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Hideaway

Hideaway

List Price: $9.95
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Banquet for Sisto fans
Review: Already hooked on Sisto after seeing "Suicide Kings",I rented this solely because he was in it. The movie would have beenloads better without the cheap, totally gratuitous special effects. But I greatly enjoyed the heavy soundtrack ( although I couldn't help taking a little offense at the overused stereotype that killers always listen to metal. What about all the drive-by shooters who listen to rap? But I digress) Unbelievably predictable plotwise, but I could never have foreseen the utter creepiness of Jeremy Sisto in this role as Vassago. And seductive as well, he has a startling range for such a young actor. Looking spookily sexy in trenchcoat and leather, Vassago could easily pass for a seriously psychotic "Lost Boy". Truth to tell,if he had used those eyes and that voice on me, I would have gone with him to a terrible fate. A must for Jeremy Sisto fans!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hideaway was incredible
Review: Besides the outreageuos special effects,and the macarbe scenes of violence, Jeremy Sisto was well cast as Vassago..that voice, those eyes! The book was better ,but the movie was awesome and terrifying in its own right.Don't forget to catch the last scene at the end of the credits!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Hideaway
Review: Better than what I was expecting, Goldblum is always on top form no matter what the movie. This film is severly creepy, although the computer effects are quite rubbish the film is saved by good acting and a heavy metal soundtrack.
If your going to watch a Goldblum movie I'd reccoment the Fly, but this is always a good rental.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Hideaway is a horror/thriller could have been a lot better
Review: Dean Koontz fans must know that Hideaway was the movie that Koontz himself hated. Well, Hideaway wasn't exactly a good movie, but neither was it terrible. It's problems could have been fixed and the film could have been a whole lot better.

The plot is about a man named Hatch Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) who dies in a car accident, and two hours later, is mysteriously revived. However, before there's much time for celebration, Hatch begins to have visions of himself killing attractive teenage girls. He begins to realize that he has some sort of psychic connection with a young man (Jeremy Sisto). Even more to Hatch's horror, he discovers this young man is infatuated with his daughter (Alicia Silverstone).

There's something about the bad special effects that really hurt this movie. I mean, it's very cheesy looking and makes the movie laughable. I will say that the plot begins promisingly but just turns into another slasher with a slight twist that isn't even really interesting since nothing's ever really explained.

Jeff Goldblum and Christine Lahti deliver good performances but their characters are underwritten and it makes it harder to like or even sympathize Goldblum. Silverstone and Sisto give performances that are easily forgettable while the latter is simply one of the unscariest horror villains around. This is a movie that doesn't amount to much after you're done watching and you'll probably forget most of the character's names the day after.

