Customer Reviews

Hush [VHS]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

"Hush" serves up a down-home southern "charm" that would put Oedipus himself to shame.

Only child, Jackson Baring, played by Johnathan Schaech is the quintessential and clueless man-child mama's boy. His love interest and the first girlfriend he has ever brought home to meet his mama (no wonder!), Helen, played quite off-kilter by Gwyneth Paltrow.

They journey to the Baring's Thoroughbred Horse Farm, Kilronan for Christmas to meet "mama". Jessica Lange, is mama Martha Baring. Lange superbly but quite over the top plays Jackson's demanding, clinging, cross between Queen Jocasta & Blanche Du Bois on crack mama. Martha fawns, flirts, grabs, and kisses on her only baby boy in quite a non-maternal way through most of the film. Martha is obsessed and quite in love with her own son and has done some "doozies" to keep him where she wants him.

Hal Halbrook has a nice couple of scenes as obstetrician, Dr. Franklin Hill and ol' dame, Nina Foch (Spartacus, The Ten Commandments, Scaramouche) turns in a terrific performance as Great Aunt Alice Baring that has been on to Martha for years and knows exactly what she is capable of.

Torture, drugging, murder, lust & incestuous thoughts and deeds ensue! A great thriller with decent performances and a strong storyline all the way around.

Happy Watching and Be Careful Of Those Momster-In-Laws!

I'm a HUGE Johnathon Schaech fan, I watch everything he's in, good or bad. I've seen Hush about a dozen times, and I've finally noticed something. In the trailer for the movie (which is on my DVD of FINDING GRACELAND) there's so much more to the movie that's missing from the actual cut we see...including a huge fire, someone being taken out of the house on a stretcher, and Johnathon standing in front of an ambulance, holding up a locket (resembling the one Gwynneth wears in the movie.) So I rewatched the movie and noted that in ALL scenes that Jackson's father is mentioned, Gwynneth's wearing a wig...leading me to believe the whole story was changed...rewritten to include this story of a father who was killed by Jessica Lange. ...this movie had so much potential and lost it all with this ending. I WISH THEY'D RELEASE A DIRECTOR'S CUT! At least we could see some of that good action they enticed us with in the trailer! Until there's a director's cut....this movie only gets 3 stars from me!

I saw Hush in theaters when I was about 11. I remember seeing the trailer on TV, thinking wow this movie is going to be a classic! Well, I saw the movie and I still thought it was a classic--possibly because it was my first exposure to Jessica Lange, who gives an indelible performance.

Although many have said Hush is a forgettable film, I believe it is quite the contrary. 1997 was a few years ago and this film stands firmly within my memory. It really is an excellent throwback to the Joan Crawford and Bette Davis thrillers of the 1960s. First, there is beautiful cinematography, a lush score, and excellent acting (besides Gwyneth Paltrow, who positively sucks in this film!). Its true that you long for Lange to hit Paltrow with a lamp, to stop her insufferable whining! This is a far cry from her excellent performance in the recent Sylvia.

I guess the thing you will love about Hush is that it is fun to watch. It is not garbage like most people would have you believe, but in fact a very well-made, well-acted, classy thriller with a great score and a great star (Lange). And, for the record, the plot is great!

There hasn't been a bad movie that was this much fun since "Mommie Dearest", to which "Hush" bears more than a passing resemblance. Jessica Lange (in a campy Blanche DuBois-meets-Baby Jane performance that is not to be believed) plays the psycho mother from hell who slowly begins to terrorize her son's emotionally fragile wife. As the pretty young young thing in question, Gwyneth Paltrow gives her latest one-note performance, but at least here she's terrorized for a good 90 minuites as punishment. Oedipal overtones notwithstanding, the plot (such as it is) is full of holes you could drive a Haddad's truck through, and large portions of the story seem to have mysteriously disappeared. But if bad cinema is your guilty pleasure, you won't care; pick this up and prepare to howl yourself into oblivion.

