Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Crime 101 (1999)

aka Scarfies

College students arrive on campus looking for a cheap place to stay for the semester and see an ad for a free room.  The address is a large abandoned home with multiple bedrooms. It's filled with trash, but the electricity and water still work.

The roommates clean up the building to make it livable and discover a locked steel door in the basement.  When one finds the key, they unlock the mystery door to discover a room filled with tons of pot plants.

The kids are split as to whether to keep it, sell it, call the police, or leave it alone.  Eventually the thought of lots of cash leads our poor college students to sell most of it, while keeping a bit for themselves.

Now you'd think someone might have considered what might happen when the person who has been cultivating it comes back for it.  Ah, but you'd be much more forward thinking than this lot.  Really, I mean there's water, artificial sunlight, and a timer to regulate both, plus it's obvious that care has been given to cultivate it.  It's not like it's a dingy old basement with long forgotten plants.  Argh!  Too bad no one had any critical thinking ability because when the owner shows up he's none too happy to find his crop gone and a bunch of kids who've spent all his drug money.

At this point, there is dissension in the ranks as the kids try to figure out how to handle this unexpected wrinkle in their adventure. The movie has some tension at this point as it's hard to imagine how they're going to get out of the situation, but they also make some really stupid decisions (which I guess is to be expected since they decided to sell someone elses pot) and a not very believable ending.

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