Starring - Danny Aiello; Greg Cruttwell; Jeff Daniels; Teri Hatcher & Glenne Headly Director - John Herzfeld MPAA - Rated R for violence, sexuality, and language. 2 Days In The Valley is more or less a Pulp Fiction knock off. It basically involves how a bunch of quirky characters in the Los Angeles area end up having their lives become intertwined in some very unusual ways. I'm not going into much greater detail than that, since it would take forever to explain, and quite frankly, I'm not willing to spend any more time on it than the 2 hours that I've already wasted. While it tries very hard to be Pulp Fiction, 2 Days In The Valley falls way short. This is quite a condemnation considering the cast includes Danny Aiello, James Spader and Jeff Daniels. While the story isn't much, and the dialogue and characters rate only marginally better, 2 Days In The Valley does have a couple of bright spots. James Spader's character, while not much better than the rest, is at least fun to watch in a sick sort of way. And we do get to see a nice cat fight between uber babes Teri Hatcher and Charlize Theron (in her first role). You know a movie isn't that good when the highlight is a brawl between two women; even if they are both gorgeous. I will give the writers some credit for the fairly clever ways in which they managed to intersect the lives of this group of characters that would have otherwise never interacted. But marveling at that ingenuity is a far cry from actually enjoying the result. While some of the characters and their respective stories are fairly interesting, they inevitably are brought down as they intersect with the other half of the characters that I really cared absolutely nothing about. If I were to put a number on it, only about half of the story and half the characters in this movie were particularly interesting or otherwise enjoyable to watch. This is the sort of movie that only a huge fan of one or more of the cast members should rent, and even then prepare for disappointment. Not even Charlize Theron being naked would get me to sit through this movie again. Or at least not all of it anyway... 4/10

¶ 12/21/1998 06:38:00 PM

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