I'm a HUGE Johnathon Schaech fan, I watch everything he's in, good or bad. I've seen Hush about a dozen times, and I've finally noticed something. In the trailer for the movie (which is on my DVD of FINDING GRACELAND) there's so much more to the movie that's missing from the actual cut we see...including a huge fire, someone being taken out of the house on a stretcher, and Johnathon standing in front of an ambulance, holding up a locket (resembling the one Gwynneth wears in the movie.) So I rewatched the movie and noted that in ALL scenes that Jackson's father is mentioned, Gwynneth's wearing a wig...leading me to believe the whole story was changed...rewritten to include this story of a father who was killed by Jessica Lange. The ending of the movie sucks...this movie had so much potential and lost it all with this ending. I WISH THEY'D RELEASE A DIRECTOR'S CUT! At least we could see some of that good action they enticed us with in the trailer! Until there's a director's cut....this movie only get's 3 stars, and that's just because I love staring at Johnathon for 90 minutes. -smb

Poor Jessica Lange. She must have needed money REALLY bad to do this warmed-over Southern-Fried gothic. But she looks as if she is having the time of her life doing it: she's equal parts Blanche DuBois, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Electra, with a little bit of Dorothy Malone on top. She runs around for the whole of the movie wolfing down whiskey and looking at Johnathon Schaech as if she'd like to take a bite out of him and at Gwyneth Paltrow as if she'd like to bite her too (not for the same reason, though). The wafer-thin plot has Jessica's Mommie Dearest plotting to keep `ole Johnnie down on the farm and breed, then get rid of Paltrow. Since Schaech plays the biggest dunderhead in the Western hemisphere, and Gwynnie is, well, Gwynnie, nobody tumbles to the fact that Mommie is the baddie here `till the last reel. Nobody except Nina Foch, the only bright spot in the movie as Jessica's Mother-in-law, laid up in a nursing home. (Jessica's two scenes with Nina really crackle) This despite the fact that for seemingly the last hour of the movie, mad Mommie is running all over the house trying to stick poor Gwynnie with a syringe full of opiates (anything to get her to stop whining!) As a matter of fact, Gwynnie is the only problem here, her wan, colorless portrayal of the in-danger daughter-in-law is so unbearably grating that you long for Jessica to hit her with a lamp. The only interesting part of her performance is when at the end, where she shows a side to her character that is a lot closer to Mommie than you would think. Ah well. The scenery is gorgeous, most of the principals are as well, and if you can just sort of sit back and enjoy it in a big-budget William Castle kind of way, you'll have a good time.

Hush was released in the late '90s, a decade when Hollywood produced many films with women being arch villins, such as "Misery", "Single White Female", and "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle". If you like "psycho women movies", think "Mommie Dearest", "Hush" is for you. Jessica Lange plays Martha, who refuses to part with her grown son, played by hunk Johnathan Schaech. When Martha meets her son's new fiance, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, she is determined to rid the world of her any way she can. The film is mainly about the psychotic obsession by a woman who, sickenly, is sexually attracted to her own son. The undertones of the script are evident. The movie is nowhere near the caliber of films Lange and Paltrow have been in, but it is great camp and fun. The cinema photography is beautiful and the score impeccable, but take the movie for what it is- high class soap opera at it's best!
The DVD is barebones. The movie, however, upon viewing the trailer, was highly edited, as a key scene involving a fire was cut. When I saw the trailer before the movie I thought this fire scene would be in the conclusion of the film, but it was not. I only wish the ending had more of a dramatic ending than what it had, along the same lines as "Misery" or "Hand That Rocks The Cradle". Still, enjoy the film...great fun!

This is one of those campy movies thats so bad its good. the reason i watched it is becasue jessica lange is one of my favorite actresses. she plays an overbearing mother who tries to kill her sons wife played by the revolting gywneth paltrow. Jessica Lange played the part so right it was downright campy. when i saw the movie in the theater and it showed jessica lange's shadow with the needle people were laughing. thats just the type of movie it is. and like another reviewer, i noticed differences in the trailer and this version which leads me to believe they changed the ending. the preview showed jessica lange slapping gywneth which didnt happen.
in fact gywneth paltrows character was so pathetic i was rooting for jessica lange the whole time.. sorry. i just wanted jessica to haul off and smack gywneth to shut her up. and the whole end scene was just crazy. you can tell they changed the ending. iwould like to see the original ending! nina foch also played it good as the grandmother of jessica's son. all in all a fun campy movie but i would like to see the directors cut also!

A lot's been said about how bad this film is; I like it for its flaws. It reminds me a bit of those old 50's films about good people in bad situations. Paltrow and Schaech are beautiful as the young loving couple, and Lange, one of my favorites, seems to be researching her role in "Titus", as Tamora, Queen of the Goths. There are two things about this film that make it remarkable to me. The music of Christopher Young is consistantly eerie and complimentary to the action. And, mostly, the wonderful performance of Nina Foch (remember her as Moses' mother), as the only one who knows what's going on. She's worth your time, even if the rest of the film is trivial. Not really that bad, if you like a decent suspense story.

"Hush" was SOOOOOOO good! Jessica Lange is the mother-in-law that everyone dreads... seriously. And Gwyneth was absolutely FABULOUS! She's so talented... and she makes this movie so believable! Really creepy.