Customer Reviews

To Die For (aka Heaven's a Drag) [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The only thing I have to say about this movie is that the sound quality is so poor that you can have the volume up all the way on your TV and still not understand what the people are saying. Putting that aside, the story itself is not very interesting either. The front of the video looks like it is a comedy, however this movie is not funny. The story, 2 lovers - they have an open relationship, one has AIDS and dies, He comes back as a ghost to haunt his lover, preventing him to have any more one night stands.

To Die For is a somewhat average movie, although I will admit it wasn't all *that* bad for an evening at home when I was rather tired and I didn't want to watch anything that would make me think too much! People are right--the film tries hard to be many things including funny, dramatic, tragic, deep, revealing and more. But, as many note, it really doesn't meet any of those goals. Yes, I can see that people cared about making a good little film and that's great; but this just doesn't work out very well. The acting was definitely less than convincing at times and the plot moves somewhat slower than it should near the beginning of the film although it picks up the pace and gets rolling much better after the first half or so. However, the musical score was fairly well done.

The film's two main characters are Simon (Thomas Arklie), a TV repairman and Mark (Ian Williams), a drag performer who is dying of AIDS. Simon and Mark are lovers although their relationship is sexually open; and Simon seems to take advantage of that quite a lot. After Mark dies, Simon wants nothing more than to forget about Mark, repressing his true feelings of love and affection for Mark who was actually very special to him. Trouble is, however, Mark's ghost just won't go upward into heaven until Simon comes around and gets in touch with his feelings to finally mourn his great loss.

Of course, there are a few complications to spice the film up; but they don't really achieve that goal, either. What can I say? It's a mediocre film, after all. Simon must contend with a very homophobic TV repairman partner ("Dogger," played by John Altman); and Simon also has issues regarding his late father. Mark's ghost also causes trouble for Simon when Simon can see and talk to him--but all the others see and hear is nothing!

Look for Dillie Keane playing the role of their neighbor Siobban; and Tony Slattery does some of the better acting in the film as Terry, Siobban's boyfriend. Ian Williams as Mark's ghost does his best acting in the last major sequence of the film.

The DVD comes with an explanation of how the film essentially has two names--the original was To Die For but they had to change it to Heaven's a Drag after Sony told them they couldn't use that name; Sony was releasing their own film under that name at the same time.

Overall, if you just want some light entertainment that doesn't require you to think, watch this movie and get at least some enjoyment out of it. People seeking true drama with wit and deep emotion will want to keep on looking.

I'm going to do something I've never done before--give a good rating to a movie that's so bad I could hardly watch 95% of it. That's because there are three very peripheral things about this movie that I like so much they go a long way toward compensating for the mess it is in general.

Just about every negative comment about this movie in other reviews is true. It's a muddled mess that doesn't know what it wants to be, trying at various times to be funny, touching, topical, sexy, tragic and transcendent, and succeeding at none of them. It doesn't even know what its title is. In the opening credits, it's called Heaven's a Drag; in the end credits and on the DVD, it's called To Die For. (It was released the year before Gus Van Sant's much more famous and completely unrelated To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman, so the title wasn't stolen; the same title had been used for a Dracula movie several years before either of these movies was made anyway.) Ordinarily this movie wouldn't deserve more than a couple of stars at most. But now for the good stuff, the three things that together move me to praise it despite its very serious flaws.

First of all, this movie has a huge heart. Practically nobody involved seems to have any talent at all. Everything a good movie needs--competent screenplay, direction, cinematography, acting, etc--is lacking. But its good intentions are as pure and true and clear as its execution is muddled. A lot of people cared a lot about this movie, and it shows. I don't know HOW it shows, but it does. I've never before rewarded good intentions alone in reviewing a movie, and I might not in this case either if the next two factors weren't working in its favor too.

Second, there's something very appealing and attractive about Ian Williams, who plays the drag performer Mark. His performance in this movie isn't much better than anything else about it, but the man himself is unusual and unusually interesting. His speaking voice, for one thing, is lovely.

