The Best Psychological Thriller Since "Wait Until Dark" Is "Dressed to Kill"

>

Dressed to Kill - four Stars (Terrific)

"Dressed to Kill" is the most horrific psychological thriller I have noticed due to the fact "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn as a recently blinded woman who is terrorized by a trio of thugs though they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they think is in her apartment.

Dressed to Kill is just as tense and scary and adds the taut elements of a steamy shower scene as the female lead Kate Miller (played by none other than Angie Dickinson) pleasures herself, a sex scene in a taxi cab that is so hot and so ahead of its time that it practically explodes the vehicle, and a razor-slitting murder scene in an elevator that is beyond graphic.

This is one disturbing film involving an unhappy, undersexed wife, an anonymous lover, a psychiatrist, a psychopath, a stalker and a serial killer, not to mention female nudity, erotica, vulgarity and transsexualism.

The DVD version that I rented had the traditional version and the uncut version I opted for the uncut version. In spite of all of its horrific elements, Dressed to Kill is an terrific production (as least the uncut version) as a psychological thriller mainly because all of the aforementioned horror scenes in fact add to the story line and as such are not sensational enough to grab attention away from the unfolding drama.

We can thank Brian De Palma for that. De Palma both wrote and directed this film with stunning results, his murder mystery is ideal up there with the very best of the most beneficial. So quite a few writer/director efforts result in terrible films. The film was released in 1980, 27 years ago.

In the movie, Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson), a middle-aged, sexually frustrated housewife, has a fantasy taking a shower and later that day complains to her psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine) about her husband's pathetic performance in bed.

Kate goes to a museum and encounters a strange man (Ken Baker) who she ends up with in a taxicab on the way to his apartment for even more sex. While there she discovers the man has a sexually transmitted disease and she bolts, only to return when she realizes she has taken off and forgotten her wedding ring.

Soon after returning to the elevator she is brutally slashed to death by a tall blond woman wearing dark glasses. A high-priced call girl (Nancy Allen) is the only witness to the murder and becomes the slasher's next target. She is rescued by Kate's son Peter (Keith Gordon) who enlists her assist in the scary enterprise of solving his mother's murder.

Dressed to Kill is loaded with clever writing and clues that go appropriate by you on 1st viewing. I seldom watch dramas anymore since I have noticed enough in my lifetime and so several action adventure, natural disaster and drama films today are definitely ridiculous in premise and presentation.

Fans of Angie Dickinson will be heartened to know that a body double was applied in the shower scene in the film. It could just as simply have been Angie. Two years following producing Dressed to Kill, when she was 50 and but to undergo any surgery, a panel of Hollywood designers and make-up artists in 1982 ranked her initial in a list of Preferred Female Star Bodies.

Angie stated that the taxicab scene was filmed on location in New York, where a number of gawkers observed the scene and shouted, "Right on, Police Woman" (referring to her prior Tv role as Sgt. "Pepper" Anderson in the crime drama "Police Woman").

The sex and violence in this film make it a terrible selection for viewing by any individual except adults, and then only adults who can handle these topics without becoming terribly impacted. This limits the film's recognition and resulted in virtually no awards for the film-making effort.

As a murder mystery I would rate Dressed to Kill as terrific and a especially, extremely scary film.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Movie Reviews - The Day After Tomorrow

>

Movie reviews this week looks at the ecological suspense thriller The Day Immediately after Tomorrow with Dennis Quaid (Inner Space) as a climatologist Jack Hall, who for years has been warning the U.S. government and the globe in common that its' reliance on fossil fuels is causing a awesome deal of harm to the planet (a couple of years just before Al Gore's Oscar winning An inconvenient truth).

His estimations of a global disaster from global warming which would usher in a further ice age, which he predicts as a most beneficial guess estimate definitely not in his lifetime that polar melting would disrupt the North Atlantic current, suddenly escalates to the present, with an ice age hitting the vast majority of America, and Jack in a desperate rush against time to save his son, Sam Hall played by Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), who is trapped in New York, which unfortunately is at the epicentre of this ice age.

This is 1 of the very first movies to highlight the environment impact of our reliance on fossil fuels, with a number of scenes to ponder the possible disaster on our hands, one of these is a helicopter going over Scotland that suddenly just freezes at minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a amazing scene, exactly where Jack has been telling the scientific community would occur albeit with some scoffing, that the sun would accelerate the rapid decline in temperature to beyond freezing point, immediately freezing structures, and something that takes place to pass inside the rays of the sun at that specific time, unfortunately he gets to witness this phenomenon first hand in a desperate race against time to discover shelter while every little thing about him freezes as the sun comes up.

There is also an unforgettable scene as the Tower of Liberty freezes solid.

