Rating: Summary: Hi-larious Review: This flick cracked me the hell up. Stumbled across it on cable, and I was hooked. First, it has a great location: they must have really lucked out to find such a bleak location to shoot. Classic stucco desert hellhole. Then, throw in a bunch of hammy b-movie actors (the cop investigating the murder was my fave), cast seventeen-year-old Julie as a junior high student, and throw in continuity flubs left and right (e.g. gated community with no gate). The whole incest/ hot-daughter-takes-over-for-mother thing is a longtime fantasy of mine. Julie is absolutely delicious, especially when she dons her murdered mothers ball gowns to play house with the dad, and the director was obviously some frustrated film student who just wet himself at the prospect of having his own "big budget" movie to play with. Fans of trash, sinewy teenage girls, and hyperventilating Lolita morality tales will be in heaven.
Rating: Summary: Too damned funny Review: This flick is absolute genius. From the hilariously derivative Hitchcock ripoffs, to the deadpan performance of Miss Stiles as the evil seductress, this one is a can't-miss for fans of late night B-movies, incest fantasies, or hyperventilating Lolita morality dramas. From the grizzled cop investigating the case, to the gaping plot and continuity holes, this picture has all the hallmarks of genuinely enjoyable trash. Especially good is the work done with Julia, who understatedly hams up her role as the icy underaged seductress (twelve in the picture, seventeen in real life), wearing her late mother's glittering ball gowns as she seduces the father. Director Steinberg, obviously fresh from film school and absolutely weeting his pants at the chance to be a low-budget Brian DePalma, does lots of goofy camera angles and lighting, just to show you how closely he paid attention in Directing 101. The best part is when he has Julia, dressed in slinky, purplish "goth" gear, and sporting about a gallon of eyeshadow, do a slow-mo stalk down the halls of her junior high, with some Souxsie and the Banshees knockoff blaring on the soundtrack as she glares at the other students, a la "The Craft". Brilliant!
Rating: Summary: compelling mind-blower Review: this is what happens when you live in a gated community.... this essentially character driven narrative is a compelling mind- blower of a film. it is deeply disturbing in nature and i think this may have had more to do with why people are rating it poorly than they think. it is easy to be deeply disturbed and pass a negative judgement on the film without giving it a chance. it has some sociologically profound things to say, even though it can be cheesy and b-movieish at the same time. the cinemetography is nevertheless breathtaking as is the psychoanalytic, reverse oedipus-complex type theme. the effectiveness of the suspense and cinematography make up for the few holes in the characters and occassional silliness. also look for the greek drama metephors.
Rating: Summary: Surreal and twisted dark comedy Review: This movie features Julia Stiles playing a posessive teenager who turns into a domineering young woman with the Electra-complex after her mother's death. She is posessive of her father which whom she becomes obsessed with later on in the movie. As far as the plot, it takes on many facets which do not fit right for the theme of the movie. Through the protagonist's eyes, you can see how far away reality becomes, and eventually how she is corrupted through the events following her mother's death. At times, the incestual overtones made me queasy, and the end was sort of expected due to the lack of definition to the characters. Sometimes during the movie, one could get the feeling that it was more of a who-dun-it film than anything else. Although disturbing and dark to watch, there are not any scenes of nudity, just the adult situation, language, and violence content. Hope this helps.
Rating: Summary: hhmmm.... Review: This movie wasn't as bad as the other reviews made it out to be. It's a chessy B-movie and if you enjoy them a little then "Wicked" is an okay flick to watch. There are a lot of little twists and turns that kept me interested. I would say that "overall" it's not that bad.
Rating: Summary: It's a strange one Review: This must of been done earlier in Julia Styles career because you can tell the age difference compared to more recent work. The story revolves around JUlia Styles as a bratty teen. SHe hates her Mother (and the Mother Hates Her) HEr sister gets everything she wants, and they have a nanny who is a little to perky. Her only sanctuary is when her father comes home in which case she is in some form of paradise.Teh story begins when the father returns home from another business trip. He brings gifts and for JUlia it's a make-up kit. She loves it. She tries it out, and does a surprisngly good job of it but the mother won't allow it. Ironically enough the mother ends up dead later that morning. You pretty much guess she did it but one would possibly lose an idea or two in the crime scene. After that JUlia starts to change. She becomes more like her mother and it goes way to far, until the very wicked ending that you would not have guessed (trust me). IT's obviouse that people who see this will brush it off. DOn't. There is a decent film in here worth looking into if given half a chance.
