lawfella Reviews

Charlie's Death Wish (2005 Video)

Ron Jeremy with his pants on?

[7/10 · 11 June 2006]

Found this one in a collection of low budget DVDs at Best Buy, 6 cheapies for $6.99. Imagine my surprise when I saw Ron Jeremy's name pop up in the opening credits. Had they slipped a porno film into the collection? No! It is really Ron Jeremy in a straight role, following the lead of Ginger Lynn Allen (I guess). And he did pretty well, doing a tongue in cheek L.A cop trying to solve a series of hilariously violent murders.

And about those murders. Seems a girl was hauled into prison one night for some bizarre reason and during her stay there, she happens to have been murdered by some of the other prisoners. Could happen to anyone, I guess, especially when they are in the care of the LAPD. So our victim's lovely sister Charlie (Phoebe Dollar), who gives the old Charles Bronson vigilante film Death Wish the same deference as religious fundamentalists give holy scripture, takes it upon herself to track down and kill everyone involved.

And Ron Jeremy is the detective assigned to the case. He's got a problem -- all of the victims are criminals he hates. He secretly thinks Charlie is doing a lot of good with her murderous ways, and becomes ambivalent about whether or not he ought to stop her. And he keeps his pants on, for the entire flick -- a good thing since he has aged a bit since the days when he cavorted about with the likes of Christy Canyon and Veronica Hart. Not that I have seen any of those movies myself, of course, but, er, I have a friend who told me about them. Ahem.

Also wandering through this film for some reason, though I can't imagine what it might be, is a Michael Moore parody, an NRA-hating documentary filmmaker whose self-described masterpiece was a film showing that Sonny Bono's death was actually a murder, carried out by a conspiracy. Well, why not. He runs an investigation of the murders parallel to Jeremy's, almost complicating the pathetically simple plot.

An odd film to be sure, but more entertaining than you might think. The special effects are often hilarious, Ms. Dollar is slinky and seductive, and yes, there is Ron Jeremy fully clothed. Didn't know he had it in him.

Phenomena (1985)

Exceptionally imaginative giallo -- great!

[8/10 · 30 May 2006]

A teen-aged Jennifer Connolly, the daughter of an American movie star, is sent to an exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. In addition to being filthy rich, Jennifer has an odd affinity with insects of all kinds. She can communicate with them, telepathically. She also sleepwalks.

There is of course a mad killer loose in the area in which the school is located, and girls of Jennifer's age have been turning up brutally murdered. While sleepwalking one night, Jennifer witnesses such a murder. She ends up meeting and befriending a professor (Donald Pleasance) whose specialty is (of course) the study of insects. He has been using his skills to assist the police in their search for the crazed killer. The professor is wheelchair bound, and is cared for and assisted by Inga, who he refers to as his "nurse". Inga is no buxom Swedish blonde -- Inga is a chimpanzee, who steals every scene she is in.

Jennifer, the professor, Inga and the insect world team up to investigate and catch the killer. The plot takes some wholly unexpected turns you couldn't possibly anticipate, at times feeling almost like a David Lynch film. There are lots of loose ends and utterly contrived events, but if you can suspend your disbelief a bit, you will really enjoy this one. Truly unique.

Hellbreeder (2004)

Inventive and original, but slow at times

[7/10 · 15 May 2006]

A serial killer is busy slaughtering little kids. Investigating are two (only two?) detectives and Alice, the mother of one of the victims. Although the killer has been seen and sketched, and although everyone knows what he looks like, he for some reason can't be caught. If it were the FBI doing the investigating, that result would be no surprise, but this film takes place in England.

Alice, who seems to have no job of any kind, is obsessed with tracking down her child's murderer. We see that she suffers from tremendous guilt for not having done enough to protect her child, and that she is subject to vivid nightmares, and also to hallucinations. As the film progresses, the line between her visions and reality fades, and we wonder more and more whether particular events shown are real or just in her head. This dynamic takes over the film, very effectively, and the plot moves into some surprising places (which I won't reveal here).

