Take yourself back in time to 1981 and imagine sitting on thestreets of Los Angeles.

A street full of drugs, sex, guns, homicide, under-the-tablemoney and gangsters. Although Disneyland may be the happiest placeon earth today, it didn’t compare to the place of exotic happinesswhich was once Wonderland.

The film documents the mass homicides that occurred onWonderland Avenue in Los Angeles’s Laurel Canyon that summer.Initially, it appeared that the victims of this case were solelydrug dealers and heavy on the party life until the authoritieslearned of their dealings with John C. “Johnny Wadd” Holmes (ValKilmer), a infamous porn star.

Prior to these events, Wadd was rather known for his 14inches more than anything else, and it’s been said that he sleptwith over 14,000 women. By the late 70s, he was the porn king, butafter his career was over, he began a life drenched in drugs andswindling. Married to Sharon (Lisa Kudrow) and partying on the edgewith teenage mistress Dawn Schiller (Kate Bosworth), he’sstruggling to survive both physically and financially in hisdealings with a group of men who live in an apartment atopWonderland Avenue.

James Cox does an affective job in flashing back betweenscenes while recounting the crude events of that time. Scenes arefilled with blood and gore as the killings are reenacted, but alsoentail promiscuous acts, violence, gangster language and wonderful,yet manipulativeperformances by the ensemble cast.

Josh Lucas is great as big-time drug offender Ron Launius.Nonetheless, Val Kilmer, who usually plays some self-righteous maleto swoon over, is an unshaven, grungy man this time around.Speaking of grunge, the music sets the tone with classic 1970s rocksongs.

So if you’re ready to see Val Kilmer take off his shirt for theladies and sell drugs to make some fast cash, then this is themovie to see.