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Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem

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Body Double

Body Double

List Price: $9.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 40% "Rear Window", 40% "Vertigo, 20% Sex and Violence.
Review: This Film shows De Palma is top form. It's his best Non-Mobster film, easily. Craig Wasson is great as the Un-heroic hero. He is a character with great depth and his action's are totally realistic and believable, anyone who says differently must not have been paying close attention. The people that call this "Cheap porn" are nuts, It is a great story and a terrific film. And who better to learn off than Hitchcock. He is the master, and De palma has learned a few tricks off him... So sue him.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Body Double delivers high suspense and humor
Review: Brian De Palma's Body Double is an underrated gem of a suspense/thriller. Released in the early 1980's, it was bashed for being too derivative of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and Vertigo, plus being too sleazy at the same time. But in all honesty, I feel these aspects actually worked together to make a truly tight, suspense-filled, edge of your seat thriller.

Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) is an actor who thinks he has it all until he discovers he's been fired from his current work and his girlfriend Carol (Barbara Crampton in a 5 second cameo) is sleeping with another man. While looking for work, he encounters a guy named Sam Buchard (Gregg Henry), another actor looking for work. Sam, noticing how unhappy Jake is, offers him the chance to sit a house that belongs to a friend of his. Jake gladly agrees for he has no home to go to. After the first night in this new home (it's actually a cool one too) he peeks through the telescope by the window and sees the neighbor (Deborah Shelton) doing an erotic striptease and masturbation dance. This continuous observation leads Scully to the world of pornography and a porn star named Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), who may hold the answer to a crime he witnessed.

It was late around midnight when I watched this film and I was feeling a bit sleepy but Body Double kept me wide awake and in suspense for all of its 2 hour running time. Honestly, I never expected this movie to be that good. Primarily, the most important aspect is if the movie delivers suspense, and that it does. Extremely well, too, might I add. Brian De Palma can be thanked for this. Who can forget the tunnel scene, the venture into the mall, the crime Scully witnesses, and the really creepy climax. Brian De Palma is truly one of the modern masters of suspense and should direct more films like this. What makes the suspense work is mainly because of the fact that Wasson is alone in his investigation. It creates a strong foreboding atmosphere. The great musical score doesn't hurt either. Another asset are also some surprising and unpredictable plot twists that occur. I was surprised I didn't have it figured out toward a certain point despite some good clues (and the fact that Wasson's character figures out part of the mystery with the same amount of hints and clues as the viewer has). Watching the movie again is also fun just to re-examine the twists and see how they worked out.

Yes, the film does have a countless amount of nudity in it but it's actually vital to the movie. After all, how would Wasson's character witness the crime if he didn't have the proper motivation to peep on his neighbor. It's an interesting look at voyeurism and how it affects a person. Yes, some moments are a bit sleazy such as when Wasson is watching the X-rated channel. But I can cut that part some slack since it is actually quite humorous and it also leads to another plot twist.

Speaking of humor, that's another element that surprised me. I never expected it, but Body Double does have its humorous moments that lighten up the tone a bit. Some of its subtle while other parts are actually quite hilarious (especially if you watch it with a friend), especially De Palma's portrayal of X-rated films. Don't think that the humor hurts because it by no means meanders the suspense. It just makes the film more entertaining.

Acting wise, Body Double is quite good. Craig Wasson is terrific as the everyday guy who gets caught up in some events beyond his control. Melanie Griffith is also fine as Holly Body though her character wasn't quite developed well enough. Deborah Shelton is okay as the neighbor Wasson constanly peeps on. She actually develops into a likeable character despite the fact that you know what her fate is early on in the film. Look for Dennis Franz as an independent horror film director.

