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Edge of Sanity

Edge of Sanity

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Anthony Perkins is awesome!
Review: Of course, any role played by the late, great Anthony Perkins is going to be done to the utmost perfection. There is also an absolutely superb supporting cast in this film as well. Unfortunately, the screenplay itself is not worthy of such talent. The only thing good about this film is the actors themselves. Too bad they couldn't have been casted for a better film. Watch this movie only for its artistic value and for the superb performances. Don't, however, expect a great film....you'll be disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Anthony Perkins is awesome!
Review: Of course, any role played by the late, great Anthony Perkins is going to be done to the utmost perfection. There is also an absolutely superb supporting cast in this film as well. Unfortunately, the screenplay itself is not worthy of such talent. The only thing good about this film is the actors themselves. Too bad they couldn't have been casted for a better film. Watch this movie only for its artistic value and for the superb performances. Don't, however, expect a great film....you'll be disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting but not more
Review: Some will say it's only a remake of DrJekyll and Mister Hyde. But there is a twist added to this classic. Mr Hyde is named Jack and his killings are attributed to Jack the Ripper, a completely different story. The beginning is also a second twist because it gives some traumatic experience Dr Jekyll, named Henry, had when he was a child and when he witnessed some sexual act he did not understand and was punished for it with a good spanking in a big volley of derisive laughter. Apart from that Mr Hyde is not in anyway distorted or looking like a monster. In fact it is Doctor Jekyll who uses a stick to walk because he limps. The best part of it is the very convincing acting of Anthony Perkins. One more exploration of insanity, here as the result of the past and the use of a drug.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hopkins at his best...
Review: This 'R-Rated' 2002 DVD re-release is actually six minutes longer than the previous 'Unrated'/'International' edition. The extra running time is almost all accounted for by this version being transferred to video at the correct 24fps theatrical rate whereas the earlier incarnation was artificially speeded up to around 25fps even for NTSC users. This made watching the old and new versions side-by-side difficult as I kept on having to pause the earlier recording in order for this one to catch up. They are virtually identical except for a couple of scenes. At the end of the pigeon-man/voyeur sequence there is now a close up of the victim's throat being slashed before splattering the pigeon with blood. Much later on when Jack is confronted by the old tart outside his front door we now get to see the horror he inflicted on her in gory close-up whereas before we had only the vaguest of clues as to what he was doing to her.

The DVD contains both a widescreen and 4x3 transfer of the main feature on opposite sides of the disc. The differences in picture composition are negligible so it is down to what kind of TV you own as to which you will prefer. Each side also contains its own version of the theatrical trailer and scene selections.

For what it's worth this is one of my favourite movies and I'm not even a horror fan. This is easily one of Anthony Hopkins' best three performances, the others being Psycho and Crimes of Passion made around the same time as this and in which he played virtually the same part. I first read about it when it became a late night cult hit on cable TV which I don't have so I rented the video then bought the laserdisc version and now the DVD. Some people seem to have missed the point that this is a modern gothic horror and not meant to be read as a historical document. Hence the blend of new wave punk fashions and victorian morality. It may be a triumph of style over content but it is a magnificent triumph.



Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Unpleasant, tasteless and highly mediocre horror film
Review: What a disapointment and waste! If one were to have told me that Anthony Perkins - star of "Psyscho" "Fear Strikes Out" "The Lonely Man" and "On the Beach" - was doing a "Jeykl and Hyde" film set in modern times with drugs, I would say that it would be a great film. What comes out is a lurid and tasteless adventure, which only has a few occasional thrills.

The thrills come far and between. In his role, Perkins does the film some justice. Occasionally, he manages to ham it up so well that the average viewer who longs for the Bela Lugosi factor to come back into films says 'yes!' Yet, overall, Perkins is washed away in the filfth of the film. The film is too damned gross! We have Perkins slicing and dicing poor British prostitutes with lousy accents, having sexual relations with prostitutes in front of obviously gratified homosexual prostitutes and then living up the drug life. This is sick, unpleasant and tasteless.

This film could have been great. Instead, it is just plain sick and often plain dumb. The film ends on a rather silly note, I believe. This is a bad one.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Unpleasant, tasteless and highly mediocre horror film
Review: What a disapointment and waste! If one were to have told me that Anthony Perkins - star of "Psyscho" "Fear Strikes Out" "The Lonely Man" and "On the Beach" - was doing a "Jeykl and Hyde" film set in modern times with drugs, I would say that it would be a great film. What comes out is a lurid and tasteless adventure, which only has a few occasional thrills.

The thrills come far and between. In his role, Perkins does the film some justice. Occasionally, he manages to ham it up so well that the average viewer who longs for the Bela Lugosi factor to come back into films says 'yes!' Yet, overall, Perkins is washed away in the filfth of the film. The film is too damned gross! We have Perkins slicing and dicing poor British prostitutes with lousy accents, having sexual relations with prostitutes in front of obviously gratified homosexual prostitutes and then living up the drug life. This is sick, unpleasant and tasteless.

This film could have been great. Instead, it is just plain sick and often plain dumb. The film ends on a rather silly note, I believe. This is a bad one.


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