Not only does he have to breach the bitter cold, he also has to fend off dogs that have gone insane from hunger, searching for something warm blooded to eat, ergo any humans they can find.

We discover out that Jack feels he has let down his son a small, and this journey to get him is something he has to do to make up for their relationship, there is a brilliant conversation at the beginning, where Jack finds out Sam has failed Calculus, and Sam replies he got each question ideal, and the only reason the lecturer failed him was given that he did not write out the solutions but did it instead in his head, Jack asks him if he told the lecturer, he told him he did, but the lecturer mentioned if he couldn't do it in his head neither could Sam.

The Best Psychological Thriller Since "Wait Until Dark" Is "Dressed to Kill"

>

Dressed to Kill - 4 Stars (Terrific)

"Dressed to Kill" is the most horrific psychological thriller I have observed considering that "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn as a recently blinded woman who is terrorized by a trio of thugs even though they search for a heroin-stuffed doll they believe is in her apartment.

Dressed to Kill is just as tense and scary and adds the taut elements of a steamy shower scene as the female lead Kate Miller (played by none other than Angie Dickinson) pleasures herself, a sex scene in a taxi cab that is so hot and so ahead of its time that it practically explodes the vehicle, and a razor-slitting murder scene in an elevator that is beyond graphic.

This is 1 disturbing film involving an unhappy, undersexed wife, an anonymous lover, a psychiatrist, a psychopath, a stalker and a serial killer, not to mention female nudity, erotica, vulgarity and transsexualism.

The DVD version that I rented had the classic version and the uncut version I opted for the uncut version. Despite all of its horrific elements, Dressed to Kill is an exceptional production (as least the uncut version) as a psychological thriller due to the fact all of the aforementioned horror scenes essentially add to the story line and as such are not sensational sufficient to grab attention away from the unfolding drama.

We can thank Brian De Palma for that. De Palma both wrote and directed this film with stunning results, his murder mystery is correct up there with the finest of the greatest. So many writer/director efforts result in terrible films. The film was released in 1980, 27 years ago.

In the movie, Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson), a middle-aged, sexually frustrated housewife, has a fantasy taking a shower and later that day complains to her psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine) about her husband's pathetic performance in bed.

Kate goes to a museum and encounters a strange man (Ken Baker) who she ends up with in a taxicab on the way to his apartment for alot more sex. When there she discovers the man has a sexually transmitted illness and she bolts, only to return when she realizes she has taken off and forgotten her wedding ring.

After returning to the elevator she is brutally slashed to death by a tall blond woman wearing dark glasses. A high-priced call girl (Nancy Allen) is the only witness to the murder and becomes the slasher's subsequent target. She is rescued by Kate's son Peter (Keith Gordon) who enlists her help in the scary business enterprise of solving his mother's murder.

Dressed to Kill is loaded with clever writing and clues that go proper by you on very first viewing. I seldom watch dramas anymore for the reason that I have noticed enough in my lifetime and so a lot of action adventure, natural disaster and drama films nowadays are definitely ridiculous in premise and presentation.

Fans of Angie Dickinson will be heartened to know that a body double was utilised in the shower scene in the film. It could just as simply have been Angie. Two years following producing Dressed to Kill, when she was 50 and yet to undergo any surgery, a panel of Hollywood designers and make-up artists in 1982 ranked her first in a list of Ideal Female Star Bodies.

Angie mentioned that the taxicab scene was filmed on location in New York, exactly where many gawkers observed the scene and shouted, "Appropriate on, Police Woman" (referring to her prior Television role as Sgt. "Pepper" Anderson in the crime drama "Police Woman").

The sex and violence in this film make it a terrible choice for viewing by anyone except adults, and then only adults who can manage these topics without becoming terribly impacted. This limits the film's recognition and resulted in virtually no awards for the film-producing effort.

As a murder mystery I would rate Dressed to Kill as excellent and a especially, exceptionally scary film.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Movie Review For District 9

>

This is a pretty surreal futuristic suspense thriller produced by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy).

It stars an just about all South African cast, with Sharlto Copley in the lead role as Wikus Van De Merwe, an NMU (Multinational United) employee who is in charge of relocating approximately 1 million aliens, whose spaceship has hovered to rest above Johannesburg, the aliens on very first contact were all identified to be malnourished, sick, and needing shelter.

The trouble of course is housing over a million aliens, when the nearby populace are frightened by their looks, demeanour, and mannerisms as a local indigen paraphrased says "if there had been from this planet we would realize but they are not even from this planet", they also have a penchant for cat food, as nicely as some sudden bursts of anger.

NMU has appointed the happy go lucky Wikus to for see the mass evacuation of these aliens, who the humans have termed "prawns" given that they appear like prawns.

The story is told in flashback, with several interviews from people who knew Wikus and the mass evacuation operation, you commence to wonder what happened to Wikus as they all speak of some ominous event.

