Bad Influence, starring James Spader as the hard working investment banker who looks to a mysterious stranger played by Rob Lowe for a way to overcome some personal and professional difficulties. Spader, always a convincing and highly underrated actor, is believable as the person who picks the wrong guy to emulate. Lowe is extremely capable in his portrayal of a smooth talking and confident man who lives by his own rules in order to get what he wants from those who fall into his web. The yarn that ensues following Spader's character finally realizing exactly how dangerous and destructive his new "influence" has become to him personally as well as professionally will make you think twice about who you make friends with. This underrated movie is not one to miss if you want to see a darker side of society that is interesting, believable as well as engrossing. Spader and Lowe collide with only one able to survive when their two worlds cross the point of no return. A very good movie with excellent actors at the top of their game.Read full review
It's peculiar to see James Spader in the role of victim. After seeing his scheming, oleaginous character in "Boston Legal" for several years, I had come to see him as the manipulator who takes advantage of others as a way of life. In this film, he's the naive victim of scheming Rob Lowe. It's a well made film, rewarding to watch, with a good (if expected) payoff at the end. Marcia Cross of "Desperate Housewives" has a small role as Spader's fiancee; it's fun to see her in her younger days, though she has changed remarkably little. This is a movie that you can watch--and enjoy--a second time, while spotting clues that, while clear enough, you missed the first time. I'd rate this movie "very good" (not one of the choices available).
Like the Hitchcock psycho-thriller, "Stranger on a Train," "Bad Influence," directed by Curtis Hanson, both "...Erotic and spine-tingling, this thriller has undeniable allure..." Rolling Stone - p.36 - Peter Travers. One of my favorite actors (in his much thinner form this time--as in "Crash"), James Spader, stars as a geeky financial wiz who is quite coy. (That's his charm . . . in the beginning). He's also engaged to a physician's dominating daughter who plans for him to live her life. Enter Alex (Rob Lowe), stage far far left. Charmer, ultra-self-confident, and coming to Spader's rescue when a barroom thug knocks the suit and tie coy guy around for an unjust reason. It's the L.A. elite above-ground that Alex allures Michael into because it is so enjoyable to be freed from that stiff-shirted life, surrounded by hot and lusty, classy enough women, and exposed to fine wine and cocaine. Michael's got Alex for a malevolent mentor man. Unfortunately, however, Michael's sense of growing powerful is an illusion created by Alex (Lowe), who is brazenly taking control over Michael’s engagement, work, and financial life. Lowe doesn't have to do much acting to con Michael into sex, film voyeurism, and worse. First released in LA in 1990, "Bad Influence," went to the '90 Deville Film Festival. "Bad Influence," received media notoriety because Rob Lowe had been cast as the videotaping psychopath and arrested in Atlanta (prior to the film's release) for video-taping himself having sex with a youth.Read full review
Overlooked and forgotten by many, this late 1980's classic (filming is usually started 1-2 years before release)not only pays homage to Hitchcocks Strangers on a Train, but to the video scandal suffered by Lowe, not long before the movie came out. Spader plays a mild mannered cubicle dweller who meets the mysterious and manipulative Lowe. Lowe's back story is one of womanizing, being 'kept' and always moving on, like a shark. Spader and his damaged brother are strangers to the wild world Lowe inhabits. With classic 80's parties scenes, complete with modelesque women who'd look at home in a Duran Duran Video, the movie was filmed largely in my hometown of the "South Bay" making the movie that much more personal for me. Shot in many of the same locations as that decade's "Tequila Sunrise" these two dramas bring back a south swell of memories and make for great cinema. Mark HopkinsRead full review
Great movie makes you want to be careful when choosing friends. It's a thriller and Rob Lowe and James Spadar do a great performance.
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