Dean Koontz novels aren't always great. I've never read Hideaway, so I can't compare it with the movie. For a good Koontz adaptation I recommend Phantoms. Not alone does that film have genuinely scary moments, the special effects are also much better.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Come out of the attic
Review: Dean Koontz has a huge problem having faithful adaptations done from his novels to movies. "Hideaway" was one of the few good ones, even though it was severly re-imagined. Hatch Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) is in an accident where he is technically dead for a few minutes, and then revived. Now he seems to be psycicly connected to a psychopathic killer (who believes he's a real demon, due to a trip to Hell because of his own near death experiance), and can see what the killer is doing as he's doing it. As a result, Hatch and his wife and daughter (Christine Lahti and Alicia Silverstone) are now targeted. While this is the best Dean Koontz, he still dosn't get the respect of, say, Stephen King or Clive Barker (well, I guess that isn't fair; Barker directs his own movies), and so his book, which was a great medical thriller/horror novel, got radically changed. In the book the Harrison's adopt a crippled eight year old girl; here they have a teenaged daughter (I would have prefered a smaller girl instead of the too flirtatious Silverstone). Also the book took the time to really explaine Hatch's excentricities are giving a chance to believably escalate; here it happens so fast that it is understandable that his family are afraid of him all of a sudden. Jeff Goldblum is his usual qirky self here, charming as an intellgent everyman caught up in events larger than himself. Christine Lahti is alright, nothing special. Silverstone got on my nerves badly; she's played that cutesie role one too many times for my taste. The real standout performance was Jeremy Sisto in an early role as the killer Vassago. Though the movie has to eliminate a lot of back ground motivation for the character, there was a lot of surface menace and just oddity that really made him one of the more memorable villians. I still can't wait for the truelly faithful adaptation of a Dean Koontz novel; but "Hideaway" did the man justice.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Come out of the attic
Review: Dean Koontz has a huge problem having faithful adaptations done from his novels to movies. "Hideaway" was one of the few good ones, even though it was severly re-imagined. Hatch Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) is in an accident where he is technically dead for a few minutes, and then revived. Now he seems to be psycicly connected to a psychopathic killer (who believes he's a real demon, due to a trip to Hell because of his own near death experiance), and can see what the killer is doing as he's doing it. As a result, Hatch and his wife and daughter (Christine Lahti and Alicia Silverstone) are now targeted. While this is the best Dean Koontz, he still dosn't get the respect of, say, Stephen King or Clive Barker (well, I guess that isn't fair; Barker directs his own movies), and so his book, which was a great medical thriller/horror novel, got radically changed. In the book the Harrison's adopt a crippled eight year old girl; here they have a teenaged daughter (I would have prefered a smaller girl instead of the too flirtatious Silverstone). Also the book took the time to really explaine Hatch's excentricities are giving a chance to believably escalate; here it happens so fast that it is understandable that his family are afraid of him all of a sudden. Jeff Goldblum is his usual qirky self here, charming as an intellgent everyman caught up in events larger than himself. Christine Lahti is alright, nothing special. Silverstone got on my nerves badly; she's played that cutesie role one too many times for my taste. The real standout performance was Jeremy Sisto in an early role as the killer Vassago. Though the movie has to eliminate a lot of back ground motivation for the character, there was a lot of surface menace and just oddity that really made him one of the more memorable villians. I still can't wait for the truelly faithful adaptation of a Dean Koontz novel; but "Hideaway" did the man justice.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Brett Leonard's Hideaway
Review: Dean Koontz tried to get his name taken off this adaptation of one of his novels, and with good reason.

Goldblum is Hatch, who is killed in a car accident. He is revived by Alfred Molina, but he begins to "change," much to the consternation of his wife Christine Lahti and gum smacking dummy teen daughter Alicia Silverstone. Apparently, Hatch has made some kind of connection with a serial killer (played by Jeremy Sisto), and both men can see what the other is doing. Sisto becomes obsessed with Silverstone, and Goldblum and the killer run around the Pacific Northwest chasing each other until they meet up in a clicheed finale.

This film should have been better than this. Goldblum is all wrong as Hatch Harrison, playing him with wide eyed wonder and laid back charm. He never gets overly concerned that he can see what a serial killer sees, and when he does explode into anger or emotion, it comes off as supremely fake. Lahti is given nothing more to do than follow a sweaty Goldblum around the house asking him what is wrong. Molina is equally unimpressive as the doctor who serves as the connection between the two men. Sisto is good as the killer, but he is not given anything different to do. You have seen this serial killer a hundred times before. Rae Dawn Chong, as a psychic, has two whole scenes before getting dispatched, and she was the most interesting character here. Once again, I ask the eternal question of all psychic characters in these films: "If they are psychic, can't they see that they are about to die?"

Alicia Silverstone is another matter. I cannot become enamored of a person through a couple of music video appearances. Here, she plays a sixteen or seventeen year old as if she was twelve. Half the time I was not concerned for her safety, I just wanted to smack her. What has she done since "Clueless"? That list alone is scarier than anything in this film.

In a car accident near the beginning of the film, a truck sideswipes our heroic family. Lahti and Goldblum are bug eyed and screaming, but you can see Silverstone in the back seat SMILING. Did she get away with this? Did editing not see this? Is a spinning car on a wet highway supposed to be funny to her character? The car ends up over on the shoulder of the road, Silverstone pops out (pouting), and then the car rolls back down a ravine and ends up in a river. Now, I see why Alicia was smiling, the scene is unintentionally hilarious. I expected the Road Runner to swim up and deposit some dynamite-laced bird seed in the car as Goldblum and Lahti headed for some rapids or a tall desert cliff. If you can remember how Dead Meat bought it in "Hot Shots," this is just as silly.