Rating: Summary: Almost good enough for two stars! Review: Well, if it looks like trash it probably is, and the cover of this one definitely looks like trash. Hollywood has been busting a gut for years trying to get Julia Styles a big hit, and this was one of her prep efforts. Stiles plays a rebellious teenager. A very rebellious teenager. So bad, in fact, that we are led to believe that she murders her mother to win over the affections of her father. Or did she? That's the puzzle throughout the movie. It's the reason it almost gets a higher rating, but because of the way it was handled, it stays in one-star territory. The movie does try to be ambitious by showing her taking over ALL the roles of her mother. And when dad marries the maid that was fired by her mother, boy does Julia get jealous! All of this could have been elevated to the level of great trash, but unfortunately the plot and direction fall off quickly. With mom offed rather quickly, you're hoping to at least see a few more people get knocked off, especially an irritating neighbor who keeps putting her nose into everybody's business. But even this falls short. Finally, we have one of those endings that are supposed to make us look at what we've seen completely differently. Is someone else responsible for mom's demise? Or is this person just taking over the family wickedness. When nobody who was watching the film with me could figure it out, that makes it just bad storytelling.
Rating: Summary: Almost good enough for two stars! Review: Well, if it looks like trash it probably is, and the cover of this one definitely looks like trash. Hollywood has been busting a gut for years trying to get Julia Styles a big hit, and this was one of her prep efforts. Stiles plays a rebellious teenager. A very rebellious teenager. So bad, in fact, that we are led to believe that she murders her mother to win over the affections of her father. Or did she? That's the puzzle throughout the movie. It's the reason it almost gets a higher rating, but because of the way it was handled, it stays in one-star territory. The movie does try to be ambitious by showing her taking over ALL the roles of her mother. And when dad marries the maid that was fired by her mother, boy does Julia get jealous! All of this could have been elevated to the level of great trash, but unfortunately the plot and direction fall off quickly. With mom offed rather quickly, you're hoping to at least see a few more people get knocked off, especially an irritating neighbor who keeps putting her nose into everybody's business. But even this falls short. Finally, we have one of those endings that are supposed to make us look at what we've seen completely differently. Is someone else responsible for mom's demise? Or is this person just taking over the family wickedness. When nobody who was watching the film with me could figure it out, that makes it just bad storytelling.
Rating: Summary: Wicked? Er... if you say so............zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...... Review: When I saw the cover of this video - showing a gorgeous girl looking decidedly evil I thought 'hey, my kinda film'. Especially with blurb like 'evil never looked so good'. Yet the film was a complete pile of cat's poo! We never saw Stiles do one really wicked thing in the whole film! They should sue the marketing guys under the trade descriptions act! For fans of evil, beautiful girls doing really bad things and revelling in their sinful ways this film was a big disapointment. Forget this film and buy a pair of socks instead.
Rating: Summary: Reviews are too harsh from what I've seen so far Review: When I went to the video store there was only 1 copy to rent on DVD. No tapes whatsoever. Obviously we're not talking about an A class movie here. Anyhow, it took me about 3 weeks to catch before it was in. Me being a Julia Stiles fan as well as enjoying dark/disturbing films I was fairly enthusiastic about seeing it. When I put the DVD in the machine i wasn't surprised there were little or no special features (filmographies and a few trailers). The movie itself is about a dysfunctional family in which both parents are committing adultery and the eldest daughter, Ellie (played by Stiles), has much tension between her and her mother, Lena. She turns to her father, Ben, for affection, in turn, creating a power struggle with Lena for control over him. The marriage then begins to fall apart. In a heated argument Lena threatens to run off with their two daughters. The next morning while Ben is at work and the daughters at school she is murdered. At this point a detective is introduced and starts a murder/mystery plot; although when I was watching it my attention was more closely tied with the control between Stiles' relationship with her father. She tries to fill the motherly role that's missing from the household. As her father pulls away she acts more and more like his wife. Of course he realizes their relationship can't continue as is and begins seeing his lover (whom he had been with during his marriage) again. As the movie continues you'll find out who killed Lena and add to that a delightful twist in the end. I think most people watch the movie and see a B thriller with poor taste. I'm not surprised as there are a few very controversial elements to it. Even still, I found the cringing moments gutsy and Ellie's development entertaining. You get to watch Ellie start as "daddy's little girl" and turn into an insecure control freak much like her mother was. So maybe it's not worth shelling out for your own copy but certainly worth paying the $2 - 3 to rent. Hope this was a helpful review. :)
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