The film business can be a tough business to break
into. It takes hard work, luck, and some
sense of talent. That’s true behind the
camera and in front of it. As for the
people in front of it, they’re the ones that tend to get the box office returns. Producers want to make sure that they get the
right people for the part, or at the very least, people who audiences like. That way they can make as successful a movie
as possible. This is where movie stars
come from. Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and
Jennifer Lawrence have made names for themselves that come with a certain box
office clout. Most of the time.
Many actors don’t get anywhere near that level of fame and
work. In fact, there are probably more
struggling actors out there than actors with steady jobs. These actors work other jobs to get by. They could be a waiter at a restaurant in Los
Angeles, Toronto, or Vancouver. They could
be a driver for someone in Atlanta or New York.
They could be the usher at Second City in Chicago. They take on the second jobs to be close to
where they hope to work. Once in a
while, they’ll land a gig. But they’re
struggling and the jobs don’t come often.
While most of the struggling actors spend their time going
to audition after audition, only to be rejected time and time again, there are
some who choose to do things for themselves.
They write their own movie, and get it made with them in the leading
role. Some of them get famous because
what they made ended up being something good.
Most of the time, that’s not the case.
Many of the movies go unseen. If
they are seen, they become mainstays of the bad movie world.
People like Tommy Wiseau, Ed Wood, and Neil Breen have made
careers out of creating their own starring roles. Glen or
Glenda was Ed Wood’s feature directorial debut and though a bad movie, made
him a cult icon. Tommy Wiseau released The Room in 2003 and has made a career
out of screening it, as well as being the subject of many subsequent
works. Then there’s Neil Breen whose
career began after Tommy Wiseau’s. He
made Double Down in 2005 and has been
steadily pumping out movies since, including 2018’s Twisted Pair, his fifth film.
There are other people who do the same sort of thing, though
their movies go under the radar. One
such person was John De Hart, an actor and musician who was going nowhere in
the early 1990s. His career had gone
nowhere. He didn’t have any acting
credits to his name, and he was trying to get something, anything, to
happen. He ended up writing and
directing Road to Revenge, also known
as Geteven. Rick Bode (John De Hart) and Huck Finney
(Wings Hauser) were two police officers working under the leadership of Normad
(William Smith). Normad set them up
during a drug bust and got them removed from the force. While working as a limo driver, Rick
reconnected with his ex-girlfriend, Cindy (Pamela Jean Bryant), and discovered
an underground Satanic cult. With the
help of Huck, Rick set out to take down the cult and get his revenge on the
people who wronged him.
Everything about Road
to Revenge was meant to showcase John De Hart to the people who actually
took time to watch it. It all began with
his starring role as Rick Bode. John De
Hart took on the role of the action hero, having to provide charisma and
physical chops. He had neither of these
qualities. It made for a strange watch
as his character spewed off one-liners, picked up women, and beat up bad guys. His performance was the exact opposite of
what was necessary for the role. His
action work was stilted. None of the
punches felt real, and everything seemed stiff.
But the action was the least of the worries.
Road to Revenge
was as much a love story between Rick Bode and Cindy as it was an action
movie. When Cindy returned from her time
out of the city, she and Rick rekindled their relationship. This made for some awkward sex scenes as
their love blossomed into an eventual marriage.
The scenes were set to songs performed by John De Hart, with harmonized
vocals that didn’t always fit together.
John De Hart was showing off how multi-talented he was by acting,
singing, and getting a former Playboy model naked and on top of him in a
bathtub. He was trying to showcase his
charisma without having any of it come through the screen.
Speaking of his music, there was one scene in a bar that
featured a live performance by Rick Bode.
During what can only be assumed to be a karaoke night, he got up on
stage and began singing a song called Shimmy Slide. The song was a sort of country number. The patrons of the bar began line dancing as
he performed the Shimmy Slide. John De
Hart didn’t do any line dancing from the stage of the bar. Instead, he wiggled back and forth with what
can only be described as a monotone face.