In the erotic thriller genre, Body Double certainly ranks at the top. It feels genuinely suspenseful and it never manipulates the viewer like so many other films of the genre do. And as a sidenote, watch the movie at midnight for the full effect, just like I did. It'll make the scenes at night with the Indian a whole lot creepier.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: NOTHING, BUT A CHEAP PORNO REMAKE OF "VERTIGO"!
Review: This movie is just horrific! it made me sick. Brian De Palmajust took "Vertigo" and "Rear window" and turendit into a porno flick. Nothing can be worst than this cheap "Vertigo" imitation! Don't waste your money on this stupid film! Trust me! END

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worth a try, but too insubstantial to be a classic
Review: "Body Double" certainly has a few memorable scenes - if a movie as voyeuristic as this didn't, then it would get a one-star rating. Difficult to figure out if Brian de Palma isn't perhaps parodying himself as well as Hitchcock - there is a thread of humor through the movie that makes it hard to regard it as a real suspense thriller. Not one to raise your hopes high for, but worth a go.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EXCELLENT-HOLDS UP WELL
Review: This early Brian De Palma seems to have held up well over the years. It did receive some bum raps when it came out;e.g., too obviously patterned after Hitchcock, but I think it is a credit to him.

Graig Wesson's career never went far, and that's too bad.

The musical score is excellent, and of course, the camera technique is patented De Palma. Also typical, you can fit most of the dialogue in many long portions on a page or two.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A marvellous film.
Review: O.k., so De Palma may be "borrowing" from Hitchcock now and again, but so what, and who hasn't ?. -It makes for some facinating movies. Like this one. It was made in the good old days, when directors and casting-people seemed to care less about getting a big star in the lead, but more about getting the right actor. And Craig Wasson is perfect here. I've been a fan of Wasson for many years, and the sad fact that he's remained so underused since then, only proves that insanity rules in Hollywood. "Body Double" is a marvellous film from start to finish, and one of the last truly interesting movies to come out of Tinseltown. -I kid you not.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An innovative spoof
Review: Unlike the rather misfired experience with Dressed to Kill (which did, for some reason, please the crowds enormously), Brian De Palma's next thriller that involves risque themes is a clear parody of Hitchcock's and his own previous movies. Sometimes it seems that the director intentionally makes the audience see how derivative the film is, by hitting them over the head with the presumed "rip-offs." The only nostalgically sentimental scene of the movie, which could be related to Phantom of the Paradise (the main character's flashback about the dead heroine) stands alone amidst the general tongue-and-cheek atmosphere that doesn't take itself very seriously. The plot brilliantly combines philosophy and humor, and the movie is a rather unforgettable experience overall. Some scenes are osomewhat unpleasant to watch, but there are no unjustified allusions to pornography or sleazy situations for their own sake. Overall, this is no masterpiece, but a rather successful movie nevertheless.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Telos and Beginning of De Palma's Career
Review: Body Double stands at the nexus of De Palma's career. For many, Blow Out represents the aesthetic culmination of his series of psychological thrillers beginning with Sisters in 1972. With Scarface, he then ventured onto a larger, more epic and expensive canvass, as well as trying his hand at new genres. But much like his most recent Snake Eyes, Body Double was something of a pit stop, a chance to rev up and purify his fluid and inventive style, while provoking his audience and critics at the same time. Despite their dismay at the film's purported sleaze, critics could not deny De Palma's technical genius. And while it might appear that he was damning himself to the prevailing notion that he was nothing but a Hitchcock wannabe by referencing plot elements from Vertigo and Rear Window quite explicitly, Body Double was in 1984 the greatest evidence that he had forged a unique style that today is instantly recognizable as his own. It is no coincidence that the film was De Palma's first collboration with cinematographer Stephen Burum, who since then has lensed 6 other De Palma films (The Untouchables, Casualties of War, Raising Cain, Carlito's Way, Mission:Impossible, and Snake Eyes, in which they seem to work telepathically). I would rate their collaboration as being as important and influential as De Niro and Scorsese in the annals of modern American film history. Body Double moves like a fever dream bathed in cold sweat. And as politically incorrect as it may seem on the surface, a more subtle reading of numerous details will reveal that, once again, the true villain is patriarchy, including the so-called hero himself, played with passive understatement by Craig Wasson. As a business savvy porn star with platinum blonde hair and a great...smile, Melanie Griffith gives what is still her best performance. This is perhaps De Palma's most hypnotic film.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: pretty good
Review: this movie is pretty well done movie, it gets weird at times but holds up well. It can get boring at times.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Worth a look, but not much more.
Review: I rented this video because I am a Mel Griffith fan and I must say that judging from some other reviews I read, thought that I would not enjoy it, but I actually did! It kept me watching just to try and figure out if she was a twin or not. Storyline was good but the little bit of gore was unnecessary. Worth the rental price, but not much more.


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