Cocaine: One Man's Seduction (1983 TV Movie) User Reviews

You'll turn it on as a joke, but find yourself strangely riveted

[bob_meg · 7/10 · 16 December 2013]

It could be that the anti-drug movie is one of the hardest to pull off. Even with great setups and decent performances, they can come off as bathos-drenched soap-opera hell ("The Boost" always comes to mind, and it doesn't help when the lead actor acts like he's on crack when he's sober).

"Cocaine: One Man's Addiction," while possibly having one of the most ridiculous titles in TV-Movie history, actually works due to the ordinariness and realism of the characters and plots. There isn't anything here that's going to shock or amaze you: just an ordinary guy sending himself down the toilet and wondering how he got there. But it gets to you, simply because it's so low-key. Dick Van Dyke did something similar with "The Morning After," but it never seemed as life-threatening or desperate as it does here.

Weaver portrays an aging real estate agent who's finding himself edged out of the company he helped build. While he gives his usual competent performance, the real sparks fly from some of the supporting actors, notably Jeffrey Tambor, as a friend of Weaver's whose binge with coke nearly drove him to suicide, and a teenage James Spader, who brings an easy realism (and pain) to the role of Weaver's disaffected son.

With Pamela Bellwood, nicely playing a poignantly injured casual user who initially lures Weaver toward his doom and a mis-cast Karen Grassle, who looks simply uncomfortable throughout.

THIS IS GREAT

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 30 December 2020]

Man, if I love one thing, it's movies where Dennis Weaver fights with his son over college and life choices. Somehow, I watched two in the same week, but Cocaine: One Man's Seduction is the kind of movie that transcends just one reason why I watch made for TV movies and moves into the magical world of drug warning films.

I mean, this is a movie where McCloud goes crazy for the nose candy and flips out repeatedly. If that doesn't make you want to watch it, why are you even on our page?

Eddie Gant (Weaver) used to be the number one real estate agent for ten years in a row, but now, he's struggling to sell and not even considered to be a partner. He's forced into a dead market and wonders how he'll survive. Meanwhile, he feels distant from his wife Barbara (Karen Grassle, Little House on the Prarie) and his son Buddy (James Spader!) is letting him down by not going to college.

That's when his work pals Robin Barstowe (Pamela Bellwood, who was in everything from Dynasty and Cellar Dwellar to Airport '77) and Bruce Neumann (David Ackroyd, who shows up in all manner of great TV movies like Exo-Man and The Dark Secret of Harvest Home) get him set up with them big flakes and that 70's mustache of Weaver starts twitching. He's selling luxury homes, aardvarking with his wife like he hasn't in decades and even ignoring his pal Mort (Jeffrey Tambor, who never really looks young), even blowing past the guy when he plans on killing himself so he can get another envelope of yeyo.

Look for a really young Tasha Yar - I mean, Denise Crosby - as a bank teller as Eddie goes bonkers and starts pulling money out of his kid's college fund so he can get one more score.

You know, people don't talk about Paul Wendkos enough. Between this movie and his other films like The Mephisto Waltz, The Death of Richie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Haunts of the Very Rich, Good Against Evil and so many more, I've always enjoyed his work. He also did several Gidget movies in the 60's, if you like seeing Sally Field on the beach.

a very funny film for those with a strange sense of humour...

[NickDeckard · 8/10 · 22 December 2004]

I'm not going to go into details about this film other than to say that some people (myself included) find this film very funny in places...however you will find it *very* hard to find! Its never going to be on TV I would have thought because of the title etc...I'm hoping for a DVD special edition but that's just being silly! To sum up..a couple of people I know who know a fair bit about the subject matter didn't like the film - they seemed uncomfortable, maybe the truth hurts?. Other people I know found it boring. However a select few found it hilarious in places...yes it is a "back from the pub/club film" - if you see it, buy/beg/borrow/steal it! It will interest you to know that this film is endorsed by Nancy Reagan..not my words, the words on the video cover!

Who's This?!

[supersalsantos · 27 October 2002]

McCloud ditches stetson and tin flute for funky '80's leather-Jackson-jacket as old Mr Charles begins to burn a hole in his fashion sense as well as pocket. A tour-de-force performance by Dennis Weaver as dead-beat real estate loser Eddie Gant, transformed into a Caddy-driving high-roller thanks to Bolivia's finest export until inevitable excess leads to a pathetic, whimpering finale, a hospitalised Weaver unable to look his family in the eye whilst bubbling, "I'm so ashamed. I'm so ashamed!" Marvelous!

