Michael-Douglas Movie Reviews

This film was just plain dumb. I see very few have bothered to even write a review. That says a lot. There is little plot, no character development, and the NC-17 rating isn't appropriate. Maybe because this movie is kind of old...The sex scenes are mild. Anyway, Gabriel Byrne has very few lines and just avoid this...

This first feature by Nick Broomfield based on an idea he conceived with Tim Rose Price is only interesting in light of the later documentaries Broomfield would make about serial killer Aileen Wournos, Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss, and the controversy surrounding the extent of Courtney Love's involvement in the death of her husband Kurt Kobain. All these subjects have class in common, whether it's Wournos' killing of truckers in self defence, Fleiss' knowledge of the dirty tricks of Hollywood, or Love's own searing ambition. This film however never decides what it wants to explore, be it the hit and run of a disposable person - the chef of the Yorkshire estate that Gabriel Byrne's parents own, or Byrne's jealousy of his wife, played by Amanda Donohoe. There is the suggestion that the driver believed the victim was Donohoe, which combines both ideas, but this is soon dismissed. While it's hardly a relevation that the rich can behave as beastly as those less rich, and also seem to enjoy patronising activites that are defined as working class, like sex, (the killing is dubbed "meals on wheels"), Broomfield and Rose Price aren't above presenting the police as ineffectual or tourists to the estate as swine who peak through the windows. Broomfield redeems this wispy inchoate tale with his camera, showing us twin beefeaters, Byrne's repeated smothering sex scene with Donohoe, or using odd camera subjective angles, where a ridden horse, a leashed dog and finally Donohoe are seen from the one pursuing them. Although Byrne's brooding uncommunicative obsessional has been the disappointment of other titles, the real waste here is Donohoe who it seems is keyed to give a performance.

Dark Obsession was hard to watch because it is not a movie that leaves you with a sense of satisfaction. We watch many movies with loathsome characters, but most get their just desserts, or at least some measure of retribution. That's not the case with the central character here, a philandering and bullying British aristocrat played by Gabriel Byrne. Granted, he is a good actor, but boy did I hate him!
Consumed by jealous lust for his wife and suspecting her of infidelity, he runs her over with his car, or so he thinks. Turns out he killed someone else. Byrne's friends become complicit in his crime by covering it up for him. One of them has a conscience that eventually gets the better of him, but will justice be done?
Amanda Donohoe is good as Byrne's longsuffering wife. This must have been in the middle of her LA Law days. She is adept at playing both innocent beauties and scheming she-devils (a la Lair of the White Worm).
Also look out for a young Sadie Frost as Byrne's sister. She looks much curvier here than she did in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

This film was just plain dumb. I see very few have bothered to even write a review. That says a lot. There is little plot, no character development, and the NC-17 rating isn't appropriate. Maybe because this movie is kind of old...The sex scenes are mild. Anyway, Gabriel Byrne has very few lines and just avoid this...

This first feature by Nick Broomfield based on an idea he conceived with Tim Rose Price is only interesting in light of the later documentaries Broomfield would make about serial killer Aileen Wournos, Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss, and the controversy surrounding the extent of Courtney Love's involvement in the death of her husband Kurt Kobain. All these subjects have class in common, whether it's Wournos' killing of truckers in self defence, Fleiss' knowledge of the dirty tricks of Hollywood, or Love's own searing ambition. This film however never decides what it wants to explore, be it the hit and run of a disposable person - the chef of the Yorkshire estate that Gabriel Byrne's parents own, or Byrne's jealousy of his wife, played by Amanda Donohoe. There is the suggestion that the driver believed the victim was Donohoe, which combines both ideas, but this is soon dismissed. While it's hardly a relevation that the rich can behave as beastly as those less rich, and also seem to enjoy patronising activites that are defined as working class, like sex, (the killing is dubbed "meals on wheels"), Broomfield and Rose Price aren't above presenting the police as ineffectual or tourists to the estate as swine who peak through the windows. Broomfield redeems this wispy inchoate tale with his camera, showing us twin beefeaters, Byrne's repeated smothering sex scene with Donohoe, or using odd camera subjective angles, where a ridden horse, a leashed dog and finally Donohoe are seen from the one pursuing them. Although Byrne's brooding uncommunicative obsessional has been the disappointment of other titles, the real waste here is Donohoe who it seems is keyed to give a performance.

Dark Obsession was hard to watch because it is not a movie that leaves you with a sense of satisfaction. We watch many movies with loathsome characters, but most get their just desserts, or at least some measure of retribution. That's not the case with the central character here, a philandering and bullying British aristocrat played by Gabriel Byrne. Granted, he is a good actor, but boy did I hate him!
Consumed by jealous lust for his wife and suspecting her of infidelity, he runs her over with his car, or so he thinks. Turns out he killed someone else. Byrne's friends become complicit in his crime by covering it up for him. One of them has a conscience that eventually gets the better of him, but will justice be done?
Amanda Donohoe is good as Byrne's longsuffering wife. This must have been in the middle of her LA Law days. She is adept at playing both innocent beauties and scheming she-devils (a la Lair of the White Worm).
Also look out for a young Sadie Frost as Byrne's sister. She looks much curvier here than she did in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

This film was just plain dumb. I see very few have bothered to even write a review. That says a lot. There is little plot, no character development, and the NC-17 rating isn't appropriate. Maybe because this movie is kind of old...The sex scenes are mild. Anyway, Gabriel Byrne has very few lines and just avoid this...

