Jim Nolan (Gregory Harrison) is a somewhat typical teenager. He plays on his high school football team. He works at a fast food restaurant (Jack in the Box). And he lives with his father (Angus Scrimm here billed as Rory Guy) and little brother Kelly (Robbie Wolcott). But Jim is sullen and mopey all the time. The problem is that Jim's father is a worthless drunk that is abusive towards Kelly. Their mother has abandoned the family.
Eventually Jim gets fed up with his father and throws him out. One day while Jim is at work his father sneaks back home and murders Kelly. Jim stalks the local bars with a kitchen knife seeking to kill his father. When he finally catches up to his father he can't go through with it. Jim spends most of the rest of the film driving around in a daze. Finally Jim befriends a little boy playing basketball, presumably a surrogate for Kelly. The film ends with Jim again driving around dazed while a catchy song by America plays.
This is a pretty well acted film. Harrison and Wolcott have great chemistry as the brothers. Scrimm is both menacing and a little bit sympathetic. It's a pretty well made film considering that it was made by a couple of teenagers with the help of their family and friends. But the film somewhat falls apart after Kelly is murdered. It's almost as if murdering a child isn't even a crime. Scrimm's character is free to roam skid row with seemingly no hint of the police even searching for him. But overall I really liked it.
Don Coscarelli's Phantasm is one of my favorite movies. This was his first film and it's interesting to see how it influenced Phantasm. Both concern a younger boy who idolizes his older brother. Both have the brothers in a sense being orphans. In Phantasm the parents were actually dead. In Jim the mother is absent and the drunken father is essentially absent. Both have plot lines of the older brother trying to protect the younger from a menacing older man (even played by the same actor). Gregory Harrison strongly resembles Bill Thornbury, the older brother in Phantasm.
For me Phantasm, Kenny & Co, and Jim the Worlds Greatest are Coscarelli's best films. It's kind of a shame his career went downhill after that. So much potential for such a young guy. I wished that instead of making Beastmaster, he would've made Phantasm 2 in the early 80s.
Eventually Jim gets fed up with his father and throws him out. One day while Jim is at work his father sneaks back home and murders Kelly. Jim stalks the local bars with a kitchen knife seeking to kill his father. When he finally catches up to his father he can't go through with it. Jim spends most of the rest of the film driving around in a daze. Finally Jim befriends a little boy playing basketball, presumably a surrogate for Kelly. The film ends with Jim again driving around dazed while a catchy song by America plays.
This is a pretty well acted film. Harrison and Wolcott have great chemistry as the brothers. Scrimm is both menacing and a little bit sympathetic. It's a pretty well made film considering that it was made by a couple of teenagers with the help of their family and friends. But the film somewhat falls apart after Kelly is murdered. It's almost as if murdering a child isn't even a crime. Scrimm's character is free to roam skid row with seemingly no hint of the police even searching for him. But overall I really liked it.
Don Coscarelli's Phantasm is one of my favorite movies. This was his first film and it's interesting to see how it influenced Phantasm. Both concern a younger boy who idolizes his older brother. Both have the brothers in a sense being orphans. In Phantasm the parents were actually dead. In Jim the mother is absent and the drunken father is essentially absent. Both have plot lines of the older brother trying to protect the younger from a menacing older man (even played by the same actor). Gregory Harrison strongly resembles Bill Thornbury, the older brother in Phantasm.
For me Phantasm, Kenny & Co, and Jim the Worlds Greatest are Coscarelli's best films. It's kind of a shame his career went downhill after that. So much potential for such a young guy. I wished that instead of making Beastmaster, he would've made Phantasm 2 in the early 80s.