'Love Ranch'

'Love Ranch' (R) (2 stars)

Writer: Mark Jacobson
Director: Taylor Hackford
Starring: Helen Mirren, Joe Pesci, Gina Gershon, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Scout Taylor-Compton, Bryan Cranston, Taryn Manning, Bai Ling

It is always a disappointment when a great director and two great actors show up in a lackluster and dull movie. Judging by the previews, "Love Ranch" should be a lot of fun. Period 60's music, prostitution, boxing, sex, violence sounds like a wild time. The problem with "Love Ranch" is that it turns into a sappy soap opera that is flat, uninteresting and too safe. I was looking forward to the return of Joe Pesci after a long absence from acting. Pesci used to be hot back in the late 80's and 90's with the "Lethal Weapon" movies, "My Cousin Vinny" and "Good Fellas". Then he tried to be in every movie and they were all bad and Pesci walked away smartly. I wish his return would be in something special and with Hackford involved I expected more. "Love Ranch" is the based on true story of the Love Ranch or in real life The Mustang Ranch. Maybe a straight up documentary on A & E would be a better ideal because this movie is hammy and ordinary, not exciting. The main characters in the movie are the husband and wife owners of the Ranch Grace and Charlie Bontempo, played by Mirren and Pesci, who get involved with a boxer. A love triangle starts to grow and that is when the movie starts to lose appeal. Helen Mirren is really good here as is Pesci but the movie just didn't keep my attention. Helen Mirren is an amazing actress and can make anything look good even weak movies. She still looks breathtaking and sexy in her 60's and she commands the screen here with the best performance in the movie. She is the only reason this is not one of the worst movies of the year. Pesci is amusing but he looks like a shrunken Elvis Presley and he gets the sappiest lines to say. He is playing a variation of his "Good Fellas" character and the movie suffers for it. The debut of Sergio Mencheta is fair but I couldn't care less about his character and his back story is weak. Taylor Hackford is a better director than this and with "Ray" and "An Officer and a Gentleman" on your resume I expected more excitement. "An Officer and a Gentleman" was a glorified update of an old time Hollywood melodrama but it was a fun, exciting and powerful movie. "Love Ranch" is an old time melodrama that fizzles and dies. This could have been a "Boogie Nights" style movie and maybe more shock material and less sappy, hammy moments might have helped. Anything would have helped juice up this movie because when you get a brothel, prostitutes and a violent sociopath in your movie sparks should fly.

P.S. A better movie dealing with a Love Ranch is a guilty pleasure of mine "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" with the best version of "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton. That is much better than Whitney's version in one of my least favorite movies "The Bodyguard".