JoeB131 What happens to good actors when they can't get good roles anymore? They end up in stuff like this.Elliot Gould was a leading man back in the 1970's. He was kind of a big deal. Some of the other actors were quite good, but could be picked up on the cheap, kind of like that state of the art Commadore 64 someone sells at a garage sale.The plot is that a teenage boy takes to spying on his neighbor, who is apparently a hooker. No one believes him when he says she was murdered his HS History teacher who had him expelled the day before.ANd what follows is the case of the worst detectives ever trying to catch the most inept criminal ever before they kill more hookers with no survival skills.I think Gould's performance irked me the most, because his character came off as kind of silly in what should have been a serious movie. Pollard's character was almost as bad, playing the mentally deficient brother of the Satanist History Teacher.

Scott LeBrun "Night Visitor" is a decent little combination of teen comedy and horror movie, no more and no less. It holds no real surprises. Still, it's amusing and it does have one good element, which I'll get to in a minute. The oddly chosen bunch of actors makes it interesting to see. Horror fans may be slightly disappointed with the way the gore and sex are downplayed.Derek Rydall plays Billy Colton, a high school student prone to telling tall tales. So when he learns the identity of the Satan worshipping cretin murdering prostitutes, people are inclined to disbelieve him. The police can't do anything without solid evidence. So Billy is forced to link the killer to their crimes, but fortunately ends up being helped by former cop Ron Deveraux (Elliott Gould), an associate of Billy's dad.The most fun one will have in watching this is the offbeat relationship between cranky history teacher Zachary Willard (Allen Garfield) and his simple minded, childish brother Stanley (Michael J. Pollard). One could make a movie based on these two guys alone. As for the rest, well, it's pretty routine stuff. Appealing younger performers such as Rydall and Teresa Van der Woude (as Rydalls' girlfriend) are ably supported by such veterans as Gould, Garfield, Pollard, Richard "Shaft" Roundtree as a police captain, Brooke Bundy as Rydalls' mom, and Henry Gibson as an expert on Satanism. The presence of Shannon Tweed, as the kind of next door neighbour many guys would like to have, does add to the enjoyment, as well as the role for 90s porn queen Teri Weigel as a victim.Marking the directing debut for experienced writer / producer Rupert Hitzig ("Electra Glide in Blue", "Wolfen", "Jaws 3-D", this offers agreeable entertainment that at least wraps itself up pretty quickly and delivers some appreciable chuckles.Seven out of 10.

Wizard-8 Even before "Night Visitor" reaches the end, there will be one question that will keep coming up in your mind: "How did this terrible independent production get picked up by a major Hollywood studio?" Indeed, it's a mystery as to why MGM/UA got the distribution rights, but it's pretty easy to figure out why they subsequently didn't do much with it. (I'm not even sure it played in theaters!) It's a pretty cheap movie, with the low budget making the movie suffer throughout, such as with poor audio and obviously post-dubbed dialogue. But even if the movie had been slickly executed, it would still suffer from a dumb and unlikable protagonist, unfunny comedy, and unthrilling thriller elements. Oh, and some of the most obvious padding you'll see - there's only enough plot for about half a movie. The movie does boast a once in a lifetime cast - Gould, Roundtree, Tweed, Garfield, Pollard - but none of these actors are particularly well used. (And their performances, especially Gould's, suggest they know they are in a turkey.) The movie should only be seen by those curious about how MGM/UA lost its touch by the end of the '80s.

preppy-3 Cute, young Billy Coulton (Derek Rydall--who wears really tight pants all during the picture) sees call girl Lisa Grace (Shannon Tweed) stabbed to death by his high school teacher (Allen Garfield). This all happens within the first 30 minutes. The next tedious hour involves Billy trying to convince the police that his teacher is the murderer while the teacher zeroes in on Billy.Unscary, stupid, dull "horror" movie with gratuitous nudity thrown in (all the victims are hookers). Also Elliott Gould (who doesn't pop up until a hour into the film) is totally wasted. I'm giving this a 2 because Rydall is good (and really handsome) and there are good performances by Tweed and Richard Roundtree (!!) as a detective. Otherwise this is just a hopeless mess. Skip it.