Review: The Legend of Billie Jean

For one of the more popular films from the 1980's (popular enough to be able to be featured on VH1's "I Love The 80's 3D"), it is sad that this film hasn't recieved a DVD release, especialy since we are already at the dawn of a new generation which uses a new medium - the blu-ray disc (though Helen Slater has said she had recorded a commentary for the film). The film is "The Legend of Billie Jean" and is one of the better films of the 1980's.

The plot revolves around Billie Jean and her brother, Binx (Christian Slater). One day, a bunch of teenagers decide to investigate the situation and mess with Binx's most loved possession: his motor bike. The situation gets out of control and the teens steal the bike. After going to law enforcement, Binx gets the bike himself - though the bike is in poor condition and Binx is all bloodied up. Peacefully, Billie goes to the shop which the teen which stole the bike works and presented a bill of $608. After refusing, the teen gets a kick in the nuts and the father comes in. Billie tries to talk to the father, only learning that he wanted her to do him sex favors for the cash. Binx and company come into the store and find the hidden gun in the cash register and in a tight situation, Binx shoots the father.

All she wants is the $605. Fair is Fair. And through the goose chase to capture her, Billie Jean will become an outlaw legend if there ever was one.

This is a rocking movie. You got such artists as Pat Benatar and Billy Idol on the soundtrack - very good rock singers from diffrent genres, specificaly punk in the case of Billy. The acting is great. There is just so much gold in this film. Plus, with me being sixteen, I like the teen angst message of the film which goes hand in hand with the "fair is fair" theme.

First, I got to talk about Hellen Slater. She was nominated for an award for her preformance in "Supergirl", which was her first theatrical feature. She seems to be a golden child when it comes to preformance. In this film, it is no exception. She gives a great preformance. She is like an 1980's Megan Fox, except she can act unlike Miss Fox. Christian Slater is also in this film, and his character is so unlike anything else he has done. I have seen him in "Interview with the Vampire" and even the awful Uwe Boll film "Alone In The Dark" and this is just diffrent for him, but he does a good job for early work. I also found the includion of Keith Gordon very nice, especialy since I love him in John Carpenter's "Christine", based on the Stephen King book. Very nice.

The direction - specificaly the camera angles - leave some to be desired. But it gets the story through. The script is awesome with it's themes and such. Though there is no real allegory - only themes - there is a nice message to the film. And the music score is heavily influenced by the Benatar contribution, but that is alright.

I give this film a 8/10. The pacing is slow once you hit the one hour mark, but it picks up. Very awesome film which I hope gets released soon.