This movie reminded me at times of an old Italian giallo -- and I love a good giallo. Most of the acting was second-rate or unremarkable at best, but Lynndie Uphill, the actress who plays Alice, was truly impressive in what seems to me to have been quite a challenging role. Alas, according to this site, Hellbreeder has been her only film to date. Some of the writing was quite good, and some of the music was lovely -- but at times the story would drag or drift off into overdone special effects or long, boring shots of characters looking introspective. Nevertheless, this film's premise was quite interesting and dynamic. Although the film lags at many places, it was worth watching overall. Glad I saw it.

Havoc (2005)

Hollywood rebels without a cause -- where are you James Dean?

[5/10 · 4 May 2006]

Negative comments about this film need to be tempered by the sad story surrounding its making. The script was written by a 17-year old girl named Jessica Kaplan. No, It's not Citizen Kane, but it is an extraordinary piece of work for a teenager. And most sadly, she perished in an airplane crash at the age of 21. The film is dedicated to her memory.

As to the film's merits, it is by my count the 1,464th variation of Rebel Without A Cause, which I think said all that needed to be said on the subject. Did you know that adolescents often find society empty and pointless? And that they do stupid things by way of rebelling against it, in hopes of dispelling their angst and finding something more meaningful? Yes, it's true. In this version of that old chestnut, the rebels are a particularly spoiled group of high school students living in Hollywood. To find something they consider "real", they form youth gangs in imitation of the poor folk in East L.A. And then they actually go there, at first to buy drugs; but then rich girls Anne Hatahway and Bijou Phillips try to get involved in the local Hispanic gang scene. Some pretty modest mayhem ensues.

The East L.A. people are awfully sanitized and not very believable. Nobody is addicted to anything. Nobody is desperate. Nobody appears to be poor. These are basically solid middle class folk, devoted to family, who have a few surface quirks and who happen to sell crack cocaine instead of, say, life insurance.

Is it my imagination or does the gorgeous Bijou Phillips always play exactly the same role -- a sexually eager girl who gets in over her head, discovering the hard way that yes, she has limits? That's the role she plays here, and she is fine (as is lead Anne Hatahway). But I wonder whether that is her entire repertoire. Perhaps she will branch out someday.

Somewhere on this planet, there must be some group of people more deserving of sympathy than affluent Hollywood teenagers. So I found myself wondering why this film had been made. The young scriptwriter should not be held accountable, but you would think older people would know better.

Never Talk to Strangers (1995)

Terrific De Mornay

[8/10 · 6 April 2006]

A more or less typical thriller made special by Rebecca De Mornay's awesome performance. She is the executive producer of this picture and must have badly wanted to do this role -- I'm glad she did.

She plays a psychiatrist evaluating whether an accused serial killer is competent to stand trial. It becomes obvious early on that she was drawn to psychiatry because of her own severe emotional problems and difficult past. In the meantime, we are shown troubling relationships with men appearing in her personal life. An upstairs neighbor badly wants her, but she wants only to be friends. Her father shows up out of the blue seeking affection and assistance, but she resists him, and it is obvious that their relationship and her childhood were deeply troubled. A stranger (Banderas) she meets in a store ardently pursues her, and they begin an affair, but she has difficulty trusting him, both because he is something of a suspicious character and because, as she tells him, she has difficulty trusting anybody. Their relationship becomes volatile and angry, tinged with violent overtones. Then there is the issue of her ex-fiancé, who vanished abruptly and without explanation just before the scheduled wedding.

As happens in these kinds of films, she is sent a series of mysterious messages and packages with no return addresses. Then violent things start to occur. Someone is clearly trying to terrorize her, but who? So many suspects -- Banderas? The upstairs neighbor (who is of course jealous of Banderas)? The serial killer, acting through friends outside of prison? Her father? The ex-fiancée? I did not anticipate the answer to this question, revealed of course at the film's end, but it was not an especially unusual conclusion for films of this kind. What made this picture worthwhile was De Mornay's utterly believable portrayal of, let us say, a difficult character, reminiscent of what she did in "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle". She is simply great at this kind of thing, besides being classically gorgeous.

