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Reviews
House of Games (1987)
Wooden, Stilted Acting Obscures Story
If Jack Webb in Dragnet is a two on the ten-scale of acting, the performances by the leads in this movie rate three. They unfortunately buried any potential for interest in the story, including pondering the possibility that first-rate actors at their best would have made this a good movie. I have no idea if the director can be faulted for the abysmal acting. I am sure that when working with this level of talent there are budget considerations (the contracts are signed and there are only so many times you can ask for yet another take before fiscal limitations stop the process). My impression is that the casting director is number one in the blame line here. Joe Mantegna was a chiseled, handsome guy long before he learned a thing or two about acting and if we are to believe him cast as a grifter, it seems like someone with a similar level of sex appeal would have been a better choice for the female lead. Card-playing hoods don't swing with androgynous women.
Tears in the Rain (1988)
Great story. Fine cast. Good acting. Worth seeing.
... BUT! ... Prepare to be EXTRAORDINARILY disappointed with the LOUSY image quality of the 2003 DVD release from "Legacy Entertainment" that I happened to be crippled with when I saw this.
I'm a technically competent person who recognized the symptoms of a cheap copy straight-from-videotape. Colors are washed out and you can even see the garbled scan lines at the bottom of the screen from the crease of the original video-tape source. Fans of Sharon Stone may agree with me that if you walked into a theater and found this playing on the screen and someone asked you, "Who is that actress playing Casey Cantrell?", you might say, "I have no idea". She's YOUNG in this movie!
Abduction (2009)
Valuable as the WORST MOVIE in your collection ...
... but all you would need is the DVD box for that, right? I bought my copy on eBay; five bucks down the drain! Thank you to the seller who gave me free shipping. My questions: Did the director read the script? WAS there a script? Was the editor on hallucinogenics while working? Is John Orrichio someone who inherited $100,000 and spent at least half of it asking people in his neighborhood if they wanted to be in a movie? Does he have another relative with a failing breast augmentation clinic who offered to get him laid in return for some free advertising? Was that surgeon on the same hallucinogenics as the editor? "Rocky Horror" was a low-budget classic. What is the opposite of classic? This is it.