Boulevard (1994)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Absolutely Fantastic

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is a story about an abused woman named Jennefer who leaves her awful husband and flees to Toronto. She gets tangled in the world of prostitution. Jennefer is kind of stupid and dramatic. For some reason, while she is homeless on the streets of Toronto, she confides in a pimp named Hassan (which is a weird name, since it is Arabic and Lou Diamond Phillips looks East Asian). You're just going to step into a car with suspicious dude? She even goes to his apartment despite Ola's warnings and hardly knowing the man. Also, although Jennefer is adequate and healthy, she is unable to get a job (which is also weird), so she turns to become a prostitute like Ola (which is even weirder because Jennefer said at the beginning that she could never do a job like that). And when she's not being stupid, she is screaming and crying all the time. Like ALL THE TIME. She's just too trustworthy and naive. I just feel that her character is overdone. Hassan: Hassan is an interesting character. He is violent and if his prostitutes mess with him, they pay with their lives. I like his pimp rod. Lance Henriksen is the police officer, who for some reason doesn't do anything when he knows about this prostitution ring. If he knew all about these prostitutes, I would expect him to know about Hassan and the prostitute who was killed, so why not just arrest Hassan in the first place as a suspect in the crime? Ola: When Hassan was arrested, I don't understand why she didn't just leave like she wanted to. Hassan is no longer threatening her to prostitute herself, so why does she bother? Instead she chooses to stay for some reason. I also think it's odd that Ola let Jennefer prostitute herself. If you're trying to protect Jennefer and you hate your life as it is, why would you want Jennefer to be entangled in it? And like another person has posted, I don't understand why the ticket salesman told that creepy husband of hers where she went. Also, there is a lot of nudity in this film that is not really necessary. Why must I see Jennefer naked in the shower like three times?!? Overall, this is a movie that seems to assume that men are bad and women are good. I think it conveys a good depiction of the lives of prostitutes. From this film, I feel more sorry for those who lead these types of lives, but some parts of the film didn't really make much sense.

Not since "Ramrod", Wings Hauser, in the ultra violent "Vice Squad" (1982), has a pimp been more memorable than the sadistic "Hassan", played with gusto by Lou Diamond Phillips, in "Boulevard" (1994). This film is the real deal, with Kari Wuhrer playing a small town girl on the run from her abusive boyfriend. Winding up in the Toronto "red light district" , she is befriended by a sympathetic prostitute (Rae Dawn Chong), while being pursued by the pimp and her old boyfriend. Lance Henriksen is a vice detective who tries to keep things from getting out of control on the hooker infested streets. This is without question one of the best exploitation movies dealing with pimps and ho's, and makes something like "Angel" (1984) seem like Disneyland. - MERK

Kari Wuhrer immediately gives up her new-born child to adoption and runs away from her abusive lover in this dark and bleak mess. Life on the streets of Toronto is tough though and she falls in with sadistic pimp Lou Diamond Phillips and psychologically tortured prostitute Rae Dawn Chong. The plot, what little there is, thickens when detective Lance Henriksen starts going after Phillips for killing one of his charges and Wuhrer's boyfriend starts a fevered search for her. The shoe-string production tries to intrigue by having somewhat notable names and then adding lots of violence and sexual situations. One of those films that should be avoided completely. Nothing to recommend here. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

In their harsh world, the regulars on the Boulevard engage in a minute to minute struggle against each other. The story presents action and reaction, with no intellectual depth or analysis. The Boulevard boasts a selection of hookers, drag queens, junkies, pimps, cops, murderers and rapists, all mistrusting each other, all dangerously defensive. Despite this, the most violent and sexually explicit scenes are those of Jennifers flashbacks to her messy past, before she came to the Boulevard. Jennifer lands homeless after a series of traumatic events; she's just given birth, adopted her baby out, run away from her abusive partner, and given up all her money for a bus ticket to Toronto. A local working girl feels sorry for her so takes her in. Performance ranks as one of the better features of Boulevard. I've never seen Kari Wuhrer play a part so well. Lance Henriksen and Lou Diamond Phillips were damn memorable. Hahah. The quality of the film crashes when it comes to relationship development. Broad insults, verbal abuse, sex and physical violence sum up almost all character interaction. Even the budding 'love' between Jennifer and Ola seemed more like a convenient, mutually-rewarding 'arrangement'. The ugly ending only exemplified Boulevard as one of the cheaply effective 90's-classic tragedy genre. But still, quite good.