An After School Special!

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 25 February 2013]

A real estate salesman (Dennis Weaver) with career and marriage problems gets hooked on cocaine, and finds that not only does it not help him cope with them, but it makes them much, much worse.

What is not to love about this film? We have a young James Spader and a drug-addicted Jeffrey Tambor. That already makes it good no matter what happens. And then we get to learn about the evils of peer pressure! What we end up finding out is that cocaine causes you to make "lewd offers" to your spouse and encourages you to re-arrange your spices. While not an "after school special", it was a made-for-TV movie that was clearly designed to show how cocaine use can spiral out of control.

I have never used cocaine and probably never will. But films like this are not what make me steer clear. In fact, I found this film humorous in a strange way. Not that it was inaccurate -- it is probably very close to the truth. But there is an unintentional humor not unlike that found in "Reefer Madness".

This movie feels like a PSA..

[wundergurl · 7/10 · 30 March 2024]

This movie feels like a PSA about drugs. 😂 It's not a bad movie, kind of fluffy despite the subject. Good actors and interesting.

You're not sure if he's going to quit or if he'll push his family away and keep using.

In all honesty, I watched this movie for Jimmy Spader and I will say, I was not disappointed. He's a great actor and plays a great character in this movie. A caring son who wants his dad to be happy and healthy.

It's a movie I might watch again if I wanted something light hearted with more serious undertones. I would recommend this movie to high school's instead of those goofy "say no to peer pressure" or "don't do drugs" PSA videos. 😂

DEFINITIVE Weaver!

[johnny_fire · 9/10 · 1 June 2007]

Unbelievable this hasn't been released on DVD yet!

Those old enough should remember how controversial 'One Man's Seduction' was, when first broadcast in 1983. Back then, most television viewers could only access about a dozen channels, so these TV movies remained a big deal at that point.

It was considered a brave move on Weaver's part to even take this role, despite the rampant cocaine abuse that peaked in mainstream America during the early 1980s.

And does he make the most of it! You haven't enjoyed Dennis at his best until you see this one. Also, Pamela Bellwood never looked better than she does here, and should have earned an Emmy nomination for her supporting role as Weaver's unwitting enabler.

The Best Film about Coke Addiction Ever!

[ajax-12 · 9/10 · 20 March 2010]

It's too bad more high-quality TV movies like this aren't being put out on DVD - though, at least, this film is currently available for streaming on Hulu and other sites. This is by far the most concise movie of any kind to deal with the pitfalls of cocaine addiction, much better than big-budget theatrical treatments like "The Boost" and "Blow." Dennis Weaver gives one of his best performances as the harried, self-pitying real estate agent who is convinced by a slightly disturbing (and oh-so-eighties-looking) couple that coke will help him make millions in the luxury home market. In fact, Weaver is so good it has always struck me as strange that his obituaries never even mentioned this work. The supporting cast is excellent (except for Karen Grassle as the cloyingly sweet simpleton of a wife) with James Spader being cast against type - at least, future type - as Weaver's clean-cut son. In fact, were a remake of this movie ever to be produced, it would make perfect sense to have Spader play Dennis' part. A great movie that is well worth looking at online ... or, if you can hunt it down, on VHS!

fun if you have black sense of humor-watch Oslo Aug 31 instead

[peru1-595-630106 · 3/10 · 19 May 2013]

This made for TV has Dennis Weaver at 59 playing a 48 year old real estate agent whose career has hit a dead end. Weaver and his family are as square and corny as it is possible to be and the end screen shot showing them together like a Hallmark card was a perfect summation.

I found James Spader miscast... his attempts to be an all amercian macho teenager some how don't work with his quasi metro sexual look. There is something about him I don't care for---he thinks he is hotter than he is is about it.

Anyway by serendipity Weaver is introduced unwillingly to cocaine...his career rockets and he is hooked bad. Well things start to go wrong in stereotyped predictable fashion and he ends up ODing during a multi million dollar real estate deal.

There is obviously a lot of truth to the subject but this rendition is just too damn corny and exaggerated. It can be fun if you have a black sense of humor.

