Customer Reviews

Fx [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kind of surprising that such a popular and entertaining film, with a good cast, clever story and fun effects, is givin such a poor transfer. It seems to be from the old laser disc. The picture is flat and murky and to me looks much like the VHS copy I had already owend. Again, a really fun entertaining film, but don't expect normal DVD quality on this one.

Me and my brother were flipping through the TV channels, and nothing was on, I mean nothing. Anyway we got to the Movie Channel (STAR Movies) and saw what looked like the opening credits, and then big blue words came across the screen reading "F/X." So we watched it, saw if it was any good. Let me say we were pretty surprised! It was pretty obvious that it was shot on a low budget. That made me like it all the more! Becuase you usually get a famous rich director and writers to put together a good action/suspense movie. But those movies, sience the director has alot of money he just figures he'll blow the hell out of everything. It gets pretty annoying. But that is what I love about this movie. Sense they didn't have a lot of money they kept the movie good was the writing and directing. Dispite the name (F/X) it is not what the movie reliys on. It relies on a smart plot and even smarter plot twists. You never know who the villian is. Plus the well mantled suspense is a plus. I cant say the biggest part of the plot, but I can sya what it starts with. This aussie dude who makes special FX for movies (hense the name) is assigned to stage an assination on a gang member (but not really kill him, just make it look like he got killed with his special effect tricks. But after that it just takes so many turns, it makes it into a fantastic whodunit. I reccomend this for anyone who enjoys a well written and directed whodunit that will keep you thinking and guesing till the last bullet is shot.

What a movie! I really enjoyed the fun gizmos and cunning tricks... It starts off with Roly (the lead character) being approached by a government agent to stage a fake murder of a mobster informant. One problem, they don't want any witnesses, suddenly Roly is running for his life.

It was refreshing to see the lead character unable to use a gun well, and to get out of scrapes mostly through cunning or sheer panic. The shock twists and misfortunes for the character make this a fun couple of hours. Had me on the edge of my seat and ended with me hunting for the sequel.

F/X was one of my favorite thriller of the '80s, a genuinely fun action film that takes itself just seriously enough to make its story credible but at the same time remains blissfully free of the delusions of grandeur that have led to so many overproduced, ultimately empty headed and painfully dull "thrillers" over the past couple of years. In short, F/X is the type of unpretentious, engaging film that could never be made by a Michael Bay or most of the other directors produced out of the Jerry Bruckhiemer School For Technocrats Who Like To Blow Things Up Real Good.

The always underrated australian actor, Bryan Brown, plays Rollie -- an independent special effects artist who specializes in creating gore effects for cheap horror and action films. Indeed, when we first meet him, he is working on a film that bares a hilarious resemblance to Brian DePalma's Scarface which, whatever its qualities, is most definitely represenative of the type of film that F/X strives not to become. Brown is recruited by an uptight but reassuringly paternal federal agent (Mason Adams) to help fake the death of a mobster (Jerry Orbach) about to go into the federal witness protection program. Once Brown agrees to help, he finds himself being targeted and pursued by mysterious killers who might be the government, might be the mob, or might be something else.

The film's main selling point is that, in order to protect his own life and clear his name once the police become convinced that he's a murderer, Brown is forced to rely on his expertise in hollywood special effects. While that certainly is true, it also makes the film sound a lot more gimmicky than it actually is. As opposed to its sequel, F/X never allows itself to become reliant solely on that gimmick. Instead, the film concentrates on presenting its fast-paced plot which, over the course of many twists and turns, avoids the common action film fate of collapsing on the wieght of its own complications. That said, the F/X sequences are pretty cool and the film's conclusion provides perhaps the wittiest advertisement for superglue that I've ever seen.

The film's main strength comes from the cast who all seem to be having a good time on screen and bring a surprising sense of conviction to roles that could easily have been played as B-movie stereotypes. Bryan Brown is one of those charismatic, obviously talented leading men who rarely gives a bad performance yet for whatever reason (though making movies like Cocktail probably didn't help) has never become a bona fide star. Playing the lead in this film, he proves that he did have the talent and the charisma to be a leading man and indeed, his low-key but likeable lead performance is reponsible for a great deal of F/X's strength. As the gruff police detective who becomes Brown's ally, Brian Dennehey is -- well, he's Brian Dennehey and, as always, that's more than good enough. That said, he also brings a welcome sense of humor to the proceedings and he proves once again that nobody in the '80s delivered profanity as wittily and skillfully as Brian Dennehey. The rest of the cast is full of character actors who all turn in nicely quirky performances with the standouts being Diane Venora who is sweet as Brown's girlfreind (whose ultimate fate -- if predictable -- is also well handled and rather sad), Cliff De Young who gives perhaps his best variation on his standard Yuppie henchman role in this film, Joe Grifasi as Dennehey's put upon partner, Mason Adams who perfectly captures the essence of everyone's kindly but kinda strange uncle, and the great Jerry Orbach who, playing a mobster with an all-important pace maker, overacts as if the world depending on it but is still a lot of fun to watch because, afterall, he's Jerry Orbach. They all come together to create (without any trendy angst or computerized special effects to show us what animated human beings look like when they get blown up) one of the most purely enjoyable movies of the '80s.

F/X this DVD is great! Specially if you saw the film back in 1986 (I was 8 years old and have to say this film brings back memories, good ones), and I bring this up, because if you did you can see the movie restored and in 2 screen formats (widescreen and standard version), that ads a whole new experience, and as The New Yorker said "an ingenious suspense film" and it rely is! I recommend this DVD specially if you are an old movie timer, and to all of you that haven't seen it, because if you are reading this I have a hunch that you don't know this great movie. PS: The DVD doesn't say that the movie has been restored, but it has, if you see first the original theatrical trailer (that comes like a bonus), you could see the original looks of the film, because when you play the movie...man, you are going to see something different!

