Layover

Layover is the latest project from that enigmatic genius of the European entertainment business, Lord Hasselhoff. Although there are no plans for a theatrical release in the United States, where the Philistines don't really understand Lord Hasselhoff's brand of neo-expressionistic acting, it will be opened to presumed wide acclaim in Germany three days in the future, as I write this. According to IMDb, it opens in Germany on August 24th, and I'm sure the lines are already stretching as far west as France. Thank God for open borders.

Now that I've taken my cheap shots, I can't believe this, but I'm about to admit that I liked a David Hasselhoff film.

Lord Hasselhoff plays a traveling businessman with a shaky marriage. He thinks his wife is cheating on him. He meets a shady jewelry dealer on a flight from New York to San Francisco. Hasselhoff was only supposed to be in San Francisco briefly on a layover before he boarded his next flight to Tokyo, but stuff happens.

He calls his wife to check in, they fight, and the next thing you know, Big Dave has picked up a tootsie at the airport bar and is engaged with her in the luggage area in what can only be described as some serious sportfuckin'. The sex scene is several minutes long.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but the tootsie he picked up is actually the wife of the shifty jewelry dealer he met earlier. Hey, it could happen. After all, she drove to the airport to pick up her husband.

Oh, boy.

Later on, the three of them kind of accidentally meet in the airport as a trio. Hasselhoff returns from the luggage area first, and finds the jewelry guy at the bar. They chat for a while, and the jewelry guy spots his wife before the lord of the beach does. The circumstances, and the jewelry dealer's inebriated condition, lead to an evening where all three of them go out together, because the jewelry guy doesn't know about the luggage room episode.

Of course, this precipitates some irony in several ways. First, because the jewelry guy thinks his wife is cheating on him, and is confiding all his fears to her latest lover. Second, because Hasselhoff is giving the other guy all kinds of advice about trust and tolerance, but we have already seen Hasselhoff with his own wife, acting exactly like the jewelry guy!

NUDITY REPORT

Yvonne Scio is topless in pretty good light, during a prolonged sex scene with Lord Hasselhoff.

Guess what? Hasselhoff passes out and wakes up to find that the jewelry guy is dead, and our favorite lifeguard has been arrested for Murder 1. Huh?

No purchase info available. I rented it from Blockbuster. I suppose it is one of their exclusives. No widescreen version, no extras.

What the hell is going on, and how will Lord Hasselhoff get out of it? That's what the film is all about. There are lots and lots of twists in this story, and some of them surprised me. And there were also a couple of creative camera set-ups.

It is actually a much better story than you might anticipate. I actually enjoyed it. Gregg Henry is the bad guy in this, and he actually sets up Hasselhoff very similarly to the way he set up Jake Scully in "Body Double", so I guess you could consider this a DePalma homage, but that isn't all bad, and parts of the ending surprised and tickled the hell out of me.

The Critics Vote

no reviews online

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 6.3, but based on only six votes.

no box office info

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+. Surprisingly, this is a good DePalma clone, and the Gregg Henry character is well written and performed.