Rating: 
Summary: Solid suspense/thriller, but Body Double's better.
Review: I enjoy Brian De Palma's films so much. My favorites include Mission to Mars (easily the most underrated movie in years), Scarface, The Untouchables, and Body Double. My mentioning of Body Double leads me to Dressed to Kill, De Palma's first erotic thriller, which is a fairly bloody and suspenseful thriller. Let me explain the problems first. The movie begins a bit slowly and builds a bit with an initially interesting museum sequence that features De Palma doing another visually innovative technique. Unfortunately, he goes overkill as the sequence runs too long. However, things pick up again as so far the film's main character, played by Angie Dickinson, has a one night stand with a man, only to discover something shocking and leaves in a hurry. Then the suspense picks up to truly heart-pounding limits as she's murdered in an elevator by a woman known as Bobbi. De Palma lets things slip by, however, as the movie strays a bit after that. The film's already run around a half-hour (with a 105 minute running time), and so far it's pretty good due to the elevator sequence. But afterward, the film begins to lose some footing when it doesn't focus as much on the murder and it's never sure as to which character is the main focus. Is it Nancy Allen as the high-priced prostitute or Keith Gordon as the genius? Once again, the last 45 minutes are purely De Palma magic, as he manages to bring the suspense up to unbearable limits and finishes off strongly (even though the final twist is extremely predictable). My review of this movie is closer to 3.5 stars, and it does have its flaws, but it's still immensely watchable and entertaining if you can stand quite a bit of blood and nudity in the beginning. Body Double is a better film, overall, though, and it would be a great idea to watch both back-to-back (Dressed to Kill first, and then Double).
Rating:
Summary: Dead right
Review: Brian DePalma's DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT and BODY DOUBLE (there's a triple feature for a sleepless night) all feature his noteworthy use of the wide movie screen. The 2/18/01 review by the viewer from San Francisco is dead right: you gotta see DRESSED TO KILL on DVD, laser disc or on the wide screen! However, I don't agree with others who complain DRESSED TO KILL has a predictable conclusion. But then, it is rare that I guess how a film ends. At any rate, twenty years ago I saw DRESSED TO KILL at the movies more than once. So, after the first time, I knew what was going to happen and still wanted to see it. See DRESSED TO KILL - in wide screen format, if ya can.
Rating: 
Summary: WIDESCREEN VERSION IS ON LASERDISC
Review: After seeing this movie countless times on VHS, I watched in awe the WIDESCREEN VERSION which is only available on LASERDISC. It was like seeing a completely different movie. What a treat to see this DePalma masterpiece in it's full glory! You miss so much in the pan & scan version. This needs to be released widescreened on DVD so that everyone can enjoy it the way it was filmed. Those of you who left rave reviews should seek this version out. LE VIDEO in San Francisco has a copy for rent, or ask a Laserdisc collector. A MUST SEE!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely predictable and very boring...
Review: Due to the many reviews I read about this film, I had very high hopes. Maybe that is why I was so disappointed. From the pointless pornographic opening scene, I began to realize that maybe I had made a mistake. Another fifteen minutes in, I was sure of it. Finally, 25 minutes in, the movie provided it's first suspenseful and important scene. The annoying porn had ended and a truly shocking and suspenseful scene took place. The next hour wasn't so bad, a definite improvement over the opening 30 mins. There were some scenes of suspense and some great directing techniques, such as the split screen, which was done with some style. I thought maybe the film wasn't so bad after all. Than, the killer was revealed. The box promised a truly shocking revelation, so my disappointment was evident. I knew the killer when he was first introduced and I'm sure most people feel the same way. It was a nice conclusion, but too obvious. WAY TOO OBVIOUS. Instead of shock, I just mumbled "I knew it". Maybe, just maybe, if the film ended there, after the motive was explained, it would have been given one more star. But the film just kept going on and on. The killer was revealed, his motive was explained, so why continue? It was very pointless, because it just wasn't needed. The story was over. Why bore the audience for another 11 minutes? This film has many flaws, true, but one thing I like is the director's style. It was unique, but often annoying. Overall, the film wasn't bad, but very predictable and too long.It could easily be half an hour shorter, and a much better movie if it was.
