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DVD The Fury
Brian De Palma's complicated horror story from 1978 never did come together correctly, but it still has pockets of real inspiration as only the director (Carrie, Mission: Impossible) could conceive. Andrew Stevens and Amy Irving play teens with telekinetic powers that intelligence agencies want to harness, and Kirk Douglas stands between his kids and their nefarious exploiters. The film bogs down during Douglas's guilt-ridden, booze-fueled quest to find his son, but De Palma's elaborate, sometimes operatic violence and action sequences are genuinely mesmerizing. The final scene involving just desserts for the film's villain is a big surprise. --Tom Keogh
In this 1978 effort, Brian DePalma returns to the territory he previously mined in Carrie: psychokinesis. Here he ups the ante in terms of the number of people with this talent and the epic scale of the plot.
The film kicks off in the Middle East. Using a phony terrorist attack, shady government agent John Cassavetes kidnaps fellow agent Kirk Douglas' psychokinetic son Andrew Stevens. A year later, Douglas has followed his son's trail to Chicago. Meanwhile, the similarly gifted Amy Irving is entering the ESP boarding school that is a front for Cassavetes' operations. A psychic bond develops between Irving and Stevens. Will Douglas be able to rescue both Irving and Stevens before they are destroyed by Cassavetes' inhuman agenda?
This is a bare bones disc. There is the theatrical trailer (which at least has its titles and narration, which is more than can be said for the trailer on the Phantom of the Paradise disc), and a still gallery. And that's it. No commentary of any kind. The menu isn't even animated.
Not a lot of bells and whistles here, and the sound and picture could be a bit better. That said, this is still leaps and bounds beyond the VHS release, and the widescreen presentation will be deeply appreciated by fans of the film. The climax can now be enjoyed in all its spectacular gory glory.
While The Fury does not have the same depth as DePalma's other suspense/horror films of its era, it is not shallow either. It has a great (and thoughtful) storyline by John Farris, mesmerizing direction, and a narrative with a range that allows DePalma to give full expression to his stylistic tendencies. It has flaws, but it is far better than almost any of the films passing for entertainment today--you know, the kind of dreck churned out by hacks like David Fincher or Joel Schumacher. Or, God help us, the current wave of remakes such as the abortion of John Carpenter's masterly Assault on Precinct 13. And please, whatever you do, don't give the time of day to superficial, glitzy sludge like the obnoxious Jacob's Ladder.
Grade "C" DePalma
When DePalma has a great cinematographer and editor on board, he can turn out some very good movies. Unfortunately, he had neither for this mess. It runs two hours and five minutes - and that is 35 minutes too long. Many of the shots appear to be filmed on cheap film stock. The story gets schlocky at times. Some of the acting is high camp (the two off-duty police officers act like bad actors parodying urban cops). Still, there are moments of good movie-making here - but they are too few and far between. Think a movie with Kirk Douglas, John Cassavettes, and Amy Irving couldn't possible bomb? Think again.
Though he had made comedies with Robert De Niro (Hi Mom, Greetings!), a horror movie (Sisters), and a rock musical (Phantom of the Paradise), it wasn't until this 1976 film that Brian De Palma truly announced himself as the heir to Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Paul Schrader, this film is an homage to Vertigo, with its own stylish twists and turns. Cliff Robertson plays a businessman who, while traveling in Italy, meets a young woman (Genevieve Bujold) who is a dead ringer for his late wife, who had been killed in a kidnapping years earlier. As he woos and wins her, the vibes get creepier and creepier because, well, something's not right about this woman. Interestingly, this film came out the same year as De Palma's Carrie, a much more successful... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Cliff Robertson - Geneviève Bujold Director(s): Brian De Palma DVD Release Date: Released the 26 June 2001 Usually ships within 24 hours
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To condemn Dressed to Kill as a Hitchcock rip-off is to miss the sheer enjoyment of Brian De Palma's delirious 1980 thriller. Hitchcockian homages run rampant through most of De Palma's earlier films, and this one's chock-full of visual quotes, mostly cribbed from Vertigo and Psycho. But De Palma's indulgent depravity transcends simple mimicry to assume a vitality all its own. It's smothered in thickly atmospheric obsessions with sex, dread, paranoia, and voyeurism, not to mention a heavy dose of Psycho-like psychobabble about a wannabe transsexual who's compelled to slash up any attractive female who reminds him--the horror!--that he's still very much a man.
Describing Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise as an update of the classic Phantom of the Opera doesn't do justice to this demented movie. While De Palma's Hitchcock homages have sometimes led him into dead ends, this rock & roll remake seems to have liberated De Palma's imagination, and the result is weird and funny, with the scruffy underground spirit of the director's early pictures. The Phantom is one Winslow Leach (William Finley), a nerdy songwriter whose "pop cantata" on the subject of Faust is stolen by a freakish, Phil Spector-like rock impresario called Swan (Paul Williams). After getting his head caught in a vinyl-LP compressor, Leach is transformed into a masked creature, haunting Swan's music palace, the Paradise. De Palma proves how nimbly he can establish... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paul Williams (III) - William Finley Director(s): Brian De Palma DVD Release Date: Released the 04 September 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This terrifying adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling horror novel was directed by shock maestro Brian De Palma for maximum, no-holds-barred effect. Sissy Spacek stars as Carrie White, the beleaguered daughter of a religious kook (Piper Laurie) and a social outcast tormented by her cruel, insensitive classmates. When her rage turns into telekinetic powers, however, school's out in every sense of the word. De Palma's horrific climax in a school gym lingers forever in the memory, though the film is also built upon Spacek's remarkable performance and Piper Laurie's outlandishly creepy one. John Travolta has a small part as a thug, De Palma's future wife, Nancy Allen, is his girlfriend, and Amy Irving makes her screen debut as one of the girls giving Carrie a hard time. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sissy Spacek - Piper Laurie - Amy Irving - John Travolta Director(s): Brian De Palma DVD Release Date: Released the 28 August 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Brian De Palma's 1981 thriller is something of a homage to Michelangelo Antonioni's masterful Blowup, though there are hints of Francis Ford Coppola's paranoia-inducing Conversation sprinkled throughout. John Travolta plays a sound-effects man who witnesses what appears to be a tragic car accident killing a presidential candidate. The audio tape he happened to be recording at that moment (adding to his collection of natural sounds), however, suggests but doesn't prove that a murderous conspiracy is afoot. Trying to tease a shred of evidence from murky doubt, Travolta's character turns to a hooker (Nancy Allen) for help and stumbles into a web of evil spun by a right-wing kook (John Lithgow). De Palma's fetishistic fascination with obscured truth in a universe ruled by chance... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Travolta - Nancy Allen Director(s): Brian De Palma DVD Release Date: Released the 28 August 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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