Customer Reviews

A Kiss Before Dying [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the type of movie that separates me from most movie critics. They said this was awful, poorly directed, incompetently acted, foolishly presented and an insult to the 1956 original and book. One critic went so far as to say Sean Young played two roles (twins) which gave her the opportunity to play two roles poorly.

I don't argue with any of that. My wife guessed one of the principal clues about 5 mintues into the movie. However, I have to say this movie was interesting from the opening scene and it kept me and my wife involved throughout. It may have been bad but it was effective. It had great studio values and the overly dramatic musical score gave some scenes an affect they didn't have otherwise. Its violent scenes had more of a surreal-life 1970s aura than the cliinically, computer graphic displayed overlay of a 1990s movie. It is also the first film I've ever seen where a train runs over someone (not too graphically).

If you haven't seen "A Kiss Before Dying", the story involves a disturbed young man (Matt Dillon) who romances one sister, then her twin, (and kills a few people in the process) to gain access to her rich dad's wealth. It's taken from a popular 1950s book by Ira Levin and this is the second film treatment, the first coming in 1956 with then-young Robert Wagner in the role of the psycho.

Critics everywhere lamabasted this film as being inane, overdone, sophomoric and so excessively violent it bordered on exploitation. All I can say about that is I tried to watch "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" the night before and was so bored by the silly thing I turned it off after a half-hour. Meanwhile, I stood attentive to "A Kiss Before Dying" to the bitter end, which I might add introduces questions not resolved during the story.

Maybe this says something about my taste in movies. I'm betting it also says something about the entertainment values in films and I think there's more of it in this one than a lot of people want to admit.

Sean Young is the main reason this adaptation of the classic novel and 1956 film doesn't come up to snuff. She's a lovely lady, but her performance in this one is so uninspired and apathetic, one cannot feel for her or cheer her on in her quest to find out who murdered her twin sister. The audience knows early on that Matt Dillon is the nasty culprit, a true sociopath who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. A contrived and convoluted script doesn't help either. For instance, after Young finds out who her husband really is, what makes her sure that he killed her sister? And how does Dillon know that Young is at his mother's house? The supporting cast gamely tries, even Diane Ladd as Dillon's mother, and James Russo as a cop turned security guard. But it's all laid out so methodically lame, it just doesn't work out. By the time Dillon gets his just desert, who really cares?

This movie is a great thriller, in the style of Fatal Atracttion and Single, White, Female. But, it could be a little more like Ira Levin's novel. But Sean Young's death ( In the beggining ) is one of the bests in the genre.

but just that. As a thriller, it has a long way to go, largely because of a bad script and medicore acting. Sean Young is so average it's sad. You can't tell if her character is grieving, scheming, uncaring or just plain stupid in many parts. Matt Dillon tried hard, but he also couldn't rise about his level of mediocrity. Still, as noted earlier, it's watchable as opposed to a complete piece of trash.

A Kiss Before Dying is a movie that I enjoy watching when I'm bored. It isn't a great movie, but it's fun to watch Sean Young, as the twin of a murdered young woman (killed by Matt Dillon's character), as she attempts to prove that her sister did not commit suicide.

In the beginning, I especially liked the somber child staring out at a train - incidentally one with the name of a powerful family on the side - and then follow his machinations as he grows up obsessed with this very family. The twins, of course, are members of the family and heirs to a gigantic fortune.

I originally saw the movie at the theater, and then bought the VHS version. Only recently did I acquire the DVD.

It is one film that I like having in my collection for those moments when I'm in the mood for a suspenseful thriller that doesn't ever fail to engage my attention.

Laurel-Rain Snow

Author of: Web of Tyranny, etc.

The source material of this adaptation is rich enough to provides reels and reels worth of suspense: Ira Levin's novel of the same title which was first turned into a film in 1956 or so. The story of a charming but homicidal social climber preying on the daughters of a business tycoon is compact and sleek in its delivery of thrills and chills, much like Levin's other novel about imperiled women: SLIVER. However, just like the botched adaptation of that other novel, the second adaptation of A KISS BEFORE DYING also leaves a lot to be desired. While the weak film that SLIVER became can be blamed on faulty adaptation of the novel and not the performance of its lead actress (Contrary to a few but unfortunately potent reviews of the film, Sharon Stone delivers a performace that is appropriately low-key and vastly underrated), the equally ineffective film that A KISS BEFORE DYING becomes is primarilty the result of a lifeless performance by its female lead: Sean Young.

Sean Young is one of the most beautiful women in films today, and she has been quite memorable and effective in other films (BLADE RUNNER, THE BOOST, and most notably, NO WAY OUT). However, she is simply ineffective as the heroine of A KISS BEFORE DYING; the role calls for her to be driven and obsessed about finding out who murdered her twin sister. Unfortunately, the only "thing" she projects convincingly is disinterest. The success of this film turns on the degree of sympathy and concern we feel for her character. After all, her sister's murderer is really her husband (Matt Dillon, who is indeed effective), and the closer she gets to this revelation, the more danger she's in. But if she can't be bothered to appear interested, why should we? Our emotions are so disengaged that if a giant anvil were to drop out of the sky and land on Sean Young's character, we would simply sit there stone-faced, just like her.

Read Ira Levin's book: five stars. Gripping, creepy, memorable. He puts you inside the mind of a sociopath. He writes women in grave danger (as in his later books also) and it will chill you. You turn the pages, helpless against the inevitable suspense.

Watch the 1956 movie that has Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, Virginia Leith, and Jeffery Hunter: four stars, an above-average thriller. It follows the book pretty well, and Wagner is menacing. The director does a masterful job with the unspoken elements of character and plot. Good musical score and sets, too.

This one with Matt Dillon and Sean Young? It is "dumbed-down" modern Hollywood tripe, below average. The acting and directing aren't very convincing, either. But mainly this is bad for the same reason the film version of "Sliver" is bad: Levin's brilliant writing is diluted into nonsense. Skip this unless you're a completist.

"A Kiss Before Dying" was already done well in 1956. So, why did they bother with this turkey remake? They could have made a fine film out of another Levin classic thriller, "This Perfect Day," instead!

I don't really see, what some people have against this movie. So what, that they deviated a bit from Ira Levin. It makes the movie nicely compact. Longer and the suspence would go away. Now it's just the right length. Kiss before Dying has a good plot with a nice build-up of the tension and it is well played by the cast. Particularly Matt Dillon as the muderer. I cann't remember a movie where I was more relieved when the villain finally got his come-upance.

For what it was this was great!!! cool plot twists Matt dillon was adorable and evil... great sex scenes...though I hated Sean young's hair! that he had been plotting all of it for so long...creepy. It had a hitckcock feel to it for sure. I loved it! Just a fun and shocking and creepy ride.

I usually buy films for their good qualities. I bought this one mostly for Sean Young's silly display of "acting". It's sad that she's so clueless, but her lack of connection to her character is consistant; I expected her to bust out laughing at any minute, taking herself so seriously. Acting like this is usually attributed to bad sci-fi, or parody. I still don't know how this film took itself so seriously, but it's great for acting that actually makes you wince. Ouch!