User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** Ture story of the notorious "Max Factor Rapist" Andrew Luster, Jason Gedrick, who used his good looks money charm and the date drug GHB better known as "Liquid X" to get unsuspecting young girls to go to bed with him.

Andrew went a bit too far with the cute and shapely Connie-not her real last name-Doe played by Maria Sokoloff whom he met at Vantura night club and slipped a dose of GHB into her drinking water. Together with her boyfriend Daniel, Shane Meier, Andrew drove the two to his ocean front pad where he repeatedly raped Connie while she was unconscious. This slime ball even had the innocent, in having a totally platonic relationship with Connie, Daniel participate in raping Connie while he was under the influence of GHB!

What in the end screwed Andrew up is his arrogance in thinking he could get away with his crime or, as it later turned out, crimes because money, which he or his family had loads of, could buy him his freedom. It was also Andrew's habit of video taping his crimes that gave the local police and D.A all the rope that they needed to hang the creep. That's by having him admit to Connie what he did to her in a court authorized wire tap of his phone conversation with her. Besides having raped Connie it soon became evident that Andrew did the same to both Sarah & Teri Doe-not their real last names-played by Sarah Carter & Stefanie Van Pfetten who's rapes he video taped. In the case of Sarah she suffered a miscarriage when she found out from the D.A's office that Andrew raped her which she,in being drugged by him, had no memory of.

As thing started to get hot for Andrew at his trial he just skipped town and took off for Mexico that just about sealed his fate with the jury. Convicted on 86 of the 87 charges against him Andrew was now a fugitive from the law and with no access to his millions ended up being a bum or beachcomber drinking cheap booze, where did he get the cash to pay or it, and getting himself drunk all day and night while passing out cold on the beach. Andrew's freedom didn't last too long when in June 2003 he was spotted by American famed bounty hunter "Dog" Chapman, James Ralph, and his crew who after a violent struggle finally put the cuffs on him!

P.S There didn't need to be a second trial this time around for Andrew Luster in that he already was convected on 86 charges of rape and imprisonment. Sent to the California Mule Creek Correctional Center for 124 years Andrew will be eligible for parole in 2108 at the earliest! Which will make him 145 years old if in fact he's still alive to be released!

This film aired on Lifetime summer of 2003. At the time of its production, Andrew Luster, heir to the Max Factor fortune, was arrested in Mexico by the bounty hunter "Mad Dog", charged with counts of rape and intoxicating his victims. This film is pure reality, no hold bars. The scenes are graphic and even disturbing- such as the rape in the shower scene and other "rape" scenes. Andre Luster, a spoiled rich man, got away with rape because he drugged his hapless victims with Liquid X. This is a date rape drug that can easily be slipped into an unattended drink at a bar. The biggest warning in this story is not to leave an alcoholic drink unattended. Andrew Luster frequented the bars of Southern California. The three women in this film (one played by Marla Sokoloff) finally summon the courage to tell the truth in court. Not even with all his money could this man-devil get away with his horrific crimes. Lifetime is known for such graphic cautionary tales about predators and women victims, but this is used so that women can wake up and put a stop to it, empowering them to take a stand, to call the authorities/police, to take defense classes, to put rapists behind bar. In the case of Andrew Luster, no one suspected he was a rapist. He came off as charming, he was even sexy. Jason Gedrick, an actor best known for his role in Boomtown the TV series, gets into the criminal character effectively. This is my final word on this. Since the material is R rated, young children should not watch this. Teenage girls who are interested in the bar/club scene..(and yes even underage girls drink, since todays' girls mature so quickly they already look like they are 21 and older) should watch this movie with their girlfriends, talk about the movie afterward and take more care next time they go to a club. Also, mothers with teenage daughters or who are ages 18-21, should watch this film together to discuss the potential dangers of leaving a drink unattended. Thank goodness for the heroic efforts of Mad Dog and of Lifetime in the final capture of Andrew Luster, who I hope rots in jail and gets raped himself while in there!!!

OK, it's unique case, so why to miss the opportunity. But was this movie really as important as its event?

It is a good script when it comes only to "show", and its best element was the dialogue (He needed fair trail. / I think he had one.) so other lines, and its best moment was the triple testimony of the 3 Doe victims at the end. However, you have to hate a lot of things.

First of all, the police found all the tapes at the start of the movie, so where's the drama?! Moreover, what is the most weird motive of this eccentric wealthy brat to commit all what he did? Obviously he got all the money in the world, so why to drug girls, rape them, and film the rape?, or his unspoken-about-obsessive to collect wristwatches??, or his mother's true point of view? In fact, what could possibly make him the freak that he was is a tempting question, but apparently not for this movie's scriptwriter. It might've given the movie something to fill in its drama, beside the empty predictable cycles of (I'll witness, I'll not), or the naivety of the women's same scary reveries, and to make it live longer than the traditional age of the TV news, or the dramatic documentary that we watched!

It seemed wholly tasteless as if a repetition for what was written about the case yet in brief. Originally, this plot with its ordinary sequences created cold conflict, and languid time. Its main issue was the boldness of these 3 victims to avow their hidden shameful pain. Though, the whole meaning finally shrank into message such as: don't talk to strangers, or drink from them. Ironically, its intentional flatness made it look like the revenge on one rich man, exactly as the criminal said in the movie, more than a study of rich monster, or even a presenting for slightly logical reasons.

Well, there was the Blaxploitation movie, the Sexploitation movie, and now it's the Trailploitation one. And look at the movie's funny long title, as well as its time of release, to catch on that right. Actually they were shooting the movie before the real criminal was captured in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. And the ending was immediately re-written to incorporate that; so do you feel the accelerated sense?! By all means, it's not the ideal script for (Oliver Stone) when he takes on (Andrew Luster)!

As for the acting, (Sarah Carter) excelled everybody with non-television, too sensitive performance. On the contrary, (Jason Gedrick) was totally lifeless or confused, you can't know while the trail whether he's blaming himself, or dealing with it indifferently, or not understanding his doings (most likely as the scriptwriter!).

The shower scenes are shockingly showy and deliberately long, it's where the movie gets purely exploitative. And I'll never elaborate about the direction, but who can forget the strange use of lens?! What is the need to deform the court, the lower, the prosecutor, even the judge (!) while declaring the escape of the accused, or during else scenes?!!

Regrettably, it's nothing but "the movie of the week", with nearly all the negativities of the term. So, it was unusual case in usual movie. Too usual is the word.