The basic idea is that James Woods is an exec who gets hooked on coke and starts rapidly falling apart. His girlfriend is Sean Young (of Blade Runner fame) and she gets dragged down as well. Woods is Lenny, a tax professional whose career is turned upside by one of the IRS's periodic updates to the tax code. He becomes deep in debt and turns to drugs to give him "The Boost" he needs to find a solution and solve his problems.
Predictably, especially with James Woods (please see the thunderous masterpiece that is Videodrome) he goes completely insane in that way that only Woods can. Things definitely fall apart, and quickly. He spends like a madman, buying cars and dogs and all kinds of things. But someone's got to pay for all that swag...
When Woods is on drugs, he becomes extremely manic and can't be controlled. Which is really fun to watch! He has this wide, plastic grin that takes over his face, while simultaneously his eyes glaze over. And he always finds ways to embarass poor Sean Young, who is a dancer and seems to do all her own scenes (impressive!).
My favorite parts are the crazy '80s party scenes where Woods just takes it to overdrive - especially when they go to "Mexico," which is the only place the movie shows its budget - it's definitely a backlot set somewhere.
Amazing trivia! This movie is based on a book by ... Ben Stein. Yes, that Ben Stein! Of Ferris Bueller ("Bueller.... Bueller... Bueller... Bueller...") fame and who got his own game show Win Ben Stein's Money, back in the '90s when anything went and it was wide open. The book is titled Ludes: Ballad of the Drug and the Dream, and sounds amazing.
Of course, this means that the original drug under discussion was quaaludes, which are downers, rather than cocaine. Frankly I think Woods would be just as crazy on ludes as he was on coke. This movie was made on a shoestring budget, although you can't really tell - they do a good job of avoiding that B-movie look.
It was directed by Harold Backer who is best known for the minor Al Pacino classic Sea of Love (which is excellent) and also The Onion Field, Vision Question ('80s classic!), Taps, and Malice. He seems to have stopped making movies around 2001, according to IMDB.
The Boost was a major failure, unfortunately. IMDB reports it cost $8 million to make and brought back less than one million. This means that very few people ever saw it, which is a real shame. It's not fantastic, but it's worth seeing and has a number of entertaining scenes.
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