Customer Reviews

Twisted [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Don't watch this. Don't risk having nightmares about Ashley Judd as I've had. Back when she drug all my sensibilities through the mud with EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, I took a small solace in the assurance that a movie couldn't get any worse than that. But now ghastly Ashley has proven me wrong. I think I'd rather see her play an acknowledged serial killer (however much the the movie pussyfoots around in moral ambiguity about it) than see an equally mad woman legitimized as a cop. Yep, a cop. That's what she plays this time. I guess I must admit EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, as vacuous as it is, seduced me somewhat with Ashley's macabre sick puppy persona. It made me really want to see her get better. Something inside me wanted to see her use her talents (which are nothing if not far above her will to make decent movies) to do something really worthwhile and elevating. So guess that is why I threw caution to the wind and went to see TWISTED. But the cop she plays therein never saw a civil liberty that she wasn't fixing to ravenously trample upon. In the opening scenes, she is arresting a suspect. After she has his hands cuffed behind his back and him helplessly onto his knees, she says, "One more thing!" and then kicks him in the nose as hard as she can! Story resolved, or at least it should have been. Time for this cop to go the way of the beaters of Rodney King. We still do believe that Rodney King was wrongly treated, don't we? Apparently not, if even the limited credibility that this movie has usurped is any indication. She goes on being a cop and treated as the movie's hero! But her unrestrained rampage is by no means over. She will become quite understably a suspect in the murders she's investigating. But she will madly assault her colleagues when they sugggest that it is understandable that she's become a suspect. For better or for worse, the movie never suggests any "turn about's fair play" notion. While she's a suspect nobody ever kicks her in the nose. The movie goes on through a supposed resolution that cannot at all dig this lurid misfire out of the hole of its premise. While the original real villain of the movie proved herself villainous from practically the start, but gets to go on to be "vindicated" as a "hero", the "real villain" gets exposed as a villain only in the end. Do yourself a favor and don't bother with this. It is nonsense. Avoid it.

This movie is terrible, all the more given the talent involved. Andy Garcia, Samuel L. Jackson and Ashley Judd all give awful performances which can't really be helped given the horrible dialog they are given to say and the stupid things they are given to do. The plot is Ashley Judd plays an alcoholic cop who sleeps with men she picks up at the local bars. The men she's been with start turning up dead and she is logically the main suspect. In the end it doesn't matter what the movie is about because it's all done so badly.

There are just two rules when you create a thriller with a pretty lead: 1) The lead (the delectable Ashley Judd) had better show some skin. 2) Thou shalt not be boring.

Twisted utterly fails on both counts. Basically, Judd is Jessica Shepard, a messed up cop who specializes in hunting serial killers. She's fond of bedding men she meets at late night bars, because she's self-destructive. Only Jessica looks fabulous all the time, even when she's been on a bender (which is apparently every night). How she maintains her good looks without stinking up the place is just another part of cinema magic.

Jessica is mentored by John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson). For a second there I thought Jackson was going to play an understated version of his usual maniacal self. I was wrong.

Things take a turn for the strange after Jessica discovers that every man she sleeps with is murdered. And she keeps having these weird blackouts every night. The victims wash up on the shore the next day with a single cigarette burn on their hand. Poor Jessica is haunted by her parents' murder/suicide and wonders...since her father went on a mass-murdering spree before he killed himself, could she too have the "serial killer gene"?

Jessica is paired with Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia), an Italian goomba who is alternately creepy, lecherous, and like everyone else in this ridiculous movie, wants to get into her pants. Mike follows her around an awful lot...could HE be the killer? Or maybe it's the ex-boyfriend cop, Jimmy Schmidt (Mark Pellegrino). Or maybe it's...actually, I figured it out in the first ten minutes.

Being something of a true crime fan, and having read a bit on the subject, this entire premise is absurd. You don't wake up one day and become a serial killer; if anyone actually got a good look at the life of a serial killer, it screams DANGER from day one. Pretty Jessica has none of those problems in her past, except for a vague "suppressed rage" that manifests itself in kinky sex and kicking people in the face. Her cherubic face shows no signs of hardship, and neither does the rest of her. Although the script wants us to believe she's a haggard cop, the camera is only too happy to zoom in on her rear end. Not once, but twice. And it's not a naked rear end either.

So we have a gorgeous female cop who sleeps around, yet there are very few bedroom scenes. We have a serial killer plot that is connected by red herrings (Who is that lady across the street? Why does Jessica fiddle with a cigarette but never light it?). On one hand, the cops are strictly by the book; they make a big deal out of the fact that Jessica kicks a serial killer in the face. On the other hand, nobody pulls Jessica off the case when she's a prime suspect, nor watch her home when the serial killer is obviously following her around.

Neither sleazy or highbrow, gritty or moralistic, Twisted is so boring, it gets bored with itself.

It only requires 2 words to describe the movie. "ABSOLUTE CRAP".