Third (and I've saved the best for last) is Ruth Wallis's fabulous song "Queer Things (are happening to me)." The song plays during the opening credits and carries into the first two scenes, where Mark is preparing for and then doing his drag performance to it. (Another reviewer ridiculed the fact that this evidently is the only song Mark knows, but it's good enough to carry several whole drag careers single-handed, if you ask me).

I'd never heard this song before, and I'd never heard of Ruth Wallis, but it and she are a joy, and Williams's act accompanying it is superb. I must have watched the first two and a half minutes of the movie 20 or 30 times just for the delight of hearing the song and watching his act, and I haven't come close to being tired of it yet.

So for its big heart, for Ian Williams's personal charm, and most of all for "Queer Things," I heartily recommend watching the first two and a half minutes of this movie. That's not much, but it's well worth it.

Simon and Mark, a gay couple living in London, have an open relationship. Mark is a drag performer living with AIDS; Simon his his lover who sleeps around. When Mark passes away, Simon quickly removes every aspect of Simon from his life, tossing his clothes, boxing up their photographs and hiding Mark's AIDS quilt piece in the closet. This does not sit well with the spirit of Simon who returns to wreak havoc on Mark's string of one-night stands.

The film as a whole is uneven. It kept jumping from being a movie about AIDS to a ghost story to a comedy to a drama to a soap opera, and was never quite able to hold my interest. The acting is marginal and sometimes overly melodramatic so I never really liked the characters. Add to that poor sound quality (I had the volume almost at full tilt but could still barely hear much of what was said) and a graininess to the film, and the movie veers away from its potential.

Having just subscribed to NetFlix, I have found a wonderful genre of movies, a/k/a "Gay and Lesbian," so this is another one I checked out.

Completely unbelievable, horribly acted, and paced as if the director were on uppers or suffered from schizophrenia, this big old mess of a movie was released in 2002 under the title "Heaven's A Drag." It suffered a name change to "To Die For," which should alert us all. One character is as morose as they come; his favorite movie is the documentary "Stories from the Quilt." In between his gig as a drag queen (he knows ONE song--how believable is that?) he watches this documentary; he sews, he cries, he BORED the crap out of me--but I digress.

His companion is one of those "I'm in an OPEN relationship" kinda' guys, who is so shallow you can see through him like used Neutrogena. When his lover passes away, he does the "mourning thing" for about, oh, 20 seconds, and he's ready to move on. But his dead lover comes back to be with him because, according to him, Heaven is dark and lonely. Isn't that sweet??!! No.

This movie suffers from many problems: it doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy, a drama, a serious story, or one of those T & A deals. Whatever it wanted to be, it never became. With characters no one cares about--each one boring, self-centered, and cold--, horrible acting, and a "partner" who didn't even take the time to let his lover's corpse get cold before he was cruising again, this movie was awful.

TO DIE FOR: a.k.a. Heaven's a Drag. This is a strange little film but very entertaining. It has a lot of emotion. Tears of sadness, laughter, boredom, and so on. You never know what the next minute is going to contain. Simon, played by a very beautiful Thomas Arklie, loses his lover to AIDS, but gets him back in a very haunting way. Marc (Ian Williams) doesn't want to let go of his gorgeous lover even though he is supposed to be dead and gone. He comes back to haunt Simon who is trying to go on with his life with a series of one night stands. His dates are in for a surprising time when the jealous ghost of Marc play tricks on them and Simon. A very different theme than you will see in any other gay film. Arklie's acting is superb, but not a match for his looks. Williams' role spans a wide range from drag queen to mean ghost, jealousy, practical joker, victim, obnoxious queen, undying love, defender and more. His acting is good but not a character I really liked. The sound quality on this film is not real good. I had it turned all the way up and the only thing that didn't need more volume was the musical score which was way too loud and overshadowing. Don't expect a world class production from this movie, but don't let bad reviews keep you from seeing it. I recommend this one but would certainly recommend others much higher. If you're in a mood to see something crazy, funny, and totally unusual, but gay based, this one is a good change of pace.

I really related 2 this movie...I felt that it had a strong message 2 convey. It's never 2 late 2 learn how 2 love but, it can be 2 late 2 return the love that is given 2 u.

This title infringes on the movie trademark "to die for" owned by Picture Entertainment. For more information please contact the law firm of Aaronson & Aaronson, 818-655-7010.