The other acting is fine, but no one stands out. Banderas is always good, but in this one he is mostly eye candy for the ladies. Harry Dean Stanton as the serial killer is suitably menacing and crazed, but this picture is really all De Mornay. I found it a bit slow at times, but the last 20 minutes or so made up for the weak spots. Definitely worth watching.

Irreversible (2002)

Shocking and graphic, but not much else

[6/10 · 29 January 2006]

Some minor spoilers in this review. But the power of this technique-heavy French film, wasted power if you ask me, is in the way it is shot, not in the story.

We start with a murder, and proceed backwards in time. Got that? The first scene in the film shows you the end of the story, the next scene shows what happened just before the end, and so on, until the end of the film, when you reach the beginning of the story. Why this odd technique? Who knows.

The murder is terrifically violent, brutal and graphic, accompanied by teeth-grating sound effects that truly put the viewer on edge. I guess being able to pull off this kind of emotional manipulation is an accomplishment of sorts, though not one I find especially valuable. In addition to the murder, there is an extraordinarily brutal, and completely unerotic, rape sequence. However politically incorrect it may be to say so, I have found some rapes I have scene in movies to be exciting and erotically charged; this one was just gruesome and cruel, and also way overlong.

Underlying all of this is a prosaic tale of a romantic triangle, involving three rather uninteresting people. The girl has thrown over the intelligent, sensitive guy for the animalistic fellow with whom she has more satisfying sex. There is a little bit of exploration of this dynamic, but nothing noteworthy. The rape and murder, which are the film's centerpiece and reason for being, come upon these people strictly by chance, and have nothing at all to do with their interrelationships. The story, in short, lacks coherence. What we have here are segments of shocking violence grafted onto a really dull love story, for no apparent reason.

A couple of entertaining touches -- the murder occurs at a gay bar hilariously called "The Rectum", for which our protagonists have feverishly searched by screaming out "Where is the Rectum? Take me to the Rectum!" to anyone passing by. In the same scene, there is a shamelessly racist but still-hysterical exchange between an Oriental cab driver and his passenger.

See this film if you want to feel emotionally brutalized. Don't see much point in seeing it otherwise.

Kiss the Girls Goodbye (1997)

Highly entertaining psycho kidnapper flick

[8/10 · 26 November 2005]

A standard theme, truly well-handled. Another variation on the old one about a guy whose resentment against his emasculating mother turns him into a psycho. In this one, he seeks revenge on the world by kidnapping and imprisoning a college girl, chosen at random. What puts this film a cut above is the clever dialog and fine acting. The psycho, Carl, is confident and pathetic at the same time, and his social gaffes are often hilarious. His mother is so casually relentless in her abuse as to make Carl's conduct seem almost reasonable. There is a group of college kids dimly trying to deal with their colleague's disappearance, while at the same time pursuing the usual collegiate pursuits, i.e., getting laid and getting high, resulting in some pretty funny exchanges. Almost all the gory and extreme events happen off screen, which I appreciated (though I am sure there are other viewers would prefer to have seen them for themselves). There is also some stuff about the effect of the kidnapping on the victim, and on the feelings she develops about Carl -- this part is not particularly believable, but makes for hilarious dialog when she tries to talk about her experience with classmates. I really enjoyed this film, although I hadn't expected to think much of it. Surprisingly entertaining -- try it!

Noises Off... (1992)

Hilarious!

[25 December 2004]

A theater troupe's production of a British sex farce is undermined by the romantic entanglements and personal idiosyncrasies of the cast members, with laugh out loud hilarious results. An astonishingly good cast, headed by Michael Caine as the director. Julie Hagerty is especially good -- why don't we see her anymore, she is such a fine comedienne? It is painfully poignant as of this writing to see Christopher Reeve (a couple of years before his accident) and John Ritter working together, as both passed away far too young in recent months. They are great here. Wonderful acting, great script. Pretty flawless, if you ask me.