Drug movies are difficult not to appear stereotypical manipulative and exaggerated watch Oslo Aug 31 for a far far better one.

DO NOT RECOMMEND

Dennis weaver at his best!

[harpyrec-1 · 10/10 · 14 July 2005]

one of the best and most "hitting you in the face" movies of all time.

on one hand,it is a sad story of a drug user(weaver) who gets so messed up he stoops to blaming his own kid for coke when his wife finds it.

on the other hand..its unintentionally hilarious. there's one scene when weavers walking on the beach on a boardwalk and he drops his keys..he flips out. another great part is when he blows a big presentation because hes so paranoid. a must see. is this thing in print??? it should be. anyone thinking they can do cocaine without having a bad time needs to see this. as said..both serious and funny at once.

when it was first shown as a typical "movie of the week' it was a bit silly..because we were seeing mcloud on dope! i think Dennis gives one of his all time best performances here.. he doesn't overact as he often was known to. hes very cool and realistic. this is what anyone could and does experience with that nasty drug. but what about Dennis? would that people could remember him for more than just duel and mcloud..and gunsmoke. because his rolls(including the infamous terror on the beach) for movies of the week were gems!

a hard no-nonsense look at cocaine addiction

[dtucker86 · 12 September 2003]

Dennis Weaver showed unusual shrewdness in picking scripts for television movies that he starred in. He consistently picked top-quality projects like The Ordeal Of Doctor Mudd and Bluffing It. This is another example of a quality tv film that rises above the usual fare. "It will kill her if she finds out...it will kill him if she doesn't" was the ad-line for this movie. Weaver plays Eddie a nice, unassuming real estate agent with a wife and teenage son with the typical hang-ups. Its hard to believe that a 47 year old man could be this foolish, but somehow Eddie gets hooked on cocaine. It starts innocently enough, a kooky acquaintence gets him to try a little. He is basically insecure about himself and cocaine makes him feel like he is on top of the world. He hides his coke in his shaving kit. Its like a snowball rolling down a hill and it just gets worse and worse. You feel like screaming at this man "WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT!!!"His wife finds his coke stash and blames his son and in the most pathetic scene in the entire film, Weaver has to "explain" himself to his son. (Oh I was under so much pressure, thats why I used it!). It reminds me of Going For Broke with Delta Burke. Finally it all comes crashing down on Eddie as his heart flips out, and this scene is really frightning when they rush him to the emergency room. His son finally tells his mother the truth that its his father who is the addict. The most pitiful part of the whole film is when they wheel him down the corridor and he cries to his wife and son "OH PLEASE DONT EVEN LOOK AT ME IM SO ASHAMED!!!" As well you should be!

Vavavoom!

[tigerandcamille · 10/10 · 26 October 2013]

One man's seduction seduced us into wanting to watch this movie again and again. Not to make light of a terrible drug to be addicted to, but this movie is full of laughs. It was strange seeing Mrs. Caroline Ingalls(Karen Grassle)married to a junkie.

Dennis Weaver was awesome as the angry dork gone bad. This was Breaking Bad before it's time. Jeffrey Tambor was hilarious as his dentist buddy hooked on coke,"VAVAVOOM"! James Spader gives good a tongue in cheek performance in one of his first movies.

This is a pure 80's cheesy made for TV movie that brings the point home.

It's worth a watch. Just say no to drugs!

SEDUCTION POINT MADE

[Richie-67-485852 · 8/10 · 29 July 2021]

You get Dennis Weaver so what can go wrong? Then, a tale of cocaine the one nobody likes to talk about but meets up with eventually once they get started. People don't realize that where coke takes you right away is the high guaranteed and coming off it is uncomfortable and then the addiction and it literally takes from you as it does. How? You will want to return to the land of coke as soon as you leave it. Won't or can't happen to you...you say? Coke begs to differ. I have known people that will lie, cheat, turn irrational and steal to have it until they get it. The Universal law spares no one as follows: Whatever you get into gets into you holds with no exceptions and applies to every subject. It is non-negotiable too. Mind you, getting started its the user that is naive not the drug. It is no respecter of persons. Weaver takes us through the all stages realistically. Make allowances for the generations that handle the addiction stages differently. This film depicts the 80's working class. The Real Estate depictions are hokey (I am a broker) but who is to say that for that time it wasn't the norm? Enjoyable and realistic film worthy of a watch.