Leonard also makes liberal use of computer effects to show us what heaven and hell look like. Hell is a giant orange ball of goo. I think heaven is a blue tinged Oriental lady, I may be wrong. Leonard decided "The Lawnmower Man" had some good ideas not entirely fleshed out in his two and a half hour director's cut, and he stuck them in here for no real reason.

Eventually, the viewer will become as listless as the cast. Whole scenes go by with little or no energy. Major plot points are not revealed by any intelligence on the characters' part, but based on coincidence (watch for Hatch's discovery of the motel the killer is staying at: HE HAPPENS TO DRIVE BY IT). By the time the completely silly resolution rolls around, you will not care. As one last stab at the audience's interest, stay tuned after the final credits, where Leonard tacks on some cheesy scenes that the producers of "Bloody Murder" probably would have rejected as old. Hide away from "Hideaway."

This is rated (R) for physical violence, gun violence, gore, and profanity.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A REALLY BAD MOVIE WITH A REALLY GOOD CAST..
Review: Despite a stellar cast, Jeff Goldblum, Christine Lahti, Alicia Silverstone, and Alfred Molina, who do their best with a really bad script based on the Dean Koontz novel of the same name, this movie is a stinker. Even the special effects are bad. It is so bad, that Dean Koontz tried to disassociate himself from the film, with good reason.

The basic premise of the movie has to do with a family man (Jeff Goldblum), who dies in an accident and is brought back to life through the extraordinary intervention of a doctor (Alfred Molina). Though the doctor's efforts appeared at first blush to have been successful, our family man now seems to be psychically linked to someone else, a psycopathic killer who happens to be a satanist. Of course, it turns out that this killer was also brought back from the dead by the very same doctor. What happens next is too stupid for words. Save your money. Do not buy this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Seductive and scary
Review: Hideaway is one of the underrated surprises awaiting those who are feasting on the recent surge of horror-teen flicks that have bombarded Hollywood. Released about a year before "Scream" caused the all that ruckus, Hideaway missed the "party". But it's just as good or better than most of the offspring that Scream produced, so you can safely say that it belongs with the bunch of them. Much of its post-partum success is owed to Jeremy Sisto, then unknown, now recognized as a kid with quite a range {I can't belive this is the same one who played the tearful transexual in the crew!} He gave Vassago the psycho a lot of personality. Like Scream, Hideaway is scary, but it's a better scary, thanks to the death metal music permeating the black of night that most of this movie is set in and thanks to Sisto's distinctive leer. Like Scream, Hideaway was funny, but the comedic element is not quite so obvious. Again, a treat from Sisto. Instead of relying on horror movie connections to grasp at humor like the cast of scream did, Sisto gives Vassago his own dry sense of humor. It's quite hysterical to behold once you nail it. And like Scream, Hideaway has youth and beauty working for it, but instead of the stringy haired boyfriend who sulks because he isn't getting any from the girl, you have a guy who was nearly able to seduce Alicia Silverstone into getting into his car just by smiling, batting his eyes and using that wispy, erotic voice. Unholy as hell and a lot of fun!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Hollywood does an average job of an okay Dean Koontz horror
Review: Hmmmm, man nearly dies in crash, wakes up and discovers a new psychic talent that wasn't there before... Haven't we seen this before, people? Okay, so there are a few differences between this film and Stephen King's 'The Dead Zone', the main one being tension. 'Hideaway', based on a faintly supernatural thriller by Dean Koontz (the poor man's Stephen King), lacks...something, although what it lacks in suspense it makes up for in wasted talent. Christine Lahti's character brief appears to have been 'wet, simpering fishwife' while Alicia Silverstone does her usual spoilt American teen-type with annoyingly stretched eyes, as though eye-widening were the only way to portray naivete. Jeff Goldblum makes the best of a cliched and often stilted script, but even an actor of his talent and professionalism (let's face it, the man's made some stinkers in his time) can't conceal downright discomfort and regret when it comes to retreading old straight-to-video-thriller ground. But it's not all bad. Even with young Jeremy Sisto (or whatever his name is) trying his best to steal the show, Goldblum's truly wry spirit helps make this film watchable.


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