Summer Night with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil (1986)

Unnecessary variation on a theme

[4/10 · 18 December 2004]

Get this -- an opinionated, imperious, upper-class Italian woman is confronted with an equally opinionated, earthy, lower-class Italian male. The result is political argument, sexual passion, male dominance and female submission. Sounds like that great Lina Wertmuller film, Swept Away . . . . True, but that is also the plot of this mediocre Lina Wertmuller film, Summer Night with Greek Profile, etc., as well as the plot of that other mediocre Lina Wertmuller film, the remake of Swept Away. The first Swept Away was terrific. There was never any need to redo it.

The mechanism employed by Summer Night to bring the rich lady and the man of the people together is ridiculous and contrived. And this rich lady is less interesting, being more one-dimensional, than the one appearing in Swept Away, even though both were played by the same fine actress, Mariangela Melato. Summer Night's working class male, Michele Placido, is excellent, but it is impossible to watch this film without feeling disappointed that he is not the great Giancarlo Giannini, who played his counterpart in Swept Away.

Really can't figure why La Wertmuller made this flick, or the Swept Away remake, unless she is trying to relive what may have been her finest hour. Skip this and see Swept Away again. Or try one of her other fine movies that don't involve the rich woman/working man theme.

Los placeres ocultos (1989)

Wow! A genuinely erotic erotic thriller

[1 December 2004]

I stumbled on this one by accident and am glad I did. A middle aged but luscious psychiatrist on her way home from work is kidnapped and raped, brutally and bizarrely, by a sexually dysfunctional masked man. She is clearly terrified during the act, but also tells him to proceed, and that she loves what he is doing to her. Is she trying to outwit him, or is she being sincere? He leaves her for dead in the woods, but she survives.

She has reason to suspect that the rapist is a former patient of hers, who, it turns out, is somewhat fixated with her. She contacts him and tells him of the rape, without telling him that she suspects that he is the perpetrator. Instead, she says that the incident awakened new feelings inside her, and that she wants to indulge in "no holds barred" sex with him while her husband is out of town for a few days. Is she being sincere, or is she plotting revenge?

What follows is awfully hot and tense, way above the level of your usual so-called "erotic thriller". I think that's because the actors in this one genuinely act! In most of these films, you get the feeling that the director's method was just to throw some naked bimbos, guns and cheating spouses onto a set, and to film whatever happens to follow. "Playback", on the other hand, was carefully crafted, and thoughtfully made.

Recommended.

The Comfort of Strangers (1990)

Great Walken, Great Pinter

[9 October 2004]

A British couple contemplating marriage (Natasha Richardson and her young, handsome paramour, played by Rupert Everett) take a vacation in Venice, to sort things out, as the Brits say. There they meet a local bar owner named Robert, played by Christopher Walken, a lyrical, dramatic fellow always going on about incidents in his childhood, his father, his grandfather, his virility and the like. His personality contrasts sharply with that of the Everett character, who is withdrawn and tentative. The Brits are strangely drawn to Robert and to his odd, sexually frank wife, played by Helen Mirren in the sort of role she apparently was born to play. But they are also at times revolted. They are vaguely aware that the Venetian couple have an unnaturally intense interest in them; the contact also seems to stimulate them, both sexually and emotionally.

No need here to go into the truly shocking denouement, beyond to say that it is what you would expect from anything in which Pinter has a hand. As always, his dialog achieves unique power through its precision and understatement. Best line -- Mirren's "I'll tell you where you are -- on the other side of the mirror." Positively chilling, positively precise.

Fine, fine acting, especially the tragic, sinister Walken, who is I think incapable of giving a bad performance -- this is probably the best I have ever seen him. Gorgeously and lushly filmed, with every scene bathed in deep colors and haunting, orchestral music. A deeply affecting film, well worth seeing.

Demon Under Glass (2002 Video)

Trenchant examination of a non-existent moral dilemma

[26 September 2004]

While the rest of the world wrings its hands over the morality of pre-emptive wars. the degree to which terrorist attacks may justify the suppression of civil liberties, stem cell research and abortion, the makers of this film are concerned with a different set of ethical problems: may science effectively torture a vampire, or excuse his murders of innocent victims, or both, in the interest of advancing the cause of human knowledge?

"Demon Under Glass" poses this vital question, but as you would imagine, is incapable of providing a definitive answer.

