it down.In the bit with the IRS accountant, nicely played by executive producer Martin Scorcese, I couldn't help thinking of the brilliant, and long forgot, comedy "A New Leaf" with Walter Matthau.
And there are enough chops in the script, and among the other actors, to have produced a film to rival that one.But it's the same old same old Christopher Walken, isn't it?
All your scenes are the only good parts of this dreary, unpleasant story.OK, the start is OK, but then it gets simply boring.
So funny.Illeanna is the receptionist to some weirdo who has written a book that some guy wants the rights of to make a movie, but he doesn't have any money to buy the rights, so, he meets up with a drug dealer.
Griffin Dunne plays a out of luck businessman filled with debts and no money at all who has the brilliant idea of become a film producer in Hollywood and finally do something that will last, to do something that people will remember him.
His dream project is to adapt a famous book written by a guru (Dennis Hopper) into the screen.
While on his way to adapt the book he'll meet the potential investors that includes Kim a friendly but suspect businessman (Christopher Walken) and another strange guy (John Turturro), some drug dealers and work with Marie (Illeanna Douglas) former secretary of the guru who wants to write and direct her own film, a bizarre horror story.In "Search and Destroy" things move like a Coen's brother movie but without the cleverness and the sinister side of one of them.
Turturro made the film funnier with his fast talking character and Walken made the story more and more tense, funny sometimes.
And because of this moments and the great cast I'll give a positive review for this film, the only directed by the famous artist David Salle.
To many people out there it might seen a boring film where almost nothing happens, looks like empty but it's not.
It tells a story of overcoming bad things and creating another crazy situations, the whole thing mentioned by the guru about the rules of life, things that he included on the book and are mentioned over and over by the characters are very sarcastic (things such as "the past is meaningless" and "never say you're sorry").
8/10For movie comments, talks and etc follow me on Twitter at @wortzik and reply at me about some of the reviews I'm writing here..
Movie Making the Easy Way. DETAILED PLOT SUMMARY AND SPOILERS (if that's possible for a 1995 movie)The first time I saw Search and Destroy, I disliked it.
Then I thought about what I'd seen and it truly affected me the way the lead character in the film is affected by a certain book he reads.His name is Martin Mirkheim, played brilliantly by Griffin Dunne, and he is a truly unique film character in that he believes in himself.
The book is about a child who goes on an adventure to find his strengths, test & eliminate his weaknesses, and learn about the world the way it really is.
Most importantly, having learned about the world the child now can understand his place in the world and how he can initiate change.The author, Dr. Luther Waxling, played by Dennis Hopper, is a down & out cable access show host who wrote the book many years ago in his glory.
Back then, Waxling may have believed in himself but now he just wants to make money through his TV show and from his self-improvement classes.
At that point in the movie, I figured I had the plot down: Martin was going to show Waxling where he went wrong.
You know; the ol' student-teaches-the-teacher gag (yawwn) but I was glad to be wrong.Instead, Martin wants to buy the rights to Waxling's book and make a movie out of it but Martin doesn't have any money to give him.
Martin calls Kim Ulander, played by Christopher Walken, whom he met earlier at a party.
Walken is the type of actor who doesn't get bothered at the fact that he's typecast as the wacko.
Walken has accepted it and I think at this point in his life he embraces it.
There's one scene where he's in a kareoke bar and he performs a lounge song that made me want to slit my wrists.
Martin and his assistant Marie, played by Illeanna Douglass, hook up with Kim. Together they try to raise capital to buy the rights to the book.Martin's journey to reach his goal mirrors what's portrayed in the Waxling book but that's the obvious side.
There is a second variable that makes it more interesting: Walken.
Walken's character, Kim, has read the book too.
Kim is also a big Waxling fan but he has interpreted the book's message a little more literally than Martin.
With each new conflict we get two different reactions; Martin's and Kim's.
The interaction between these two characters is what makes the movie shine to the very end.Watching Search and Destroy is a bit like sitting through one of those inspirational seminars.
This movie is full of really quotable material, but its used merely as the background for the story, as so many other expression forms i have only come to see reasonably applied in this particular movie.In my opinion, the stories backbone is made of the relationship between the two characters Martin and Kim, as mentioned in another comment both have read the famous "Daniel Strong" book and have been inspired by it.
The strong Martin kills Kim who just bit off more then he could chew.It is this for that i think the performance of both Dunne and Walken can not be compared, nor could they have been more appropriate for this purpose.
You know, if we all accepted ourselves playfully as the planet of hypocrits we truly are by never taking ourselves too seriously, then the only bad actors in our dramas about life would be those intolerant audience members in the movie who get up to storm off in a huffy right before the true meaning of it is revealed!
Back during this absurd age of making lots of movies with dialog, we are talking the likes of Pulp Fiction (1994) here, in comparison, the nonsense written in this movie flows along gorgeously!
And, speaking of gorgeous, check out the inward beauty that pretty Illeana Douglas so wonderfully expresses in this movie.
Griffin Dunne plays a Woody Allen part so brilliantly that he out Woody Allens the great Woody Allen himself.
In my opinion, this movie is better than any produced and directed by Woody Allen.
In fact, if the comedian actor had written, directed, and starred in it, the movie would have gone down as an all time classic.
I really liked this movie.
I would have even considered paying $10.00 for this movie which is a lot in my world.
All toes point upward on this movie.