Running Out of Luck (1985) User Reviews

Rae Dawn Chong is hot & the story was amusing...

[cynthetta · 5/10 · 9 January 2007]

It's been so long ago, I only remember a few things about this movie. Casino, banana plantation, Rae Dawn Chong wearing a HUGE brimmed hat & seducing a prison/jail guard with her luscious breasts, only to have him pass out after suckling her drug-laced nipples.

I thought about this movie not too long ago, wondering if anyone else had seen it & had similar impressions. A little disappointed when I decided to search on this site & there's nary a comment. Pity! I was sick one afternoon, "Running Out of Luck" was on, and, perhaps, the title suggested how I was feeling.

Surprised by Mick Jagger's role in the film, I was actually quite impressed that he could act! Heck, I'd watch it again if only to check my memory banks about that fabulous overhead shot of Rae Dawn sashaying down the prison corridor!

I Finally Ran Out of Patience

[NoDakTatum · 4/10 · 26 October 2023]

This kooky ninety minute music video blitz showcases Mick Jagger without any Rolling Stones gathering around. It is truly bizarre. Mick plays Mick, a huge rock star who is in Rio de Janeiro to shoot a music video directed by Dennis Hopper (none of the characters, aside from Mick Jagger, have proper names). Mick gets jealous of Jerry Hall during the shoot, and goes off alone with three women to his trailer. The three women are in fact transvestites who rob Mick and throw him on the back of a meat truck headed out of town. The three transvestites then fight amongst themselves, one is killed, and they put his body in a car and roll it off a pier. Mick wakes up , abandoned in the middle of nowhere, trying to find a phone. He wanders, until he's kidnapped and held as slave labor on a banana plantation, where he meets a local prostitute played by Rae Dawn Chong. Chong tries to help Jagger escape. The transvestite's body is found, mistaken for Mick, and Mick is assumed to be dead.

The film features about nine songs from Jagger's solo album "She's the Boss," all shot complete in music video format. These are standard looking MTV fodder, it is the story filling in the blanks that is so truly bizarre. Jagger cowrote this, and gives himself lots of screen time. Jerry Hall proves once and for all that her acting career was a fluke. Chong is okay, Hopper is wasted, and the Brazilian scenery is nice. Temple directs the conversations the same way he directs videos, trying to hide the weird story. At one point, Hall is dating a senator while Jagger cools his heels in prison. The senator has Hall kidnapped, but she escapes and gets her revenge by killing him! The banana plantation owner's wife beds Jagger immediately, so Jagger dresses in drag to escape with the other prostitutes. Oscar winner Jim Broadbent has a tiny role, figuring out Jagger is not dead. This thing is unbelievable! While it claims to be a musical-comedy-adventure, it is none of these. Jagger's songs all sound the same. The laughs aren't funny, unless you take into account Hall's "acting." There is no action or adventure. Thank goodness for the extended sex scenes between Jagger and Chong, and Chong's unique prison break plan. "Running Out of Luck" was probably meant as a video album for the fans. Instead, it is so bizarre, so out there, so weird, so bad, that I could not take my eyes off of it. You won't care about the story or characters, but you will be hard pressed to forget such an odd film.

Running out of brains, where director temple, needs a shot to his temple

[videorama-759-859391 · 2/10 · 18 March 2014]

I know enough about this movie to know it's bad, really, really bad. I had seen a couple of times back at the end of 97. The title dictates the whole worth of the movie, as if in silent parody. What do I remember about it- the start being the being the best bit, with a loud choreographed film clip to one of Jagger's lesser known songs, that was impressive. What followed wasn't. I remember Jagger on his big beautiful sailboat, going off at wife, Hall, spouting out in his repellent Mick voice "You make me sick". Well this movie made me sick. My standout visual moment I remember, had Mick stranded in the desert, coming across a empty Mcdonald's wrapper. Honestly, judging by it's cover of a cool looking Mick, chewing on the bands of his sunnies, this open image occupying the whole cover, you'd expect a much better movie. Here again, with misjudging the cover, you've been very deceived. The plot is ludicrous. As it comes to wraps, we hear Mick's current big song of that period, play, "Give me just another night". Not with this flick you don't. It's the sort of flick, if pirating it, you be very quick to replace it. If not replacing it, you've got serious psychological problems. Not one of Mick's best. Neither is his performance. Rae Dawn, and of course, the late great Hopper, wasted in another fizzer, outperform him in a film. who's director needs a stoning. Forgettable fodder.