A serial killer has been murdering prostitutes and draining them of their blood. The culprit turns out to be a vampire having superhuman strength, who is captured by some government agency and studied by its scientists. They stop at nothing to learn what makes the vampire tick, and thus to expand our knowledge of biology. In particular, they prove willing to cause the vampire severe physical pain by exposing him to varying degrees of sunlight. They also protect him from criminal prosecution for the murders he has committed. But one idealistic doctor and a still more idealistic police detective recognize that the government has gone too far, and is violating basic human values in the interest of science. Who cares?

Notwithstanding the pointless premise, the film is well-acted, mostly, and not badly written. Even entertaining at times. Still, it's hard to believe people actually get paid for thinking this stuff up and putting it together.

Betrayal (2003)

Surprisingly enjoyable

[20 August 2004]

Spoilers ahead. Suburban single mom and her teenage son get entangled with a seductive mob hit woman, who is trying to run off with the mob boss's money. Features your usual assortment of corrupt cops and mob tough guys chasing our heroes and trying to get the money back. Sure, a routine plot, but this one is better than average, mostly because of superior acting. Erika Eleniak is totally adorable and convincing as the mother. She is no longer a sexy young thing, but it looks like middle age is really going to agree with her. Best acting honors though go to Jeremy Lelliot, who convincingly plays her son, and carries the film. This character is the hinge for most of the story's development, and a lesser actor in the role would have destroyed the movie.

Oh, and of course there is as always one of those Baldwin guys in some role or other. The Baldwins ought to get their own union -- but they probably don't need it, as it already seems to be a rule in Hollywood that you need at least one Baldwin in every movie. Feh!

Anyway, the dialogue and action really move this film along. Pleasant and diverting, good for an evening's entertainment.

Heart of the Stag (1984)

Beautifully acted

[24 July 2004]

An Australian entry. In contemporary Australia, a shepherd finds transient work by chance at a ranch, and ends up involved with the rancher's daughter, who is being sexually abused by her father, and whose mother has been incapacitated by a stroke. That's pretty much the whole premise, and while there are moving moments, the story and script are not as compelling as you might expect. Nevertheless, the film is saved by the exceptional acting, especially by Mary Regan, who plays the abused daughter. The cinematography -- lots of scenes of the Australian countryside (or maybe it is a set, I don't know, but it's certainly beautiful), sheep shearing and wild stags -- is terrific and gorgeous. The music is also often lovely. Well worth a watch.

Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

The quintessential B movie (Bee movie?)

[24 July 2004]

I was first turned on to this film by Siskel & Ebert a zillion years ago on a program they ran featuring their choices for the best "bad" movies. They were sure right about this one. The plot is so ridiculous it doesn't bear mentioning -- the magic is all in the execution, e.g., Anitra Ford stripping and writhing to the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherezade", a secret laboratory in which women are transformed into seductive automatons by a procedure involving their being bathed in honey and then exposed to bees -- lot's of that kind of thing here. And what's this? The film has the US government sending out an agent to investigate the death of a guy who suffered a heart attack during strenuous sex. Is that where our intelligence agencies put their energies? No wonder they were so clueless about 9/11 and Iraq. Now for some inane reason, this film got reissued on DVD under the tile "Graveyard Tramps". It's true, there is at least one scene in a cemetery, and as to the female characters being tramps . . . no argument. Nevertheless, what kind of moron would throw away a great title like "Bee Girls" for something so prosaic? Oh, and the DVD cover for some reason identifies the female lead as the late Claudia Jennings, who is not even in the film (the lead is her fellow Playmate Victoria Vetri). Go figure. Here's another thing I love about this film -- although it is completely about sex, albeit sex in the context of some loony incomprehensible plot involving a world takeover, and although there is plenty of nudity and seduction, this film from the early 70's is rated PG. Teens could see it without a chaperone. Yep, back when I was a boy, we didn't suffer from the same neurotic fears we now have about adolescents being permanently damaged by the sight of a female breast. Seems we were relatively hardy in those days, although on the other hand, we didn't have to deal with news reports of beheadings and the like. But I digress. There will always be a special place in my heart for Invasion of the Bee Girls, the sine qua non of its genre. And a heck of a lot of fun.

