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DVD The Glass House
Domestic tensions turn intimately sinister in this pulpy potboiler, which develops a steely sense of menace. The trouble begins when Mr. and Mrs. Glass (Stellan Skarsgård, Diane Lane) are appointed legal guardianship of 16-year-old Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and her 11-year-old brother (Trevor Morgan) after their parents are killed in a car accident. As trusted former neighbors, the Glasses welcome the orphans into their luxurious Malibu home, but the all-glass structure turns into a gilded cage when Mr. Glass's motivations are revealed to be anything but friendly. With plot-thickening roles for Bruce Dern and Kathy Baker, the film builds considerable suspense before tailspinning into absurdity, and veteran TV director Daniel Sackheim takes full advantage of his prismatic setting and Sobieski's burgeoning sex appeal. The rickety script by Wesley Strick (echoing his rehash of Cape Fear) eventually veers toward self-parody, at which point The Glass House qualifies as a high-gloss slasher pic. --Jeff Shannon
It's one of the oldest childhood nightmares: your parents die, and evil guardians take over your life. The story has been told by countless fairy tales. The Glass House transposes the tale to contemporary California.
When Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) and Rhett (Trevor Morgan) are orphaned, they are taken into the care of Terry and Erin Glass (Stellan Skarsgård and Diane Lane). This couple seems to good to be true, and, of course, they are. Erin is a junkie, and Terry is in hock to the mob. Naturally, that $4 million trust fund for the kids looks mightily enticing.
It is curious that the spectacular house of the title plays so little part in the film's climax. We might also raise a few questions about probability. But this is a fairy tale, and fairy tales operate at the level of emotion, not rationality. And the film is undeniably suspenseful. We've seen all these tricks before, but dressed up by great art direction and tight performances, they still work.
The menu is scored but still. The primary feature is a commentary by director Daniel Sackheim and writer Wesley Strick. The two cover everything, from genesis of the film onward. Their discussion is scene specific, and marries the thematic to the technical (Sackheim in particular points out how they used color to take us into the surreal aspects of the film). As well, there is a deleted scene (with optional commentary from Sackheim and Strick), filmographies of Sackheim, produceer Neal H. Moritz, Sobieski, Lane, Dern, Skarsgård and Morgan, short interviews with Moritz, Sobieski, Lane and Skarsgård (linked to their filmographies), trailers for The Glass House and I Know What You Did Last Summer, and liner notes. Not half bad.
Quite a number of features packed onto this disc, and what glorious picture and sound. If you feel like being made tense, you could do far worse than picking this up.
Shut Up and Enjoy The Movie
I'm notorious for over analyzing films. I've argued for weeks with people about the flaws of the `Star Wars' prequels and `Firefly'. `The Glass House' put me into such a good mood all I can say is, ignore the flaws and enjoy the movie.
The plot: As you may remember from the trailers, this whole movie can be summed up in 30 seconds. Sister Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobieski) and brother Rhett Baker (Trevor Morgan, lost kid in `Jurassic Park III') are orphaned by a car accident. They are sent to live with their late parents' friends, Terri and Aaron Glass who live in a big glass house. Get it? It's pretty obvious the Glasses are psycho and killed the parents to inherit their fortune, with the children in the way; it's time to kill them too. It's like one of those stalker movies we were over saturated with in the early 90s after the surprise success of `The Hand That Rocks The Cradle'.
Roger Ebert described this as a movie where we already know the story; we're just waiting for the characters to catch up.
Not only is the story predictable but the villains are not even scary, just pathetic. They don't commit crimes out of evil but to buy drugs and pay off loan sharks.
With all that said, this is a great movie! Leelee Sobieski really looks hot in this. The filmmakers also give her some very sexy outfits for her to bounce around in. And can she bounce.
Another notable performance is by uber villain Stellan Skarsgard who's always playing Eastern Europeans of different ethnicity. He was a great villain in `Ronin' as well.
Director Daniel Sacheim, who mainly works on television, gives `The Glass House' and high production level, with photography and editing.
Although it's only a small part of the film, this seems to be the major focus of the reviews here on Amazon-- how the Glasses force Ruby and Rhett to share the same room. Many are arguing that this serves no purpose in the plot of the film. What they fail to realize is that having teenage siblings share a room (or bed) is a classic movie technique, to experience something completely FUBAR. We can joke about it, but the truth is everyone here on Amazon seems to be morbidly curious about it. Yes, Ruby and Rhett do accuse each other of "peeking" while they undress at least 3 separate times. Hummmmm, what's in those deleted scenes? (sadly nothing)
For more implied teenage sibling incest, I highly recommend, 'Flowers In the Attic.'
