Description
“My job as a slasher, being a used car salesperson, liquidator, doing these auction sales…people automatically assume whatever I say, whatever comes out of my mouth is a lie” Meet Michael Bennett, better known as “The Slasher,” a raspy-voiced family man who exudes so much nervous energy that he smokes two cigarettes at a time and can hardly stand still. When auto dealerships are desperate to dump their stale inventory as quickly as possible, the California-based Bennett is flown all over the country to slash prices and clear entire lots within a few short days. Director John Landis (The Blues Brothers, Animal House, An American Werewolf in London) brilliantly turns his comedic eye on one particularly off-th… More >>
Bruce W. Epperson
March 11, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Not worth the money. Too much talking and filler added to what could have been a 30 minute movie dragged out over 90 minutes
Rating: 2 / 5
Darsh
March 11, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Screaming like a wrestler and drinking like a fish (beer for breakfast anyone?) Michael Bennett is a professional used car salesman who travels around the country helping car dealerships take advantage of morons who actually believe that they are getting good deals.
This weekend The Slasher and his two-man “mercenary” crew are descending on Memephis like foul-mouth locust. They spread the word about a $88 car and sure enough here come the suckers. Unfortunately for Michael most of them have bad credit and no money. He does end up working his ass off (he even runs out in the road at one point trying to get customers!) and sells over 30 cars. What I found just as interesting as The Slasher antics was the fact that people actually expected to get cars for next to nothing. A lot of the would be customers were genuinely disappointed that they couldn’t get a $7,000 used SUV for $88! There was a $88 car, but man oh man was that thing a pile of junk. It ending up dying a loud death as soon as the girl pulled in her driveway.
Playing more like a video diary instead of a actual documentary I myself was a little disappointed myself that we didn’t get to see The Slasher in action in different parts of the country. Did he change his pitch in areas where people actually have money? Also how did Michael become The Slasher and are there others like him?
Rating: 3 / 5
Peter P.
March 11, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Don’t spend too much money on this. The video is worth about $6.00. The moral of the story is you start at a high price, then you knock off $4,000 and the buyer gets excited. It’s painful to watch poor people agonize over the monthly payments. I liked the main character, you sympathize with him, but not for $22. Just rent it if you want to see it.
Rating: 2 / 5
The Rainmaker
March 12, 2010 at 1:26 am
I did not care for this movie..fell asleep twice..not worth the $20+ I paid for this
Rating: 3 / 5
Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLOGY and DEEP CALIFORNIA
March 12, 2010 at 2:11 am
I wasn’t sure what to rate this film because I have mixed feelings about it. On one level it’s a fast-paced look at how a used car salesman makes a living cheating poor black people (among others) out of their money. On the other hand, the Slasher is a deeply disturbed father never home for his wife and kids. I found myself getting angry that nobody cared enough for the star of this film to confront him about what he did to himself; in fact, in the featurette you can see the filmmaker trying to make him stand up straight for the camera while dead drunk. I kept wondering how his daughters felt about growing up with an alcoholic father with a beer in his hand every morning. I would very much have liked to see this film end with a scene in which the Slasher’s so-called friends and the director gather around him and say, “We’re taking up a collection to get you into rehab before you drink yourself to death. If you don’t care about yourself any more than you do about the people you fleece, at least think about what you are doing to your family.”
Rating: 3 / 5