9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most underated comedies of all time, October 10, 2005
First of all, let me say that Hexed is not your usual kind of comedy. It has a sort of evolving kind of humor to it that is really quite brilliant. In the begining it is more akin to the kind of humor you'd get out of a Ben Stiller movie like Meet the Parents or Zoolander. But as the story progresses the humor subtily and stedily changes and evolves until it reaches a Zucker Brothers style of sillyness like that of the Naked Gun series. This transition is part of what makes the movie so hysterical because it doen't start by clubbing you over then head with the hard stuff. It works you into it till you're ready for the more over-the-top material. But throughout, be it subtile or slap-stick, the overall brand of humor is dark (just the way I like it).
As to the bonus material, the comentary track by director Alan Spencer is one of the best I've heard. Though all by himself (sorry, no Claudia Christian) the guy keeps you informed and entertained all at once. And somehow, he manages to keep talking continiously throughout non-stop from the start right through the ending credits. No lulls or pauses, which I find kind annoying. By the end of the track not only will you have a good feel for the production, but also all the really good material that the studio wouldn't let him include.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"You know, in prison I'm going to be considered relationship material.", July 17, 2006
While I thought Hexed (1993) was an entertaining feature, there was a slight bit of disappointment for me in that with a title like that for a film, I half expected there to be some supernatural elements involved within the story, but there wasn't...I will say this, though, whatever disappointment I may have had over the title in relation to the film vanished once Claudia `Ivanova' Christian (The Hidden, Maniac Cop 2, "Babylon 5") made the scene...homina homina...written and directed by Alan Spencer ("Sledge Hammer!"), the film stars, along with Ms. Christian, Arye Gross (Soul Man, House II: The Second Story). Also appearing is Adrienne Shelly (I'll Take You There), R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket, Fletch Lives), Ray Baker (Silverado, Total Recall), Michael E. Knight ("All My Children"), and the late Norman Fell (Airport 1975, The End), probably best known as his role of the skeevy landlord Mr. Roper on the television sitcom "Three's Company".
Arye Gross plays the character Matthew Welsh, a hotel clerk who desires more from life than that which is his current lot, so much so he makes up all kinds of outrageous lies about his life, perhaps in the hopes some of them will come true (as the movie begins we see him arriving at the hotel on New Year's Eve dressed in a tuxedo, acting all snooty and mingling with the guest during a party before getting busted). When the news of a special guest, a European super model named Hexina (Christian), gets around, Matthew immediately starts telling his co-workers about a bogus past relationship he had with the woman, to which no one believes him because everyone knows he's a rotten, stinking, filthy liar. Anyway, certain circumstances present themselves in such a way that allows Matthew to impersonate an individual Hexina has come to town to visit, but has never met, leading up to a wild night of the boudoir boogie, capped off by Hexina trying to pierce Matthew's skull with a large carving knife. Turns out the guy Matthew's impersonating is a blackmailer, one who's got compromising information about Hexina's past (she ends up being as big a phony as Matthew, but a hell of a lot more attractive), and she was only trying to throw a scare into him, or so she says...Matthew spills the beans about his real identity and then helps Hexina track down the guy he was impersonating, who Hexina ends up killing because it turns out that, along with being one of the world's hottest supermodels, she's also a homicidal lunatic, and will do anything to protect her secrets. From here things go from bad to worse for Matthew as the bodies begin to pile up and the police, including Detective Ferguson (Ermey), see Matthew as the prime suspect, (it doesn't help that Hexina keeps planting evidence supporting this notion).
If you're familiar with the type of comedy featured in Alan Spencer's late 1980s television series Sledge Hammer!, starring David Rasche, then you'll have a pretty good idea what to expect here, the main difference being here things are slightly more raunchy as there's a decent amount of profanity along with some nudity, two elements that obviously wouldn't fly on network television. If you're not familiar with the television series then imagine the humor from the Naked Gun television series and films, only a little darker. The jokes here range from sort of lame to pretty funny, but the main problem, at least as I see it, is there's about as many present as there was in a half hour episode of Sledge, stretched out here to fill an hour an half film (I won't even get into trying to compare the comedic ability of Arye Gross to David Rasche). The funniest bit for me was when Matthew, in an effort to perpetuate his story about having had a relationship with Hexina, takes headshots of himself and pastes them onto pictures with Hexina, eventually trying to pass one off on his co-workers as the real deal...suffice to say they look ridiculously fake, capable of fooling perhaps a mentally challenged three year old child. There's not much of a story here as what's present seems here more just to prop up the gags than anything else. I've never a big fan of Arye Gross and his receding hairline, so I had a hard time getting behind his character specifically because he was sniveling, little liar who scammed his way into Christian's character's pants and spends the rest of the time freaking out in lame fashion...maybe there's some jealously on my part seeing as how he got to appear with her sans her clothes, but beyond that I never felt like he was leading man material. He comes off more as a supporting character, and an odious one at that. As far as Ms. Christian, she seemed the dominant character in the film, and generally a lot more fun to watch (I hardly noticed Arye Gross when the two appeared together in a scene). She does appear nekkid a couple of times, but there's no full on frontal, only a full on behind shot and some quick side shots. This, along with the profanity, is what garnered the `R' rating. R. Lee Ermey makes a good showing as a police detective, along with showing he can do humor, and Michael E. Knight appears as Matthew's condescending, slimy, a-hole superior Simon, a role which I really enjoyed as the guy was such a skeevy weasel I couldn't help laugh when he was on screen, terrorizing Gross' character. Given his penchant for antagonizing the main protagonist in the film, you know something suitably bad will happen to him (and it does), so enjoy his screen time while you can (the scene where he's checking out Matthew's apartment really made me laugh). One thing that sort of puzzles me is why Alan Spencer didn't just make a Sledge Hammer! feature film instead of this, as I think it would have been much better received, but whatever...all in all this movie is probably best left to Sledge fans, guys who've got a thing for Claudia Christian (I happen to be both), and/or people who can appreciate dark, silly humor in general.
The picture, presented in widescreen anamorphic (1.85:1), comes across clean and clear, and the Dolby Surround audio sounds decent. The are some special features available including English, Japanese, and Spanish subtitles, three deleted scenes with optional director's commentary, a director's commentary track for the film, a four minute promotional featurette for the film, and a theatrical trailer. Also included are previews for other DVD releases like Little Black Book (2004), 50 First Dates (2004), The Sweetest Thing (2002), D.E.B.S. (2004), and Stripes (1981).
Cookieman108
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