This first feature by Nick Broomfield based on an idea he conceived with Tim Rose Price is only interesting in light of the later documentaries Broomfield would make about serial killer Aileen Wournos, Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss, and the controversy surrounding the extent of Courtney Love's involvement in the death of her husband Kurt Kobain. All these subjects have class in common, whether it's Wournos' killing of truckers in self defence, Fleiss' knowledge of the dirty tricks of Hollywood, or Love's own searing ambition. This film however never decides what it wants to explore, be it the hit and run of a disposable person - the chef of the Yorkshire estate that Gabriel Byrne's parents own, or Byrne's jealousy of his wife, played by Amanda Donohoe. There is the suggestion that the driver believed the victim was Donohoe, which combines both ideas, but this is soon dismissed. While it's hardly a relevation that the rich can behave as beastly as those less rich, and also seem to enjoy patronising activites that are defined as working class, like sex, (the killing is dubbed "meals on wheels"), Broomfield and Rose Price aren't above presenting the police as ineffectual or tourists to the estate as swine who peak through the windows. Broomfield redeems this wispy inchoate tale with his camera, showing us twin beefeaters, Byrne's repeated smothering sex scene with Donohoe, or using odd camera subjective angles, where a ridden horse, a leashed dog and finally Donohoe are seen from the one pursuing them. Although Byrne's brooding uncommunicative obsessional has been the disappointment of other titles, the real waste here is Donohoe who it seems is keyed to give a performance.

Dark Obsession was hard to watch because it is not a movie that leaves you with a sense of satisfaction. We watch many movies with loathsome characters, but most get their just desserts, or at least some measure of retribution. That's not the case with the central character here, a philandering and bullying British aristocrat played by Gabriel Byrne. Granted, he is a good actor, but boy did I hate him!
Consumed by jealous lust for his wife and suspecting her of infidelity, he runs her over with his car, or so he thinks. Turns out he killed someone else. Byrne's friends become complicit in his crime by covering it up for him. One of them has a conscience that eventually gets the better of him, but will justice be done?
Amanda Donohoe is good as Byrne's longsuffering wife. This must have been in the middle of her LA Law days. She is adept at playing both innocent beauties and scheming she-devils (a la Lair of the White Worm).
Also look out for a young Sadie Frost as Byrne's sister. She looks much curvier here than she did in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

One of the worst bigfoot movies ever made, this has every bigfoot cliche'. The man in the monkey suit looks like a man in a monkey suit, the plot is totally predictable, and it stars one of the "Home Improvement" brats. All the makings of a big-budget made-for-TV bust.

The formula for this movie is the tried and true one of kid meets misunderstood creature, creature and kid become friends, bad guy tries to get creature, kid/creature friendship triumphs, and kid and creature have "Born Free"-type goodbye. The "protect nature" thing isn't overdone either. It's definately for the 10&Under crowd(my 3 and 4 year liked it), but it works.

I love Jennifer Saunders and all things AbFab.

When I came across this title on Amazon, naturally I was intrigued. But there's no editorial review on Amazon, and no reviews from anyone else.

What exactly is this? Does ANYONE out there know???

Tell us, please!

Jennifer Saunders plays a 19th entury Socialite turned adventure. It is long winded but well acted.

This movie is OK action movie. It deals with a FBI agent or some government agent trying to stop a government coup.Jack Scalia plays the agent who is enjoying a social function when it's taken over by miltary terrorists. Of course Jack Scalia saves the day, gets the girl and saves the day/world!

This DVD is rated R for violence,murder,death ,partial nudity and swearing. The DVD transfer is pathetic.The only extras are a trailer, a actor bio and a very bad scene selection!!

buy this movie if you are fans of Jack Scalia(a B grade actor who was big in the past) ,or if you love B grade action movies or just a pathetic DVD transfer!!my advice rent it .But this DVD may be hard to rent and or buy!! So if you want this movie, buy it online here at Amazon!!

This movie is OK action movie. It deals with a FBI agent or some government agent trying to stop a government coup.Jack Scalia plays the agent who is enjoying a social function when it's taken over by miltary terrorists. Of course Jack Scalia saves the day, gets the girl and saves the day/world!

This DVD is rated R for violence,murder,death ,partial nudity and swearing. The DVD transfer is pathetic.The only extras are a trailer, a actor bio and a very bad scene selection!!

buy this movie if you are fans of Jack Scalia(a B grade actor who was big in the past) ,or if you love B grade action movies or just a pathetic DVD transfer!!my advice rent it .But this DVD may be hard to rent and or buy!! So if you want this movie, buy it online here at Amazon!!

