Product Details

• Actors: Armand Assante, John Achorn, Joe Spano, John Dennis Johnston, Steve Rankin
• Directors: Larry Elikann
• Writers: Larry Brothers
• Producers: Barbara Lieberman, Edgar J. Scherick, Mitch Engel, Nick Gillott
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• DVD Release Date: July 25, 2006
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000GAKDOM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,177 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Fever" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 07/25/2006

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Panic in Needle Park rewritten as A Fish Called Wanda; sort of!, March 31, 2011

By 

Beth E. Williams "miguels girl" (south new jersey) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fever (DVD)

I tread into this review with reservations as I did not and could not believe for a second the affair between the Neill and Harden characters. I will give allowances for this being an older HBO TV production, and I agree with the other reviewer that the Junkman character needed serious reworking, I found the entire gay sadist angle far too disruptive - on the other hand as a narrative catalyst the writer had to find something so heinous that even his fellow prisoners were willing to do anything to revenge themselves on him. Fine, make him a sadist, just leave it at the ordinary garden variety sadist - or - an unrepentant racist that no one can stomach. Again, to get that angle the writer is in danger of also revolting the audience.

But that is an aside; is there a reason to watch this film? For Harden and Assante fans yes; but, for anyone devoted to Sam Neill? Well, talk about mis-casting. It is almost as if this were two different films in two different genres; one gritty and a bit of low rent Panic in Needle Park (for Harden/Assante) and the other a cultural crime caper/comedy closer to a Fish Called Wanda (for Harden/Neill)! So which movie did I like? There were positives for both films (sorry but there are two films here) and it became surreal when the two try to blend, or just overlap if you will. Neill seems to have known he was in on an absurdist take on the stereotype of the law-abiding lawyer and could barely keep from laughing through some of his lines (I particularly liked his abrupt profanity during a phone call in front of his clients, an elderly grandma type and her son or grandson). He even explodes into a near comic hysteria when he has to remind the Assante character that he is a tax paying citizen and lawyer for crying out loud! (Presumably all lawyers are choir boys).

Neill was not favored by this film, and I don't know how he found himself in it; personally I would have left that character out all together. It would have been enough of a challenge for the Harden/Assante characters to reconnect as a couple, as people who are determined not to go back to what they had been. The Junkman could still have abducted her etc, that whole story arc could have stayed; but adding Neill was a disservice to him as an actor as that role was written.

As for the Harden/Assante couple, when they were on screen together they were fine, convincing and the scene in his apartment where he is misting and talking to his plants was actually touching because we see her touched and softening and remembering. I thought they were quite good together and I had no problem understanding Assante's lines. There was another odd conjunction: Neill's clipped, pampered enunciation and Assante's brutalized street voice.

So, give it a try, but I do agree with the other reviewer, making the common enemy of both male leads into some gay virago just threw the whole effort askew, which is a waste of what it could have been. Even for a TVM.

4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars the adrenalin rush of an amateur, April 13, 2001

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fever [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Director Larry Elikann is a man of contradiction. He can tear your heart out with Mare Winningham as a homeless mother in God Bless the Child, but he also has an affinity with Armande Assante since he has used him so many times. Assante's macho swagger and don't-mess-with-me attitude may be Elikann's definition of masculinity but unfortunately in this HBO TVM either the director allows or insisted on Assante mangling his lines so that he is mostly unintelligible. I suppose real men like Assante and his ilk don't need to say much but this is definitely an obstacle to motivation, and his performance comes across as manically mannered. The extremity of Assante's act has an odd if not downright offensively homophobic parallel in Elikann's representation of his gay men as predatory prison inmates or black market peddlers. The first can be rationalised by men's need for sexual release, and the second as reckless playfulness, or one can take these portrayals seriously and not be amused. The setup here is that Assante has antagonised The Junkman in prison by refusing to be his "punk" so in retaliation the Junkman has his cohorts on the outside blackmail Assante when he is released by making a hostage of his former girlfriend, Marcia Gay Harden, now attached to Sam Neill. Since it doesn't look like The Junkman is going to be paroled anytime soon, you might wonder how much of an influence he can make from prison, but that given is probably explained by his gang all being pretty boys. Thankfully the kidnapping of Harden is delayed so that we have time to appreciate the casting against type, especially of Neill, as a bedroom stud and man who uncovers his own violent impulses. Harden's unusual look and edginess always makes her an interesting actress and she has been blessed by nature to be able to play sexy as well. Writer Larry Brothers tones up what is basically a triangle with obstacles, with Harden's mixed resistance to Assante's appeal, and I liked Brother's use of "the genie" being the granting of three wishes. Elikann avoids most of the action cliches and even comes up with the occasional memorable images - a cut from Assante's photo of Harden to her first appearance in closeup, a cut from her in profile to a boxed string of pearls, a pan from a wall to a night skyline, someone exiting a swinging door to giving Harden her first view of the returned Assante, and a flock of geese that act as guards to someone's home.