This is such a well-crafted suspense thriller that it's almost as much a pleasure to watch the third or fourth time as it is the first. Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) is a special effects man much in demand in Hollywood. He not only is a gifted professional in the trade, he's probably the main reason for the success of such exploitation films he's worked on as I Dismember Mama, Planet of the Female Mummies, Song of the Succubus and Rock-A-Die-Baby. Examples from these movies litter his apartment. He's recruited by Agent Lipton of the Justice Department's Witness Protection Program to stage the fake but public murder of a mafia boss, Nick DeFranco (Jerry Orbach), who will spill his guts to the Feds. All goes well until, after the event, Lipton (Cliff De Young), tries to shoot him down.

Rollie finds himself a player in a murderous con game. He escapes, goes on the run, but sees his girl friend murdered. He doesn't know whether the DeFranco shooting was truly fake or if Lipton substituted real bullets in the gun. In the background, pulling strings, is Lipton's boss, Edward Mason (Mason Williams). While Rollie decides he has to find out what's going on if he's not to become another victim, a tough New York cop (Brian Dennehy) shows up determined to find the truth about DeFranco wherever it takes him.

The action is fast and clever. The story is satisfyingly convoluted. And there are many lessons to be learned...how to make a life mask, how to set off a pattern of fake bullet explosions on your chest, how to hide your pulse so you'll look dead, how to put out a cigarette on your wrist. One of the things that makes this movie so satisfying are the actors. Bryan Brown turns in a fine job as Rollie, confident of his skills, laid back, resourceful, but really scared when people try to kill him. Mason Adams, a skilled actor with a distinctive, rough voice, and Jerry Orbach as the confident and slimy Mafia boss, both add a great deal of interest to the movie whenever they're on the screen. The movie has a funny, good-natured and violent opening scene as well as a clever and satisfying bank shot of an ending.

There even is wisdom for us. As Rollie's movie actress girl friend says to him at the start of the film, "Nobody cares about making movies about people anymore. All they care about is special effects." And this in a film nearly twenty years old.

There are no extras to speak of. The DVD picture looks just fine.

Although this film is over two decades old, it is still riveting. The suspense is almost palpable. A movie special affects man is hired by a segment of the Justice Department for $30,000 to fake the death of a mobster. They explain that they want the mobster's cronies to think he is dead and stop looking for him. The movie man agrees. He shoots the gangster; and then his relationship with the Justice Department changes. Time after time, they try to kill him, and kill other people. He needs to find out what is going on and how to stop the assassins from killing him. Meanwhile, a rogue detective insists on investigating the case of the murdered mobster even though his boss has suspended him. There is a fascinating car chase in the film.

This movie rates 6 stars, however the DVD release is only rated at 1 star, so the average is 3. I really hate to say this, but MGM should be ashamed to release a DVD of this poor grade. A movie of this caliber deserves much better.

In 1998 Orion Pictures was going through some tough times when MGM decided to buy them. So, this truly historic film wasn't release on DVD till the year 2000. MGM must not care much about its Orion Pictures library because they used the same Analog master that Orion Pictures developed way back in 1987 for release on VHS!!! No real widescreen, just a letterbox 4.3 with stereo sound. The picture has poor contrast & low light levels, but it gets much worse if you have a Hi-Def Flat Screen TV because you have to "hit" zoom for the picture to fill your screen. When you do this, the picture loses what little detail it had. I'm just wondering if MGM does all of its Orion Pictures this way. In other words...this film has never been DIGITALLY REMASTERED for DVD.

This was the breakout movie for Bryan Brown, who plays the role of Rollie Tyler. A "Special Effects" expert that is set up & deceived by members of the "Witness Protection & Relocation" service. With sniper's after him & nowhere to go or hide....all he has is his F/X expertise to keep him alive. Brian Dennehy plays a police detective who spent 6 months going after a Mob Boss, only to see him released to the WPR & will stop at nothing to find him. This is one of Brain Dennehy's best acting roles ever, if not the best. Also stars Jerry Orbach (of "Law & Order" fame) as the ex-Mob Boss. The soundtrack to this film was preformed by The London Symphony Orchestra, & the closing credits song, "Just An Illusion" is one of the best sounding end songs I've ever heard! If fact, the studio wanted to name this film "Murder by Illusion", but the Director's wanted "F/X".

This may be hard to believe, but F/X set a record as the most rented video from 1987-90. It upsets me so much what MGM has done to this "sleeper" masterpiece that I'm seriously thinking of starting a website named "[...]". I'm sure with Amazon's support & to all who have enjoyed this classic, maybe we can get enough signatures to get MGM to re-release this DVD like they should have the 1st time. You can bet IF it had originally been a MGM film, it wouldn't have been treated in this fashion.

To sum things up...a great movie, but don't buy the DVD unless that's the only way you have of seeing it!!!!

This is a movie we watch over and over.

The scenario is about a special effects expert in the movie field who is asked to "fake" a murder to protect a witness until time for the trial.

Then, he is asked to do the shooting.

Here you have suspense, action, and adventure.

A good 'un

F/X is exciting, entertaining, but only semi-credible. We are expected to believe a man can penetrate a guarded, walled estate, lug a huge amount of equipment into a mansion and, without knowing the layout, lug all of this equipment to an upstairs room without ever being detected. Houdini couldn't have managed that.

There are other things that one must not look at too closely (like wearing a rubber mask of someone's face, speaking in it without a guard noticing that this is a mask).

If we look beyond these flaws, the film is enjoyable. Just don't take it too seriously.