Shame (1988)

Moving, poignant and believable

[17 April 2004]

Powerful but restrained acting highlights this story of a lawyer who happens upon a family whose daughter has been blamed for her own gangrape, on the old theory that she must have asked for it. The characters gradually and quite believably overcome their natural tendencies toward denial and passivity in the face of overwhelming circumstances. There is a refreshing absence of crusading spirit and rhetoric such as you usually get in films dealing with themes of this kind. Rather, quiet, inner heroism emerges quite naturally from the various characters as they deal with the specific problems that have come upon them. Beautifully done, wonderfully and subtly acted. Watch it.

Acts of Betrayal (1997)

Well above average action flick

[7 November 2003]

The bad guys are all out to kill the government's star witness -- the defendant's wife -- before she can testify. Her protection? The usual (in these kinds of films) FBI agent pretending to be the dutiful automaton but not quite able to pull it off because he's human underneath it all. What sets this film apart is the sharp tongue-in-cheek writing (FBI agents are referred to as "Zimbalists", for instance) and above all, Maria Conchita Alonso's show stealing performance as the wisecracking, emotional lead. Yeah, she's lovely and sexy, but mostly she's a fine and underrated actress (check her out in the drama "Caught"). A highly entertaining film.

Lovers, Lovers (1994)

Offbeat, better than average sex comedy

[23 October 2003]

Low budget and uneven but at times very clever sex comedy. Some parts were quite tedious, but others had me laughing out loud, which I hardly ever do. A guy gets seduced by a woman whose boyfriend, unbeknownst to her, is having a clandestine affair with the first guy's girlfriend. It's one long joke, but nicely handled. Features the lovely Jennifer Ciesar, who you may have seen as the one-dimensional live-in nurse in the "erotic thriller" dreck, Inner Sanctum 2. In this film, she plays a woman raised in a hippie commune, who has turned out as quirky and flakey as that background would suggest. So she actually gets to act in this one, and proves herself an able comedienne. An entertaining, likeable film.

Last Call (1991)

The usual "erotic thriller", but with two special plusses

[18 September 2003]

There are only two reasons to see this one (no, not Shannon Tweed's breasts, which you can see almost anywhere) --

1. Stella Stevens was 54 years old when she made this film, but gives a far hotter performance than you usually get from women less than half her age. Some gals just have IT -- Stella always has, and I guess she always will. Enjoy!

2. The black and white print shirt worn by the villain in the scene in which he gets his comeuppance is the single most hilarious garment in the entire history of human civilization. Enjoy!

Starved (1999)

Intense movie. Who knew Lee Anne Beaman could act?

[14 September 2003]

Erotic thriller fixture Lee Anne Beaman plays a young woman locked away in a basement and deliberately starved by a guy she had believed to be her charming, romantic suitor. His psychopathology, and her helplessness, are graphically portrayed, with both actors turning in strong performances. This film is gripping and, because of its intensity, hard to watch at the same time, especially as it is based on a real life incident.

Ms. Beaman, whom I had previously known only as an awfully pretty, often naked stock figure in Jag Mundhra films and their ilk, is terrific. According to this site, she hasn't been in any movies since, which is a shame. Seems she is much more talented than her filmography would suggest.

I can't believe this film was rated PG. The human sickness shown here is far more disturbing, and I'm sure far more potentially damaging, than the kind of stuff (like Ms. Beaman's prior films) that usually gets an R rating or that goes unrated. I'm sure kids are better off seeing a naked body, or people having sex, than the non-sexual depravity forming the subject of this film.

Another reviewer here suggested that a guy charming a woman only to lock her up and starve her afterward, as happened in this film, is some kind of prototype for male-female relationships generally. I don't know who this reviewer has been dating, but really, the psychopath in this film was just that, a psychopath. His real-life counterpart was convicted of homicide and locked away. This is not your typical date, ladies. The thought of being locked in a basement with Lee Anne Beaman doesn't sound half bad, but the thought of starving her into submission and powerlessness is repulsive. I'm sure all men other than the occasional sicko would feel similarly.

