Customer Reviews

Wild Side

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

 

 

This is a terrible version of the film. The transfer is dull and faded, and the film itself has been cut down to 92 minutes from the 111 minute version. Don't waste your time or your money.

This is just a rehash of the old Lion's Gate version that was cut beyond belief. If you really want to see this film there is an affordable "Director's Cut" available from Tartan Video in England and available from Amazon.UK. All you need is a DVD player that can play PAL (a surprising number of low-end DVD players will do the conversion). You can google your model and see if it will handle PAL broadcast format. You can order the Brit DVD here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Side-DVD-Christopher-Walken/dp/B000050GOU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1247449628&sr=8-2

Just don't bother with any of the current US releases.

This title is not the original theatrical release of Wild Side. The original release was 111 minutes and the runtime of the DVD is slightly more than 90 minutes.

The transfer is acceptable - however the chaptering was poorly done.

Boy am I sorry that I bought this version. I had no idea that so much of it was cut that the story barely makes sense. The characters seem incomplete, some of the best scenes are simply not there, and you get little sense of the geography in which they are operating. Who on Earth would have produced this incomplete version? Who would ever want it this way? Incredible.

As for the acting, Walken and Chen save it, but only to a degree (i.e. not a one-star rating). They are both accomplished actors who can evoke entire personalities and environments in simple gestures and body language, and their characters appear reasonably complete. However, the script is so poor that not even they can get beyond it and so much of it comes off as making less than cogent sense. Heche, unfortunately, is pretty bad, for the most part failing to achieve a coherent and believable character. She is quirkily beautiful and has her moments in the film, but doesn't quite pull it off in a manner of speaking. OK, she is an ambitious young banker in debt to a corrupt boss and she decides to moonlight as a hooker. Steven Bauer is also pretty bad as her dirty-cop antagonist.

The plot is also badly uneven. Not only is there no clever secret to discover - no subtle double entendres or a hidden pattern revealed later - but the sudden transitions of the characters identities make no sense and don't add to the plot. Thus, Heche and Chen "discover" they are in love - it's just there to titilate and comes off as unbelievable and kind of stupid.

Not recommended.

I had seen this movie previously on VHS and the DVD version seems to have deleted a couple of scenes (or at least one scene) and so
I was disapointed.

It's a great movie, but was not aware the a scene has been taken out. so insted of the movie being 111 minutes it was 95 minutes

Ok...lousy script, main chick nothing special,16 minutes of most important stuff are missing etc.
Violence looks really stupid as main character has more money than god.
Police, as usual, violate law.

I thought this was an excellent movie. The story was fast and intrigueing. Joan Chen and Anne Heche were great together and Walken was outstanding. The characters were well developed and true to character.

I recall seeing this film on cable (HBO or Cinemax) years back. It's silly in spots, smart in others, and I like Christopher Walken in almost anything. But the undeniable eroticism and bravery of the lesbian sex scene between Anne Heche and Joan Chen certainly had the most positive impact. I've since seen a version where this scene is truncated. It's still there, but shorter with less action and ultimately, less impact. From all the reviews I've read of this DVD, I know this is not the longer director's cut and that that version appears to be difficult to come by. (I'm wondering if it is possible that HBO or Max was originally airing the director's cut?) But what I'm unclear about is if this DVD edition contains that scene in its entirety, if it the shorter edit, or if it is in this version at all? I'm hoping someone who knows the film and its edited variations can verify the contents. Thanks.

As of May 31, 2010 I have not recieved this item yet. Very unhappy with this purchase.