Rating: 
Summary: Love the movie, but this is the censored version!
Review: When 'Dressed to Kill' was made in 1980, it was met with a storm of controversy due to its violent content and perceived misogyny in its treatment of the female characters (interestingly, no one criticized 'Sisters', an earlier, well-received De Palma film that depicted a psychotic woman dispatching male characters in extremely gory fashion, as being misanthropic). De Palma fought with the censors over a number of the film's elements that pushed the envelope (even by today's standards): a few particularly brutal moments in the key murder scenes, explicit nudity in the opening shower rape/fantasy sequence, and some tough language. De Palma lost with the censors and was forced to make several cuts in order to avoid an X-rating. Later, when Warner Brothers released the film on home video, it gave audiences a chance to see the international unrated version of the film with the controversial scenes intact - the director's cut. This is the version I first saw at the tender age of 13. I watched it with my Mom, who liked mystery suspense films. We were both a bit shocked by it's graphic violence and sexual content (We both loved it, too). I was already a devoted fan of the horror genre (I'm now a socially well-adjusted IT professional, and still a fan of the genre) and I recognized this film as being a cut above anything I'd seen before - not just for its graphic violence and sexual content, but for the stylishness of its execution as well. It became one of my all-time favorites. I gave 'Dressed to Kill' five stars in an earlier review, and was eager to replace my old, beat-up copy with a fresh print. However, I was extremely disappointed to find that the copy of the film currently available from GoodTimes is the censored theatrical version! If you are the type of filmgoer who likes to have your sensibilities challenged (and if you also object to censorship), do NOT buy this version of 'Dressed to Kill'. It is not true to De Palma's original vision. I only hope that a future DVD release (still nowhere in sight) will restore the integrity of the director's cut. Maybe Criterion, which did such a great job with the 'Sisters' DVD, will do the same for 'Dressed to Kill', the quintessential De Palma film.
Rating: 
Summary: Suspenseful, but it takes too long to get moving
Review: Dressed to Kill is another Alfred Hitchcock homage from acclaimed director Brian De Palma. This time, he crafts a suspenseful thriller, though it takes a while to actually get there. The film begins with a very slow pace and it takes nearly a half-an-hour for the real plot to begin. There's also the lack of solid character development. All three of the top listed actors almost split the screen time evenly. Michael Caine's only in the film during certain periods. Angie Dickinson's all over the screen for the first 30 minutes, but she leaves after that, and Nancy Allen doesn't even appear until the 30 minute mark. The film also struck me as quite predictable, with an ending that could have been figured out not to long after the murder occurs.
Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT CINEMATIC STEW - "DON'T MAKE ME BE A BAD GIRL!"
