Films Outside the Loop Jeanne Chappé

Have you ever hung out in an all night diner at 3am? I have. It's pretty cool. There are always very interesting people eating french fries and ice cream and muttering to themselves. It is a great way to sober up. This film takes place in a dingy cafe in a bad part of New York City where a series of events are hilariously macabre.

If you like dark comedy...this is the darkest. Angela (Alanna Urbach) is an 18-year old waitress who wants to save trees and is attending college to find out how to do this. Nick (Jon Polito) owns the cafe and enjoys singing the day's specials.

What if a very old man has the six million dollar winning lottery ticket and then drops dead in this cafe? Can you smell greed?

A regular in this all night cafe is Straker (Jon Favreau) who always sits in the same booth. He bets the ponies and owes $27,000 to the wrong people. When Straker pulls a gun...all hell breaks loose in the cafe! What follows is total slapstick carnage. Now the people in the cafe have TWO bodies to deal with. Greed is a very interesting motivator. How will they split the six million dollar winning ticket?

The other players include Kim (Virginia Madsen) and Ray (Sean Patrick Flanery) who are both lawyers and are on an extremely unpleasant date. Willie (Ernie Hudson) who is a baker by trade is just taking a break and two cops keep dropping in for free food...Carl (Mike Starr) and Barry (Vince Vaughn). This is extremely inconvenient when trying to dispose of bodies.

If this were not enough, there are two men who are trying to locate Straker to collect the money that he owes! Johnny is played by Flea of "The Red Hot Chili Peppers" and he is hysterical...especially when he howls like a dog until Kim opens the door to the cafe. Never open any door to a man who is howling like a dog.

During everything that is going on, Mamie (Carroll Baker) is sitting at the counter screaming a running commentary peppered with obscenities. She is telling the truth but no one listens to her (not even the police) because she is a whacked out old bag lady.

The music throughout this movie is great...even when the jukebox goes off! So to speak. There is even one song by "The Squirrel Nut Zippers".

Runtime: 1:28

This film is available on VHS, cable or satellite.

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