Product Details

• Actors: Val Kilmer, Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Goldberg, Luis Guzmán, Doug Hutchison
• Directors: D.J. Caruso
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 10, 2002
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006CY4N
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,288 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #27 in	Video > Special Interests > Cooking & Beverages > Meat, Poultry & Seafood
  #45 in	Video > Mystery & Suspense > Neo-Noir

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the real world, drug use is unimaginably boring to watch--but it inspires spectacular visuals in movies like Trainspotting and Drugstore Cowboy. To this list add The Salton Sea, a moody thriller starring Val Kilmer as a musician who goes undercover into the world of speed freaks to find the men who killed his wife. Though that plot summary may sound trite, creative direction, strong performances, and a solid script that shifts to and fro in time make The Salton Sea worth a look. Kilmer has an erratic track record but he's always an intriguing on-screen presence; Vincent D'Onofrio has a field day playing a noseless speed dealer called Pooh Bear. The cast is full of excellent character actors, including Anthony LaPaglia (Lantana), Peter Sarsgaard (Boys Don't Cry), B.D. Wong (Jurassic Park), Deborah Kara Unger (Crash), Adam Goldberg (Saving Private Ryan), and Luis Guzman (The Limey). --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker

A noirish, down-and-out Los Angeles apartment; tattooed meth-heads freaking at endless parties; a lonely trumpet player sitting in a building on fire-the young director D. J. Caruso is a romantic rhapsodist of squalor and disaster. His material is morose, self-pitying, and pretentious, but the picture is absorbing nonetheless and generally well-acted. Val Kilmer gives a grimly witty performance as the seemingly defeated hero, a man who has suffered loss and is seeking revenge. Vincent D'Onofrio goes over the top as a sadistic drug dealer who has snorted away his nose (he's got a plastic one), and virtually every hip actor remaining in Hollywood can be found burrowing in one dark corner or another. Screenplay by Tony Gayton. See it very late at night. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Salton Sea, August 6, 2002

By	Susan "doming39" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Salton Sea (DVD)

Amazon, you need a sixth star to do full justice to this edgy, innovative masterpiece of ensemble acting. That lead actor Val Kilmer can shine so brilliantly amidst the endless stream of first rate supporting actors proves he is not only an actor of supreme ability, but a catalyst who has brought about small miracles in the roles of, among others, Sarsgaard, Wong, D'Onofrio, Plummer, Unger, Guzman --well the list is long and simply mind-boggling. The film was released in only four or five major cities and dropped. How the producers of this film could have been so dense in promoting it is beyond my scope of understanding. No doubt Kilmer will once again be passed over at Oscar time (remember Tombstone? The Doors? How about Heat?) but if making good films is his real source of satisfaction, he should be very proud of this film. His acting depicts a range of human emotions in this film that will leave you breathless.
Do yourself a favor and see this movie. Often.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weird, grotesque and unpleasant. I thought it was great!, November 6, 2003

By	Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Salton Sea (DVD)

This 2002 film is a rather weird and grotesque story set in the world of drugs. Val Kilmer is cast as a former trumpet player on a downward drug spiral. He's a middleman dealer, a police informant and a speed freak himself. The drug scenes are lurid and explicit. And the violence never stops. It's also a roller coaster ride for the audience, with a complicated plot that finally makes sense. There are also special effects and moments to make me cringe.

Vincent D'Onofrio is cast as a demented drug dealer who has lost his nose due to his habit. He's a sadist who boasts about torturing people who have tried to scam him and he puts Val Kilmer through some horrible moments. There's double crossing going on of course, and even triple crossing. This makes the plot rather interesting as our perception of our hero changes as the film moves along.

It's all a strange and unpleasant trip but I must give credit to fine performances and excellent and edgy directing. I enjoyed it but do stay away if you're squeamish in any way and don't want to be haunted by nightmarish images. Recommended only for the adventurous few.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Noble Heart and Black Humor, November 21, 2003

By	Gabriela Zarco (Delhi, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Salton Sea (DVD)

Glad to see most of the reviews are favorable- "The Salton Sea" is one of my favorite movies. Why? The movie tells a special story in a unique way. Danny (AKA Tom) is on a personal mission that takes him into the squalidity of addiction and crime in LA. The story is unfolded in tangental vignettes, hyper-bizarre incidents and vivid flashbacks, and those of you with a keen eye for detail will recognize the logic of how and why the plotline is revealed this way. A lot of people will find some of the characters strange and over-the-top, and some of the incidents shocking, but that is the charm of the movie- never a dull moment.
My favorite aspects deal with the main themes of the movie: the value of true love, evil & hypocrisy, unlikely heroes and gutter saints. A Beautiful Film.