At least the writers of Spy Hard had the brains to change the words. The writer of Backfire!, A. Dean Bell, doesn't bother to do that. He just steals the same exact lines. This movie is a bomb. And not a good bomb, either, like a movie so bad it's good. Still, there are some parts that make me chuckle. Starring in this movie are Kathy Ireland, Robert Mitchum, Telly Savalas, Shelley Winters, Josh Mosby, Mary McCormack, and, in a brief scene, 3rd Rock From The Sun's Kristen Johnston. (Did I spell that right?) Get this movie only if you're a lover of spoofs, like me.

Before he gained fame on television with his role as Inspector Keller on "The Streets of San Francisco", Michael Douglas made appearances in several thought-provoking (if not critically acclaimed) feature films, including ADAM AT 6 A.M., SUMMERTREE, and his first movie, HAIL HERO. In his screen debut, Douglas plays Carl Dixon, a free-spirited young man who abruptly drops out of college and enlists in the army. He's not entirely sure what compelled him to join up, however, so before heading off to Vietnam he comes home to the family ranch in hopes of clearing his mind of self-doubts and old problems. Unfortunately, Carl's long hair and semi-lunatic behavior only serve to create more friction between him and his strait-laced father (nicely played by screen veteran Arthur Kennedy).

Like the other early Douglas films, HAIL HERO attempts to explore some of the major controversies of its day: the generation gap, the questioning of traditional values, and of course the Vietnam war. Ultimately it is only partially successful on these points, because the movie spends too much time on Carl's irreverant antics rather than coming right out and making some pointed statements about the issues it's dealing with. Only once, in an excellent scene in which two visiting politicians are questioned about the reasons for going to war, does the film touch any solid ground about the 60's clash between the old establishment and youthful idealism. The rest of the time it wanders from scene to scene depicting Carl's encounters with various local characters, among them a strange old woman zonked out on marijuana and a man who gives him a sobering tour of a home for senior citizens. These sequences are interesting but don't really lead anywhere. That, in fact, may best sum up this movie: it's like an assortment of well-intentioned but unfinished ideas. One gets the feeling that there was something important trying to be said, but the message was clouded by too many attempts to be hip and "meaningful" with a capital M.

So, to the question -- Is it worth adding to your movie collection? For devoted Douglas fans and those wanting a peek at 60's social changes, I'd say yes. For those seeking a rewarding drama or a moving anti-war film, though, HAIL HERO is a bit too unfocused to be satisfying.

This hell and redemption saga about a "sexaholic" is lifted
one step above trash exploitation by the heroine having some insight
into her behaviour. Her "acting out" is a result of a car
accident, where brain damage after a coma alters her previous
behaviour so now she has no control over her sexual impulses. Purists
might balk at how we are told of but not shown her first incarnation
as "little miss perfect" but the outrage of her family,
headed by father Mike Farrell (who also exec produced) is enough to
clue us in. Anyone portrayed as sexually aggressive who isn't married
and directing this energy to their spouse is always problematic in
American films since it raises lots of mixed morality issues. That's
probably why the girl also gets to lie and steal, so that the
"crimes" are not totally victimless. There is a suggestion
that the behaviour is hereditary, since her mother (Jill Clayburgh) has
left one man to marry his best friend, Farrell, and we are told by one
psychiatrist - Louise Fletcher in one of two scenes where she appears
with pitiful material - that the behaviour is "growth", a
classic response to a near-death experience. However any kind of
psychological empathy is abandoned when a second psychiatrist
diagnoses the poor girl as a sexual offender, and she is grouped with
rapists and pedophiles. You might think a nymphomaniac finding a
rapist is a match made in heaven but the group sessions are bereft of
humour. In fact they are unintentionally hilarious, the nadir being
the doctor stating at one point "I can detect some tension in the
air". If the doctor's fatuous tone and trembling voice isn't
enough to make any aware person run a mile, his sessions where the
group screams at each other as he coaches "control" and
"stay with it" as if they are acting classes, is. I was
particularly amused when one rapist yelled to another "Get to the
point!". Farrell seems to have been attracted to this project for
it's daddy quotant, though writer Sharon Elizabeth Doyle errs in
naming the other (good) daughter, Allegra. Since he is a photographer
we hope for some payoff but the only one comes when he prints off
multiple images of the bad daughter. At first what might have revealed
some obsession is revealed to have a missing persons use. I think I
most enjoyed seeing Farrell when he is beaten up, since up to that
point his performance had been so noble and dull, and it's odd that
director James Frawley lights his big breakdown scene in shadow. As
the sinner, Missy Crider is better than expected, provides some
welcome dimension to her tramp role, and is lucky enough to have to
endure a succession of gorgeous sexual partners. As her mother,
Clayburgh brings emotional truth and some memorable anger to a Mildred
Pierce-ish stairway mother-daughter confrontation.