Twisted is a pointless thriller filled with predictable twists and a dull ending! This Movie is so predictable! At a point this movie was so bad that it was actually good! Then the ending just ruined it and just turned into plain awful! I don't understand how such a talented cast could sign up to be in a piece of junk like this film! Absolutely Awful! The only pro in this movie is the cast! The cast can make it watchable but barely!

A very so-so film in my opinion but I can see who its target audience might be.
Its like a racy version of "Murder She Wrote" - Can you guess the identity of the killer?? Yes, after 15 minutes anyone can. This is a very by-the-numbers crime drama, its alot like most of the star-filled TV mystery shows.

The object of this exercise is to display Ashley Judd in racy scenes with Andy Garcia (at that point in the film you are supposed to say "ooooooh"). Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.

The first thing I noticed watching this film is the utterly cliche manner in which Ashley Judd's character, Jessica, is introduced. You know the story- beautiful, tough female cop who can handle herself on the streets is plagued by her past and criticized by her jealous male coworkers.
Sound familiar? Yeah, like about 50 other female detective movies out there.
The second thing I noticed was the way the film is edited- very, very choppy. Scenes are slapped together, juxtaposed against each other in what often seems like random order. In some films, that is an effective technique, but in this one the viewer is left wondering what just happened. You get the feeling like way too much footage was shot and the story had to be chopped up to make it fit into a reasonable feature length.
There are also some "Huh?" moments in the film, where the characters do things for seemingly unexplainable reasons- like when Jessica wanders around a park, between Greco-Roman pillars for a while, looking confused. No one knows why. That is one of several "Why'd they do that?" moments in this film.
All in all, it is a decent mindless piece of entertainment, with CSI-style coroner scenes that won't offend most people. The story, despite its choppy nature does all come together, more or less, in the end. The acting is over the top, in all cases, but can be forgiven in light of the fact that SOMETHING had to be done to save the storyline. Sometimes watching overacting is fun, in a campy sort of way.
Good Saturday afternoon rental flick, not a keeper though.

I caught the first half of this movie on cable, and rented the DVD to see how it ended. I was enchanted, not just by the three actors (Judd whose latest is De-Lovely; Garcia from the Godfather etc; and Juckson from Pulp Fiction, The Negotiator et al), but by the over-all concept and execution.

Ignore the detractors--this is a superb story ably acted and I loved it. We in the clandestine service are quite proud of having the very highest rate of alcoholism, adultery, divorce, and suicide (I have 18 professional suicides in my professional history). I don't carry a badge, I do carry a Walther PPK Limited Edition (with a permit).

All three of these actors are gifted, but seeing Judd in this film, in contrast to her performance and complete make-over in De-Lovely, persuades me that she is one of the greatest female actors of our time and will be offering us many more superb acts with world class male actors for years to come.

This is a lovely first-rate film, and if you have lived with death and dishonor and fear including panic from time to time, this is a homecoming of sorts. Those that do not like it do not understand reality. However, to end on a humble note, spying is 90% boredom, including hours spent in hotel rooms waiting for agents to show up, and the most important skill in spying is typing--four hours for every hour of agent meeting--more if you have to transcribe the required recording of a meeting with a terrorist.

Other spy and cop/firefighter movies I have really enjoyed:
Seven (New Line Platinum Series)
Blown Away
High Crimes
The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal)
The Departed (Widescreen Edition)
Breach (Full Screen Edition)
The Lives of Others
Pulp Fiction (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Firestorm
Ladder 49 (Widescreen Edition)

and of course anything with Alec Guiness in it (George Smily) and anying with Jason Bourne as the protagonist.

I think when many say they knew after 15 minutes who the killer was, they're actually saying they guessed who the killer was and just happened to be right.

Think about this for a moment: What was the motive? That was something I never figured out. The killer didn't have a motive. That's what threw me off. But I guess some would say a crazed killer doesn't need a motive. But come on! Even the deranged killer in 7even had a reason for killing. Even Norman Bates had a reason for killing.

It could be the reason was explained but I just missed it because the movie was so terrible. I don't know. I really don't want to have to watch the whole movie again to figure it out.

I know if you have a lot of high profile actors in secondary roles, one of them is the killer for sure; but you're thrown off by the fact that you have Andy Garcia, D.W. Moffett, and Sam L. Jackson. So all 3 are fair game.

I'm giving this one star because a) there is no choice to rate it lower, and b) this was the best I had seen Ashley Judd act. I saw this in the theater and thought it was one of the most dreadful movies I had seen since the remake of Godzilla with Matthew Broderick. It's not just that you know whodunnit within the first ten minutes, it's more that all the characters are so unlikeable and unsympathetic that you don't really care what happens to them. I find Ashley Judd's acting to be wooden and unemotional, and her character in 'Twisted' at least elicited some emotional response from me - unfortunately the response was dislike with a smattering of disgust, and that was pretty much how I felt about all the characters. And Andy Garcia, who I adore in everything and think is absolutely yummy, had this slimy quality that took all the joy away that I normally have from watching him. Anyway, I'll sum up with a "two thumbs WAY down" and a suggestion to donate the money to charity instead - trust me when I say you'll feel better about it afterward than if you spend it on the DVD.