Dead End Beat “All My Riches”

2003-dead-end-beat-all-my-richesA limousine pulls up outside the Crystal Palace cinema in Mount Eden. Its passenger is a wealthy but frail old codger who’s come for a private screening.

The limo has the comedy licence plates “GWBUSH” which doesn’t really make sense in the context of the video. Or perhaps the oldster’s name is Gerald Wilbur Bush. They’ve have been better off swapping the plates for some regular ones. Another strange detail – the cinema has posters advertising the film “Kombi Nation”. Was the song on its soundtrack (google says no), or were the posters just there as part of the cinema’s regular line-up?

Anyway, the old millionaire is accompanied by two bodyguards who are terrible actors. The video is trying to be all noir and sexual but the bodyguards are like kids acting in a primary school play.

The codger settles down and watches a old porno, starring Shayla LaVeaux, a real American porn star (you might know her work in The Cougar Club 2, Lesbian Mentors 1: Older Women, Younger Girls, or When MILFs Attack). We also see shots of present-day Shayla in the back of a limo.

The screening is going well when suddenly a thug appears and menacing walks over the seat tops towards ol’ pops where – we assume – he murders him. It seems that Shayla and the codge are/were married, so we assume she’s taken out a hit on him. Well, it’s understandable – it would be a bit weird if your husband was obsessed with your older porn when you were still pretty young and fit.

Hey, where’s the band where all this is happening? They’re out playing the song in a dark alley. The players in the cinema story dominate the video, with the band left lurking in the shadows. But it’s a shadowy song and it works having the band lurking as minstrels in the background.

It feels like the video wants to be a lot sexier and darker than it manages to be. There are some terrifically noir and beautifully photographed shots, but it seems let down by the bumbling heavies, who should be played as smart aides, not comedic thugs.

Best bit: the theatre manager counts the fat wad of cash he’s made – way more lucrative than screening Kombi Nation.

Director: Joe Lonie
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… the last obsession.

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