A well done film, but not for the faint of heart.

Prey (1977)

What a concept!

[17 August 2003]

A cannibal alien from outer space on a reconnaissance mission to Earth drops in on the estate of a monied, eccentric British lesbian and her neurotic woman-child live-in girlfriend. Now how can anyone possibly go wrong starting with a premise like that? It has the feel of a Merchant-Ivory film adapted by Roger Corman (or maybe a Roger Corman film adapted by Merchant-Ivory?) As added attractions, the women are erotic and beautiful and the music, for some reason, is awfully nice in parts. A great B-movie.

Papertrail (1998)

Should have bought the toilet paper

[2 August 2003]

They were selling this one at the supermarket for $3.99, the same price as the six-roll package of toilet paper. I made the wrong choice, as usual. A gruesome film noir about a serial killer who hacks off pieces of his victims' bodies before killing them. Hard to tell what was going on because both the lighting and sound recording were so poor, but there was some connection to a psychotherapist and her group therapy patients. Needless to say, lots of people had to die before the killer is identified and caught. (Partial spoilers ahead.) Don't bother trying to guess whodunit, because it is impossible to tell until the last minute, when the missing information is abruptly supplied out of nowhere. There is an (unintentionally) hilarious sequence in which hero Chris Penn, who, let's face it, is built more like John Belushi than like Arnold Schwarzenegger, is shot in the chest, injected with a sedative and tied down in the ambulance taking him to the hospital -- but powered only by his obsessive hatred of the killer, he manages to break free from his restraints, overpowers the ambulance attendants, drives off at high speed, gets into a collision with two or three other vehicles, abandons the ambulance and runs to the location where he believes the killer is located, all based only on one of those infallible "hunches" law enforcement officers always have in these films. Yes, he manages to thwart the killer's attempt to kill the final victim, who then remarks that "we need to get you to a hospital." The toilet paper I could have bought would not only have been more useful than this film, but it likely would have had superior narrative and cinematic qualities. Live and learn.

Body of Influence 2 (1996)

Not in the same ballpark as the first one

[25 July 2003]

The original Body of Influence was a thrilling and highly erotic thriller. The sequel has none of the heat or interest of the first, and is completely predictable. The only similarity between the two films is that they both involve shrinks having affairs with their apparently very troubled patients. Jodie Fisher, the patient in this one, is lovely, but she's no Shannon Whirry (I guess its unfair to hold that against her -- Shannon Whirry is unique). When Daniel Anderson, the sequel's shrink, gives in to temptation, there's none of the lewd, gleeful release Nick Cassavetes displayed when he did likewise in the original. Skip this one and watch the original twice.

A Brilliant Disguise (1994)

Wow! Is this movie bad!

[6 July 2003]

Your basic guy meets girl, guy falls for girl, girl turns out to have multiple twisted personalities B-movie fare. And you'll never guess -- no, this isn't a spoiler, as the script is quite up front about this -- but she got that way because she was sexually abused as a child. Ho-hum. The friendly banter among the main characters is so wooden, the romantic sequences are so saccharine, and the sex scenes are so boring that the murder and psychopathology actually seem intelligent and refreshing by comparison. The only parts of this movie I enjoyed portrayed the female lead struggling to contain her various independent personalities -- these are hilarious, unintentionally of course, but hilarious none the less. There is a plot twist I won't reveal here, but you will pick up on it about 45 minutes before the big "surprise" is exposed. This is the only movie I have ever seen featuring Kathy Shower in which she doesn't seem pathetically out of her league -- the rest of the cast of this one acts at about her level, or maybe worse. What a waste of my time -- don't waste yours.

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Well done!

[17 April 2003]

Really well-made, intelligently written, finely acted film about two high school age outcast sisters struggling with the usual adolescent issues plus the fact that one of them is gradually turning into a werewolf. Gripping and genuinely frightening at times. Some of the scenes are quite graphic and grisly, but not gratuitously so. Well worth a watch.