Review of Wonderland (2003) by Cindy I — 11 Feb 2008

This is the true story of the 1981 quadruple homocide in L.A. with a pretty famous suspect -- John Holmes, the infamous porn mega-star who by this time is a washed-up drug addict. Pretty decent, but this film is nasty -- not in the sexual sense, in that we only get references to Mr.

Holmes' past career and most famous appendage but don't see any of it. Rather, almost no one in this film is redeemable. Nearly everyone is either a dopehead, a thief, a sponge or a backstabber.

With the outrageous drug-fueled lifestyles of these scumbag individuals, you can't really be sure they didn't deserve to die, although maybe not with a lead pipe to the noggin. Lots of familiar faces here, with Val Kilmer playing Holmes, Lisa Kudrow as his estranged wife Sharon, Kate Bosworth as his barely legal girlfriend, and Josh Lucas, Dylan McDermott (as a biker with an obviously fake goatee) and Tim Blake Nelson as Holmes' partners in crime.

It seems unfinished, with a end scroll of the current whereabouts of the main players, because the real story is unfinished. All involved were acquitted, and no one was ever finally convicted of the murders.