It turns out during the mass evacuations NMU had to serve each of the aliens with an evacuation order, where they had to sign, of course most of the aliens do not know what an evacuation indicates, and there are violent scuffles, as Wikus accompanied with the mandatory NMU military personnel try to get the aliens to sign the evacuation order, in some cases according to Wikus, the aliens hitting the piece of paper away is counted as an agreement. The real reason of course for the evacuation according to the flashback interviews was to discover alien weapons, it turns out the advanced weapons of the aliens are biologically engineered to be operated by them only.

Wikus also takes the chance during these evacuation notices to ransack the houses of the aliens looking for anything illegal, for the duration of the method he finds an object, he thinks is some kind of gas canister that could be a weapon, so he confiscates it, not before attempting to uncover out how it works, and receiving sprayed in the face by a dark fluid. It turns out the alien who had that object was a small smarter than most of the "prawns" and the canister was necessary to operate his shuttle hidden underground, back to the mother ship.

Inevitably Wikus gets involved with a violent "prawn", and wants a cast on his left arm, but you notice soon right after he is not looking nicely at all, culminating to him passing out puking black blood at a party, he is rushed to the hospital, and he wakes up alarmingly to find his left arm has adopted the features of a "prawn". NMU military whisk him away to their medical facilities, where despite his protestations he is produced to operate a series of alien weapons. He is regarded as the quite 1st human and alien hybrid and the military arm of NMU are eager to harvest his organs for bioengineering. Still Wikus just desires the alien arm removed, and desires to get back to his wife. He manages to escape, but chances of him going back home are made virtually impossible with all the media reporting malicious rumors about him and the whole NMU military arm looking for him.

He is left with no option but to go back to the "prawns" he despises, in a desperate bid for help prior to the metamorphosis is complete.

It is mesmerising viewing, and Wikus captures the desperation of a man about to shed everything to the point of his humanity brilliantly.

It is rare science-fiction film, as it is set in South Africa, but you realise soon following the reasons why, as it parallels victimisation of the "prawns" with apartheid.

Movie Review - The Right Temptation

>

I've been missing my Kiefer Sutherland, so I was rather excited to see "The Suitable Temptation" on cable.

The story centers on Derian McCall (Rebecca De Mornay) a private detective hired by Anthea Farrow-Smith (Dana Delany) to spy on her potentially wayward husband Michael Farrow-Smith (Kiefer Sutherland).

Derian follows Michael around for a week and reports back that she witnesses no foul play. Unsatisfied with this effort, Anthea proposes that Derian seduce Michael to really test his devotion. Derian initially refuses, but then rapidly modifications her mind when Anthea promises to double her fee.

For the duration of a series of flashbacks, we understand that Derian is a former undercover cop, who quit since she became romantically involved with a suspect. With her prior indiscretions planted firmly in her psyche, she goes about attempting to entice Michael.

Following a couple of innocent encounters, in which Michael adamantly declares his loyalty to his marriage, they finally succumb to their temptations and engage in a torrid affair.

Derian reports back to Anthea and attempts to finish the assignment, when Anthea breaks down and tells her it was in no way about Michael's romantic affairs, it was about his home business affairs. Anthea is terrified that Michael is dealing with people today who are really hazardous and she's afraid for their lives.

Derian's continued involvement, with this unusual couple, draws her further into their tangled web exactly where no one's innocent and nothing's as it seems.

This movie is attempting to be a romantic noir-thriller, but the finish result is nowhere close to romantic, noir or thrilling. This movie was laughably terrible. There had been numerous moments exactly where I literally laughed out loud.

I'm not positive where to begin, so let's 1st address the acting. I have enjoyed every single of these actors in a number of other performances, so this movie was a significant disappointment.

Delany was too diabolical and gave away too a great deal of her character, which took the edge off of the final twist.

De Mornay was dull and lifeless throughout the whole film. Her incompetent acting was made all the even more prominent by the ridiculous wig she was sporting in the flashback sequences. The only thing remotely endearing about her character was that she owned a pet pig.

Sutherland's performance was uneven and uninspired. It seemed as if he wasn't sure how to approach the character of Michael Farrow-Smith. He also has this annoying tendency to grab a woman's head during a kiss, which makes the moment really feel woefully manufactured.

I don't want to location the full blame on the actors, for the reason that this movie contained some seriously, awful material. It was as if they decided on the beginning and the ending and tried to force the middle to adapt to both. There had been so lots of unrealistic components, which bumped you out of the story, that by the time you reached the twist ending, you no longer cared.

I guarantee the phrase "Oh, come on!" will escape the lips of any individual who watches this movie.

Bottom line: Laughably bad movie. Only recommended for dire-challenging Kiefer Sutherland fans.