Mojave Moon DVD Review:

As often happens, certain films which were ignored upon their original release, get a second chance after the rise of one of its stars. Mojave Moon co-stars Angelina Jolie in a role which is obviously before she developed a star attitude. This convoluted and indefinable film is not bad, but too strange to have ever made an impression with it’s then B-list cast.

Mojave Moon is about a recently divorced man named Al McCord, played by Danny Aiello, who has settled in Los Angeles when he meets a strange woman in a diner named Ellie. Ellie (Jolie) uses her good looks to convince Al to give her a drive from L.A. to the Mojave Desert. From here the plot takes a number of strange turns. When Al drives Ellie to the desert she immediately runs out to be with her boyfriend, and Al falls in love with Ellie’s mother, played by Anne Archer. The only problem is that she also has a boyfriend and he is quite insane. Somewhere along the way Al ends up with a body in the trunk of his car, which he discovers on his way back home.

All sorts of strange things happen to Al on his journey and for a small portion of the film it is a road film. Other parts are romantic comedy, and then there is even some suspense in the film as well. The problem is that the film is nearly impossible to define, even as it is being watched. It is such a mixing of genres that none of them work as well as they could have if the film had been more focused. It isn’t as though the movie is bad, but there is just no reference to explain what it is because of how scattered it remains. In a way inconsistency is the only consistency of Mojave Moon.

The first half hour of the film seems to rely entirely upon Jolie’s smoldering looks and short skirt, which is a fact that may help the film in sales, but does nothing for quality. There is also a nude scene which seemed to be obligatory in earlier Jolie films, although more rare when she was able to sell herself without exposing herself. The other performances are decent, although most of them more caricatures than characters.

The DVD has an interactive menu, which is impressive considering the lack of anything else worth mentioning on the DVD. The film was originally made in 1996 but the transfer is fairly good, so as to fool consumers into believing that this is a new Angelina Jolie film. Overall the film is a strange, sometimes entertaining, always confusing, mix of genres. It is a film for those who are interested in seeing something different for a change.

Ryan Izay

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