Review: Everytime I see another DePalma atrocity and am tempted to write him off completely, I have to remind myself that he directed DRESSED TO KILL in 1980. This film is such a wonderful grab-bag of things lyrical, ecstatic, kitsch, obscene, comic, puerile, and surreal, not to mention that it fuses so much cinematic grammar into one long piece of sustained music. Not to downplay DePalma's expertise at montage, but much of this film's tension and charisma come from Venetian Pino Donaggio's score - driving, pulsing, lush and always over the top (inarguably the composer's best moment alongside his score for "Don't Look Now" in 1973). Contributing to this waltz of mayhem is Nancy Allen and Dennis Franz' in-your-face repartee, the Hardy Boys bond between Allen and Gordon, and moreover, Angie Dickinson's sublime portrayal of a middle-aged woman looking for that one good sexual release, only to be mocked horribly, then wasted by a sinister cross-dresser(!). Film and film culture exist within our bigger, even cosmic, politic, and it's fitting that DRESSED TO KILL - in the summer of 1980 - blended techno-phobia (Dickinson's dismissal of her son's computer named 'Peter' right before she goes out looking for some good extramarital sex), a p.o.'d transexual, and the spectre of killer STDs coming back to haunt, then kill the leading lady! Mind you this was all on the eve of the computer explosion while HIV was secretly spinning its lethal web in urban areas, and Reaganitis was everywhere. One must mention the film's humor, dark and ofttimes adolescent as it is (with dialogue like "Don't make me be a bad girl" delivered by a cross-dresser). As Dickinson lolls about in the museum, cruising a handsome stranger straight out of an Armani ad circa 1980, she is confronted with a wallsized canvas of a gorilla, also lolling about and staring back at her. Then she scribbles "banana" on her list of Things to Do (ha!), and in three beats, she's winding her way back and forth through the museum on the tail of that cute phallic object wearing Armani! Moreover, we get to be cine-sadists as the music AND the stranger toy with her emotions (will she get picked up or just toyed with and humiliated?). Donnagio's music leads us through all of her hopes and fears as the Steadicam tracks her through room after room of paintings in search of Mr. Right. It's a wonderful, naughty sequence, with another wicked piece of lyrical business ready to follow when she finally makes it to her new lover's two-toned Manhattan budoir. What's truly Hitchcockian is how DePalma places most of the villains in the garb of caretakers: psychiatrists and nurses morph into highly eroticized killing machines; cops have a view of human nature so jaundiced one wonders why they bother to save anyone; and matronly moms just want a good afternoon of sex between designer sheets. Amidst it all, only a stock-market savvy prostitute hanging out with an asexual techno-snoop (who weeps over his dead mother for, like, five minutes, max!!) can save the day! What a fitting comic, capsule of the Reagan-Era Spirit that was to come! DRESSED TO KILL is a giddy, sinister, utterly delightful brew of cinematic hocus-pocus that never loses it magic, especially on widescreen. One wishes DePalma could hit this stride again. Follow-ups like BODY DOUBLE and RAISING CAIN are only echoes of this pop-trash masterwork. Crank up the soundtrack and enjoy these 90 minutes of gothic dementia. And heed dePalma's wacky warning: Don't ever get in the way of anyone who wants their own pair of high heels; they might get medieval on you.
Rating:
Summary: A great tribute to Psycho with a decidedly modern edge
Review: The setting is Manhattan, 1980 - a time and place where anything (including your worst urban paranoid fantasy) seemed possible. Please don't read the spoilers contained in the reviews below - all you need to know is that this elegant, unconventional thriller follows the path of a bored, sexually frustrated housewife (a luminous Angie Dickinson) whose misadventures land her in a situation of deep peril. Also contains one of the best scores I've heard composed for a thriller. The film is screaming for a wide-screen DVD release.
Rating:
Summary: DRESSED TO KILL...hitchcock would have been proud
Review: after seeing DRESSED TO KILL only one word came to mind...WOW. this movie was a really great suspense thriller. nancy allen(who was married to the director at the time) looked great for once in her acting career. i loved depalmas usage of the split screen and THE ENDING WAS AMAZING. angie dickenson was great as the character of kate miller and her death scene and all that led up to it was highly entertaining. and dont forget about the music. it too was very well orchastrated. dressed to kill pays great homage to hitchcock. and i praise depalma for his attempt. 'PSYCHO', which a lot of critics say the film mirrors, was great but dressed to kill shines in its own light.
Rating:
Summary: Many Say It's A "Psycho" Clone, But Hey...It's Still Good!
Review: Brian De Palma is a great director. I love "Carrie", "Snake Eyes", and this newly discovered gem, "Dressed to Kill". It is most definetly a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock and his masterpiece "Psycho". The plot and killer are very similar to it. Many criticize De Palma for this, but I think he did a pretty good job! The elevator scene is so incredibly creepy that it gives me chills just thinking about it. Bobbi is one of the most unique (and scariest) killers ever in movie history. This is not a slasher film, if that is what you are expecting. If you liked "Psycho", then you'll love this. And even if you didn't, there is still a strong chance you'll like this anyway...
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