The Glass House
So scary. Good movie, keeps your attention but I took off a star because it is kind of...well, predictable.
Joy Ride follows the familiar conventions of road-movie thrillers with enough vitality to make everything old seem new again. A confirmed master of neo-noir suspense, director John Dahl (Red Rock West, The Last Seduction) sets a consistent tone of humor and horror as Lewis (Paul Walker) and his black-sheep brother Fuller (Steve Zahn) drive from Salt Lake City to pick up Lewis's friend Venna (Leelee Sobieski) in Boulder, Colorado. En route, they play a practical joke via CB radio, inviting vengeful terror as an unseen trucker (voiced with exquisite menace by Silence of the Lambs villain Ted Levine) pursues them with relentless, homicidal aggression. Inevitable comparisons to Steven Spielberg's Duel fail to appreciate Dahl's unique talent for energizing... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Leelee Sobieski Director(s): John Dahl DVD Release Date: Released the 12 March 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Adapted from Andrew Klavan's bestselling suspense novel, Don't Say a Word is a suitable companion to director Gary Fleder's earlier hit Kiss the Girls, with solid performances serving a plot that begins promisingly. The tension starts when the daughter of a topnotch New York psychiatrist (Michael Douglas) is kidnapped by a bitter ex-con (Sean Bean) with an old score to settle. Aided by an unwitting colleague (Oliver Platt), Douglas can save his daughter by extracting crucial information from a traumatized patient (Brittany Murphy), while his bedridden wife (Famke Janssen) and a tenacious detective (Jennifer Esposito) do their part to solve the mystery. Fleder pushes all the routine buttons with effectively somber style, so Don't Say a Word will satisfy anyone with a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Douglas Director(s): Gary Fleder DVD Release Date: Released the 19 February 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Best enjoyed as unintentional comedy, Swimfan is Fatal Attraction in high school, with a modest trick up its sleeve. Pay close attention to the opening minutes and you'll understand why new student Madison Bell (Erika Christensen) is so obsessed with swim-team star Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford), but the movie's nearly over before that early clue is fully explained. By that time anyone with a pulse will be ahead of the hackneyed screenplay, so Madison's fatal attraction turns increasingly, and hilariously, predictable. Poor Ben has to suffer her suffocating manipulations, assuring his girlfriend (Shiri Appleby) that his quickie with Madison was a one-time mistake. Too late! Madison conned him into saying "I love you," and she's determined to be his girl... no matter what it... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jesse Bradford - Erika Christensen - Shiri Appleby Director(s): John Polson DVD Release Date: Released the 11 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A good old-fashioned thriller that wears its Alfred Hitchcock pedigree proudly on its sleeve, What Lies Beneath stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as picture-perfect married couple Norman and Claire Spencer, who seem happy and content with a fabulous house, college-age daughter and still-active libidos. When said daughter heads off to college, Claire starts obsessing about her new neighbors, and becomes convinced that the moody husband killed the neurotic wife, and that the wife's ghost has a desperately important message for her. Yes, it's true, there is a ghost, and there is a message, but it has decidedly more personal--and life-threatening--implications for Claire and Norman. Suddenly, that car crash last year that Claire can barely remember and the circumstances... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harrison Ford - Michelle Pfeiffer Director(s): Robert Zemeckis DVD Release Date: Released the 30 January 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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If you focus on the effective casting of John Travolta and Vince Vaughan, Domestic Disturbance may grab your attention as a thriller that hits too close to home. After playing a greasy villain in Swordfish, Travolta ably serves up the good-guy charm as a divorced father who must rescue his teenage son from a murderous new stepfather, played by Vaughan with bad-tempered relish. Director Harold Becker is worthy of better material (like his earlier hit Sea of Love), but he handles this B-movie potboiler with professional flair, particularly in the setup involving an accomplice (the ever-reliable Steve Buscemi) who threatens to destroy Vaughan's small-town respectability. The plot's about as plausible as Britney Spears in a remake of Sophie's Choice, relying... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Travolta Director(s): Harold Becker DVD Release Date: Released the 16 April 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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