Body Double

Rating:
Summary: "Why is this movie such a guilty pleasure?"
Review: This film rides the parallel rails of suspense and sarcasm. DePalma offers the viewer classic movie techniques (ie.Hitchcock) with a modern twist (ie.porno movies). Mabye it's just me but I find that after multiple viewings (over the years),this movie seems to get better with age. Also, fact or fiction: people who consider DePalma a rip off artist should look at Tarantino's work, especially the title for his first film. When you see Body Double's ending figure out how Tarantino came up with the title for his first movie. Bark bark.

Rating:
Summary: very cool 80's flick
Review: body double is not a classic, however it is very entertaining.very good plot, with a big twist at the end.great movie to watch with girlfriend/boyfriend.

Rating:
Summary: BODY DOUBLE / DOUBLE CRITIQUE
Review: First critique : This movie is the worse I have seen in years. Brian DePalma doesn't have any respect at all. He has used VERTIGO, REAR WINDOW and PSYCHO's plots in order to write the script of BODY DOUBLE. Shame on him !!! Furthermore, there aren't any albanese subtitles on this DVD. I'm not happy. Valentinu DIMITRIANOVTCHENKU ( Albania) Second critique : If you want to have an idea of the movies Brian dePalma directed in his beginnings, take a look at BODY DOUBLE. It contains all the director's early obsessions : - A story in which you can easily trace the references to Alfred Hitchcock's masterpieces. - The music of Pino Donnagio (astonishingly audible in BODY DOUBLE). - Endless circular travellings during the romantic moments of the movie. - Very sexy scenes involving a sculptural actress ( Melanie Griffith here). Having been since the seventies a DePalma fan, I 'm very fond of this movie. You can find here themes one can recognize in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, shot 12 years later, and you can observe that the last scene of BODY DOUBLE is identical with the first scene of DRESSED TO KILL. The circle is completed, no more Hitchcock references, the second period of DePalma's career can begin. And it will be a great period for movie history. A DVD for DePalma aficionados.

Rating:
Summary: POSSIBLY THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE (Really)
Review: Don't listen to the other reviewers. This movie is a new low in cinema -- I don't care that it is violent or exploitative or anything like that -- it is simply dull, badly made, laughably written, and a complete waste of your time. The ONLY nice part is that Melanie Griffith is not yet the puffy drunk plastic surgery victim she now is -- so it is interesting to see for that aspect alone. But wow, this movie is a complete loser.

Rating:
Summary: Oh my oh my oh my
Review: This film has very bad haircuts, terrible buildup and the film doesn't even take off until about an hour in and by then you don't care because the music has driven you insane. Basically a guy is given a penthouse type apartment to look after with a telescope. De Palma films most of the movie with this guy looking through it and the music in the background and forty minutes later after waking up you find he is still doing the same thing again.

Then suddenly a bad guy appears from nowhere and starts to stalk the people in the apartments across the way....

... and you know you have seen this done better elsewhere.

... thus punch in the words "REAR WINDOW" in the search box and do motion picture films justice.

Rating:
Summary: Cheesy
Review: Well i didnt rate it the best. If you want action the whole way threw the movie, then dont buy it. One action part turn my stomach a bit. I bought this movie for 2.99 Canadian. I knew it would be some type of a flop but hey it's only 3.00 right. If u like to laugh at cheesy things go ahead watch it. If ur looking for one sex scene go ahead watch it. To me when I watched it, the movie said to me an old cheesy, slightly porno type movie. With the cheesy lines, cheesy plot and cheesy music to me that shouts porno.

Rating:
Summary: BODY DOUBLE (COLUMBIA PICTURES/1984)
Review: "BODY DOUBLE" is another in a long line of crass and brutal Hitchcockian thrillers by director De Palma. The story centers around a claustrophobic, out-of-work actor named Jake Scully (played engagingly by the underrated Craig Wasson) who discovers his long time girl has been cheating on him, and thus slums around with several of his acting buddies while trying to get his life straightened out. When one of his friends offers him a job babysitting some plants at a lavish modern home while the owner is gone overseas, Jake jumps at the chance. But along with the mundane task of watering the foliage and keeping the house clean, Jake is introduced (via telescope) to a naughty neighbor who performs a routine striptease that is too tempting for him to resist peeping in on. As night after night goes by, Jake becomes convinced that the lady's life is in danger, and (through a series of brilliant montages) begins to follow her on the road, through a shopping mall, and on a crowded beach which ends in a wonderful chase squence. To reveal anymore of the plot would be detrimental to the viewer, but as Jake investigates deeper and deeper into his neighbor's life he encounters a young, quirky porno star (Melanie Griffith) who proves to have a lot of valuable information that sheds some light on the woman's kinky behavior. Director Brian De Palma does an excellent job concocting a superb and intriguing mystery while enlivening it with swirling camera moves and neat little touches here and there, but if you're expecting an old-fashioned suspense picture forget it: "BODY DOUBLE" is gruesomely violent, filled with harsh language, and saturated with nudity and sex (needlessly so for such a short and straightforward murder mystery). So be forwarned if you see it. But despite its exploitative nature, the film can be hailed as a successful exercise with a top-notch cast and a solid narrative. ULTIMATE GROSS OUT MOMENT: watch out for that power drill! HARSH LANGUAGE: about 40 words, VIOLENCE: about 7 scenes, NUDITY/SEXUAL SUGGESTIVENESS: about 12 hard-core scenes (RATED R/114 minutes).

Rating:
Summary: Another Predictable Flop By De Palma
Review: Brian DePalma's thriller about a peeper deceived after witnessing a gruesome murder next door. Another predictable flop by a director who's hit-and-miss career steadily rises in the number of atrocious flops he directed such as this horrible film.

Although it has somewhat of a prototype screenplay, its script and direction is horribly cheesy in every conceivable way. The only true mystery in this film is determining at what point will your average viewer start either laughing or falling asleep. But, then again, what can somebody expect from Brian DePalma who, out of about 30 films, has directed only 5 truly worth watching (The Untouchables; Carrie; Scarface; Carlito's Way; and Mission Impossible.) The top-knotch acting in those films had more to do with making them great than DePalma's mediocre directing skills.

Don't rent or buy this film unless you're a true DePalma fan or a lover of bad pulp fiction. Save your time and money by renting the 5 films mentioned previously or just by renting something that's been handled by a more competent director: that way you won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: POSSIBLY THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE (Really)
Review: "Body Double" is, in every way shape and form, a modern masterpiece, the same way "Vertigo" was and is. Our lead man suffers a similar phobia and is enveloped by the same paranoia of a murder consipracy invloving the victim switch. Point of view shots are used in a simialr vein and our leading man constantly speaks in his best James Stewart drawl. Other than lacking the customary Deplama split screen (which would have made the most sense in this of all Depalma films) "Body Double" is spectacular. Low budget elements are a deliberate mesh with the story of making a low budget horror, dated music is well represented. The plot, on the other hand, is filmed with the brilliant conventions we come to expect from depalma. dennis franz is not as raw as he was in "Dressed to Kill". Any NYPD Blue fan has got to check out "Dressed To Kill" to see the real detective at work. Here, you actually never know what is real and what is set-up making "Body Double" a quintessential thiller for all lovers of the genre.

Rating:
Summary: Switching Stories
Review: This movie was good because it had a lot of nudity and the best parts were when they switched stories from one to another. There was one story where the director was shooting a vampire movie. The other was in his head - he had something else going on involving a murder.