Customer Reviews

A Boy Called Hate [VHS]

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The first time I saw this movie I thought it was great. The soundtrack(Pray For Rain), went well with the plot. I thought that the acting was great, I was rather surpried as to how good Scott Cann was. I don't want to give anything away, but the little incident in the bathroom was probably the best scene. After the movie ended I was left with a feeling of I can't put it into words but I felt satisfied with it. Usuall I do not feel like that after watching something but this one was good and I would definatly recommend it to anyone who wants to watch a great movie.

Scott Caan plays the boy named Hate. Hate is a trouble maker who is on parole after he got out of prison for grand theft auto. He has a dad who seems to care but doesnt, played by his real dad James Caan. Nice support of family in this picture. Caan runs into a arguing couple played by Missy (Melissa) Crider and Elliott Gould. Caan shoots Gould and the 2 run off together but they done know that Gould is still alive. Thinking they might get caught they head off on the road and in the process Caan shoots a cop dead this time. The chemistry between Caan and Crider is believeable because the 2 are just made for each other. Its science, its the darn ying/yang thingy. The 2 meet Adam Beach, Billy Little Plume and a friendship ensues but the cops are hot on the 2 lovers trail and eventually end up catching them but Caan is put in jail leaving Crider out. Beach has the best moments and lines in the entire movie. Highlight would be when Caan shoots for the 9 ball to when Beach's eagle feather. Gould is wasted in small supporting role. One thing I would love to visit though it that Camelot Golf Course, wonder what strange things they have there. Anyway, enjoyable ride which lacks in parts.

Best Line
Adam Beach (Billy Little Plume): " Young Warrior dont flinch at loaded guns, but the women scare the s**t out of him."

Synopsis: A boy named Steve, his alcoholic and worker's compensation defrauding father, and a girl. Steve (Scott Caan) is a juvenile delinquent who only has his dad (James Caan). Steve spends his days doing things that get him arrested. Renaming himself Hate after one such episode, a name he carves into his arm, Steve sneaks out one night. While riding his motorcycle in a vacant lot he comes across an attempted rape-in-progress. Cindy (Missy Crider) is saved when Steve shoots the attempted rapist, an Assistant District Attorney played by Elliott Gould. Steve thinks he's killed the man, and he and Cindy take off on a cross-country getaway that sees murder, violence and an eagle's feather surrounding a blossoming romance. Will they get away from the long arm of the law, or will this unintentional path of destruction end their young lives too soon?

* * *

A very young Scott Caan stars in 'A Boy Called Hate,' the story of a young man with plenty of problems who stumbles across an even bigger problem in the form of Missy Crider and Elliott Gould. A couple of fun sidenotes about them: 1) Caan appeared in the Ocean's movies with Elliot Gould many years later, and 2) Missy Crider was in the first Mark Dacascos (Wo Fat) movie I ever saw, 'Instinct to Kill.' I tell you, there are zero degrees of separation when it comes to 'Hawaii Five-0' actors.

It seems Mr. Caan was destined to play these bad boy types from this first movie. (Arguably, his first...there's one listed before this that came out the same year.) It's sort of touching in a way that many years after playing his real father's son in this movie, he once again played his real father's son in the movie 'Mercy.'

The movie itself is your typical teenage angst combined with romance combined with road trip movie. It didn't get the greatest reviews, but I like to look at films from the standpoint of what they're meant to be, and about how they make me feel. These kids are in desperate situations, their families are in desperate situations, and how they react to it all is very real, even if you want to yell at them when you can see the bad decisions they're making.

With this very early role, it's evident that Mr. C. was born an actor. Maybe it's just in his genes, but he's so believable as Hate that it makes you wonder if he was just playing himself (he's made no bones about his bad boy younger years), or if it was all an act for the movie. Young Caan is capable of being bad-ass enough even at nineteen years of age that you believe the swagger. Yet he's also got an innate ability to be sweet and endearing that I think continues to this day.

What this movie showed me is that the dichotomy that is Scott Caan has existed from the very beginning. Watching him shoot a cop in one scene, and then immediately react to what he's done with a heartbreaking realism that belies how very young he was at the time, showcases the depths of this very talented and accomplished Hollywood son.

I loved the scenes on the reservation, the way the Native Americans helped them out, and the significance to Steve of the eagle feather. That Gould's ADA has the two main characters pursued across the country is not surprising, and the final action scene had me wondering right up until it ended if they were going to live or die.

Generally speaking, movies about teenagers in general do nothing for me; in fact, I won't even watch them because I've never been able to relate to these worldly types of young people (yeah, my childhood was so not normal). Aside from watching such a young version of Mr. Caan that I found fascinating, though, I don't think this movie was bad at all. As one reviewer said when the movie first came out, both Caan's and Crider's performances were highly nuanced, and I think that's very true.

I would recommend you see it. If not for the movie itself, then just to watch the beginnings of a career that's taken Scott Caan into a huge television show and made him the household name he really deserves to be. And no matter how much I enjoy watching him on 'Hawaii Five-0,' I will always be looking for all these other things he's done because really, he's just that talented to make watching any kind of movie wholly worthwhile.

Even when he was only nineteen.

Obvious, and badly acted by its female lead Missy Crider.... but both Scott Caan and Adam Beach are great... Fair movie...

Adam Beach fans will enjoy his charismatic portrayal of the memorable character Billy Little Plume. Otherwise, the predictable romance between the two leads is unconvincing; the use of foul language is excessive.

this genre is for those who also like to read harry crews, jim thompson, andrew vachss, cormac mccarthy, and joe lansdale.