The voice was changing to go up and down with the not-so-great melody of
the song, but his face was blank almost the entire time. The patrons were getting into it, though, and
it was one of the most memorable parts of Road
to Revenge, so it worked in some strange way.
Action, sex, and song weren’t the only things that John De
Hart showed off. He also showcased his
serious acting chops during a scene when he was alone with Cindy on a bench
swing. They were catching up after their
long time apart. Cindy asked Rick if he
had kept trying to get his acting career going, and he responded by saying he
was still auditioning and still using his monologue during the auditions. The monologue was Hamlet’s famous monologue
from the Shakespeare play. The weirdest
part of the scene wasn’t even that he convinced his girlfriend to listen to him
monologue “just once, for old time’s sake.”
It was the tonal shift from what was immediately before. Cindy had just told him about the Satanic
cult she had fled from, and his response was “Don’t worry. Want to hear my monologue?”
Many of the weird beats in the storytelling of Road to Revenge, a movie written and
directed by John De Hart, made it into the final film because the first draft
of the script was filmed. There was no
time spent fixing up the story to make the structure work. No extra passes were made to clean up
dialogue or catch tonal inconsistencies.
John De Hart wanted a starring role, and he wanted it as quickly as he could
possibly get it. He wrote himself a
script and shot it as soon as it was completed.
That’s what happens when someone who isn’t getting any roles
decides to make it happen themselves.
It’s great to see that kind of effort coming through. These people have the initiative to go out
and create projects for themselves when nobody else will give them the
chance. That’s to be commended. And the people could be great people. What comes through many times, though, is
something underwhelming. The movies are
messes because the people were so focused on making them happen that they forgot
to make them happen well. Road to Revenge suffered from John De
Hart wanting it to happen sooner rather than later. Neil Breen and Tommy Wiseau wrote for
themselves and made their characters into what they wanted to be rather than
making themselves fit the character.
They wrote messy scripts, not taking input from other people and what
got released was… questionable.
Bad movies can be a great look into the minds of people that
make movies. The desire can be there
when people write scripts for themselves.
The passion can be there. But too
often, the talent isn’t. The patience
isn’t. And that’s how you end up with
movies like Road to Revenge, The Room, and Double Down. Actors want
jobs and write something for themselves to star in. Only, they don’t have what it takes to make
that stuff work. The movies still end up
being entertaining. They end up being
learning experiences. They end up being
bad.
These notes will be a little better than the movie:
- Road to Revenge was suggested by @whatalanwatches and @badmoviesunday1. This is the third suggestion for @badmoviesunday1, after Airborne (week 301) and Chopping Mall (week 306).
- The Room (week 25) and Double Down (week 215) were mentioned in this post
- Road to Revenge featured William Smith in a major role. He was previously featured in the Sunday "Bad" Movies in Terror in Beverly Hills (week 78) and Hell Comes to Frogtown (week 206).
- You may have also noticed Michael Gaglio in Road to Revenge. He was in 8213: Gacy House (week 60) and Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (week 300).
- Jimmy Williams returned to the Sunday "Bad" Movies this week, after being in Samurai Cop (week 66) and Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (week 241).
- Also in Road to Revenge and Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (week 241) was Lisa London.
- Road to the Revenge was the second Sunday "Bad" Movie for Lisa Boyle, who had been in Showgirls (week 170).
- Finally, Al Sapienza came back to the Sunday "Bad" Movies this week. He had previously shown up in Godzilla (week 282).
- Have you seen Road to Revenge in any of its many edits? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments.
- If there are any movies that you think I should be checking out for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter. I’m always open to movies I haven’t seen that I should be checking out.
- Sometimes when I watch bad movies, I share clips of them on Snapchat. Add me (jurassicgriffin) if you want to see some of that.
- There’s now an Instagram account for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. It’s @Sunday_bad_movies. Look it up. Share with it, and check out the posts that are there.
- Coming up soon will be a post for the anniversary. It’s a bit belated, I know. I’m getting to it. It’ll be a rewatch of Wild Wild West. I’ve done the watch. All I need to do now is write the post. It’ll likely be up mid-week next week. See you soon with another post.
