Customer Reviews

The Maddening [VHS]

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

 

 

David (Brian Wimmer) comes home to his Palm Beach house after a 2-week business trip. His wife, Cassie (Mia Sara), and little girl, Samantha are glad he is back. His daughter spelled her first word on your first day in kindergarten. He tells his wife, his female boss wants him to leave again to go to Texas. Cassie is furious. She does not want to pick up everything and go to Texas now that Samantha is doing well in school.
The next morning, David tries to tell his boss that he can not go to Texas and he is trying to get some balance in his life with his family. The boss is not understanding at all and tells David that he can start re-writing his reseme.
His wife decides that if her husband can go to Texas, then she can take off and go somewhere too.
The gas station owner, Roy Scudder (Burt Reynolds) tries to help Cassie with the car for her long trip to Tampa and tells her what road to travel on. Her car breaks down along the way.
Well, surprise, surprise. Guess who just happens to come along...it's Roy Scudder.
He takes Cassie and her daughter to his wife's house to fix the car. She soon finds out how dysfunctional Roy's family is. His wife, Georgina (Angie Dickinson) is a nut case, thinking Cassie and Samantha are somebody else.
This day will be a horror Cassie will never forget.

Also in the cast: William Hickey, Josh Mostel, Candace Hutson.

Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson have worked together before in Sam Whiskey (1969).
Angie Dickinson also appeared in The Final Hit, aka The Last Producer (2000).

The Maddening is a psychological thriller starring Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson. The story starts out with a mom who decides to "runaway" with her young daughter after getting into a disagreement with her husband.

The classic red convertible looks nice, but of course it has engine problems right around where Roy Scudder's(BURT) gas station is located. So this is the spark that leads to the insanity that Burt, Angie, and family dish out to the poor, helpless mom and her young daughter.

The story, of course, lacks depth; but at least you get some "single-layered" fun from Burt and Angie's deranged characters. Lightweight, no-depth, quick-frills; don't expect much more from this movie.

Mia Sara's car breaks down on a lonely, isolated road. Friendly mechanic Burt Reynolds takes her and her young daughtet back to his home where things turn creepy.
Reynolds' wife Angie dickinson is nuts and locks them up in a boarded up bedroom. It soon becomes apparent that Reynolds is just as crazy and will do anything and kill anyone that comes between his wife and her happiness.
Well acted all round with Reynolds in particular giving a great menacing performance.
Loosely based on the Andrew Nierderman novel "Play Mates".
Filmed in 1994 but only released on video in 1996, it is well worth tracking down.

The Maddening is an interesting and violent thriller, based on Andrew Neidderman's novel (the same author of "The Devil's Advocate"), about Cassie (Mia Sara, in a good interpretation, she really passes all the fragility of her character), a woman who runs away with her daughter, and ends up being the victim of a crazed and dangerous man (Burt reynolds, terrific and scary as a psycopath).This film has some really tense moments , like the ending, or the part in which Reynolds' character rapes Cassie, and the basic idea is entertaining and touching, but the film suffers a lot by the poor production (this is clearly a B-movie) and the horrible direction by Danny Huston. Although very predicable, The Maddening turns out to be a good, but forgetable, thriller.