Starring: Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, Jennifer Connelly, Charles Martin Smith, William Sadler Directed By: Dennis Hopper Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: MGM (Video & DVD) Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 13, 2000 Running Time: 129 minutes Theatrical Release Date: October 12, 1990
Description: Don Johnson ("Nash Bridges"), Virginia Madsen (The Haunting) and Jennifer Connelly (Dark City) heat up the screen in this torrid erotic thriller from the acclaimed director of Easy Rider. Exploding in a series of suspenseful twists and passionate encounters, this "ingenious" (Los Angeles Daily News) film will keep you guessing until its final, shocking climax! Harry Madox (Johnson) is a handsome drifter who is not above larceny to make ends meet. After staging a daring daylight robbery at a local bank, he receives an alibi from an unexpected ally: Dolly Harshaw (Madsen), a sexy and mysterious local woman who has her own plans for him. But when Harry falls for another beautiful woman (Connelly), he incurs Dolly's wrath and finds himself caught in a maze of jealousy, betrayal and murder from which escape is impossible and danger is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
Amazon.com: The Hot Spot is best known to lecherous film buffs for Jennifer Connelly's topless scene, but this sultry southern noir deserves more than prurient interest. It's arguably Dennis Hopper's best directorial effort (OK, so that's not saying much), and Charles Williams's source novel Hell Hath No Fury finds Hopper in a comfortable B-movie milieu, riffing on Double Indemnity with an overripe tale of sex, greed, and blackmail in an unnamed Texan town. Fresh from the final season of Miami Vice, Don Johnson stars as a shifty drifter, conning his way into a salesman job on a used-car lot, where the boss's insatiable wife (Virginia Madsen) offers him sexual favors and a lovely secretary's (Connelly) innocence is threatened by a percolating scandal. Nobody's really innocent, of course, and Hopper spices this languid web of secrets with enough trashy misbehavior to qualify The Hot Spot as a bona fide guilty pleasure. --Jeff Shannon
A hotter spot! A loner (Johnson) drives into a small Texas town and gets himself a job at a used car dealership. He gets an idea for robbing a small local bank after he tries to open a new bank account at the same time a fire occurs nearby. The bank was left open while all of the employees went to fight the fire. The manipulative boss' wife (Madsen) wishes to use him for her own purposes - "I always get what I want, Harry". He resists, however, as he finds himself falling in love with the accountant (Connelly) at work, who has her own problem to work out. Written by Ed Sutton {esutton@mindspring.com}
This movie has a pretty good story line and romance This movie starts out with a young Don johnson coming to this small town and getting a job at a car dealership. He falls for a very young Jennifer connelly. Don Johnsons boss has a very attractive wife that plays games with him and blackmails him. This movie has the good title "Hot Spot" for a reason and I bet when you see it you will agree.
THE HOT SPOT DVD I wanted this DVD for my collection. The name of the movie says it all.
The Cad and the Stud Once you get past the incredibly sultry Virginia Madsen and the lovely Jennifer Connelly, take a gander at the Cad and the Stud. No, I dont mean Johnson & Johnson, I'm referring to the legendarily photogenic '59 Pink Cadillac and the rarely seen '59 Studebaker (Silver Hawk). These rides are as dramatically different from the vanilla on the used car lot as their ultra sexy drivers are from the Texas townspeople. (As for Jeniffer, she likes to walk; and the snivelling blackmailer drives something out of Mad Max---but let's not go there!) I think the Cadillac is an obvious choice for Madsen. The Studebaker is an interesting choice for Johnson. The Silver Hawk (or its older brother, the Golden Hawk) is a strange mix of automotive design---an unlikely collection of dissonant pieces that somehow come together to create a unique, fascinating, and bold work of art. The automotive equivalent of, say, Stravinsky's "Rites of Spring." It strikes me as a very masculine car, and it definitely has "Drive me, Don Johnson!" written all over its muscular grille. There is a lot to see and appreciate in this movie. Obviously, Dennis Hopper made a very conscious decision to hire some wheels for a few key roles. But he must have been stumped when it came to Connelly. What car would have been a good match for her? Not an easy ride...
solid modern noir This film didn't get much box office when it was released. Hopper blamed some of that on Don Johnson not hyping the film on the marketing circuit a'la talk shows, etc...
In any case, it was a solid plot/acting/direction job. Connelly is totally believable as the innocent yet sensual small town girl. Was that really Virginia Madsen? Ever since Sideways, I just look at her in a totally different way from her appearance in The Hot Spot.
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