- Actors: Woody Harrelson, Elisabeth Shue, Gina Gershon, Rolf Hoppe, Michael Rapaport
- Directors: Volker Schlöndorff
- Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: English, French
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: R (Restricted) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Turner Home Ent
- DVD Release Date: 5 Aug 1998
- Run Time: 114 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- ASIN: 0780622782
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 86,319 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
With a foreigner's revitalizing influence, German director Volker Schlondorff turns this standard potboiler (based on the novel Just Another Sucker by British pulp writer James Hadley Chase) into a beguiling exercise in genre classicism. Woody Harrelson stars as a former journalist, just released from serving two years on a trumped-up charge, who is drawn into a troublesome mock-extortion scheme by the scheming wife (Elisabeth Shue) of a dying Florida millionaire. The movie's got style to spare and plenty of humid Florida atmosphere but it's built on a series of improbable developments and is too low-key to generate riveting momentum. However, Schlondorff occupies this tawdry territory with a keen sense of necessary mood and pace, maintaining adequate internal logic and awareness of the story's vintage roots. Sub-plots involving Shue's stepdaughter (Chloe Sevigny) and Harrelson's girlfriend (Gina Gershon) provide enjoyable distractions from the story's implausibilities. The movie's better suited to the fertile pulp mills of cable TV. But with an absurdly twisting plot to hold your interest, it's fun to watch how Schlondorff builds a bridge between traditional film noir and a more contemporary approach to sultry intrigue. --Jeff Shannon
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Woody Harrelson,Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Shue each and every performance wonderful in its own way.
Harry Barber(Woody) is an ex-con. who takes part in a phoney kidnapping of the daughter of a dying Millionaire.Elizabeth Shue who is married to the the millionaire helps Harry to plan this but of corse not everything goes to plan.Gina Gershon is the wife of Harry,Nina,she doesn't play a big part until the end when all is revealed!Overall this film will keep you glued but maybe not to the edge of your seat.
A thriller with a touch of violence yet very very sexy.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
29 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Absolutely brilliant. How about a Special Edition?
13 Jun 2000
Format:DVD
I own this masterful thriller and absolutely covet it. Probably my all time favorite thriller/film noir. A perfect example of steamy, teasing, dark femme fatale film noir classic. Excellent script, direction and acting. Some people who say the film is "too over-the-top" are missing the point and don't realize it's that way on purpose. That's the whole film noir/femme fatale genre, folks. Roll with it. Get caught up in the fake kidnapping scheme and the surprise twists and it's a roller coaster ride! I love it and will always love it. One question: WHEN is the Special Edition gonna come out, with Director's and Actors' Commentary, Behind-The-Scenes (I BEG YOU) and many other features? A film this great deserves a Special Edition DVD. People at Castle Rock: PLEASE issue another DVD version.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
How could you not like this movie
31 Jan 2002
Format:DVD
This is one of the most fun movies I have ever seen. It has everything I need. Heat, murder, comedy, and there is an element of fantasy that makes me want to see this movie when I want to escape. Buy It!!!
Make more movies like this one Hollywood. And make more in Florida. It's just better that California.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Great Semi-Noir Mystery-Comedy that is truly entertaining !!!
18 Sep 2005
Format:DVD
Much has been said about how German director, Volker Schlondorff with the able assistance of American screenwriter E. Max Frye, infused this rather conventional plot with some wonderful, completely original elements. My personal favorites are:
1) Woody Harrelson portrays (quite well) a "normal", fallible person, Harry Barber (even his name is conflicted and clever), in a completely abnormal (but admittedly self-inflicted) situation. He is often clumsy in his attempts to be cool....he cannot resist seductive women or easy money....and he ends up a comic loser (again and again), rather than emerging as the traditional stoic, humorless hero/victim. Harry can't resist Elizabeth's charms (or tongue) even while suspended over a vat of acid, seconds from a hideous death, while his girlfriend (played by Gina Gershon) is nearby and watching!!! Indeed, he is an anti-hero with whom virtually anyone in the audience can relate....his antics are human, believable, and at times hilarious.
2) Elizabeth Shue, in addition to being one of the sexiest, nastiest women on God's earth, is also a superb comic actress, in the Carole Lombard tradition. Her flights of fancy, wierd expressions, and overall daffiness are a great change of pace. Compare her to Kathleen Turner in "Body Heat" and see who portrays a more interesting character....Kathleen is cold and infallible, while you never know what to expect next from Elizabeth. Watch her expressions and behavior closely in the last scene in which she appears....what is she thinking??? I personally find this complexity much more entertaining...and plausible. And let's face it, anyone involved in a sinister plot such as this would have to be at least half insane.
I strongly recommend this movie to all mature viewers who appreciate a change of pace from the traditional "film noir"....it is extremely original, fiendishly clever, funny as heck, and thoroughly entertaining.
1) Woody Harrelson portrays (quite well) a "normal", fallible person, Harry Barber (even his name is conflicted and clever), in a completely abnormal (but admittedly self-inflicted) situation. He is often clumsy in his attempts to be cool....he cannot resist seductive women or easy money....and he ends up a comic loser (again and again), rather than emerging as the traditional stoic, humorless hero/victim. Harry can't resist Elizabeth's charms (or tongue) even while suspended over a vat of acid, seconds from a hideous death, while his girlfriend (played by Gina Gershon) is nearby and watching!!! Indeed, he is an anti-hero with whom virtually anyone in the audience can relate....his antics are human, believable, and at times hilarious.
2) Elizabeth Shue, in addition to being one of the sexiest, nastiest women on God's earth, is also a superb comic actress, in the Carole Lombard tradition. Her flights of fancy, wierd expressions, and overall daffiness are a great change of pace. Compare her to Kathleen Turner in "Body Heat" and see who portrays a more interesting character....Kathleen is cold and infallible, while you never know what to expect next from Elizabeth. Watch her expressions and behavior closely in the last scene in which she appears....what is she thinking??? I personally find this complexity much more entertaining...and plausible. And let's face it, anyone involved in a sinister plot such as this would have to be at least half insane.
I strongly recommend this movie to all mature viewers who appreciate a change of pace from the traditional "film noir"....it is extremely original, fiendishly clever, funny as heck, and thoroughly entertaining.
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