Spikeopath Brian De Palma has often come in for some flak over the years, his penchant for sticking tight to Alfred Hitchcock thriller formula has been the source of much consternation in certain quarters. Yet when you view something like Peter Hall's Never Talk to Strangers it rams home just how welcome it is to have Hitch like thrillers at least done well!Rebecca De Mornay is a troubled shrink who whilst dealing with the mind games of a serial killing loony (Harry Dean Stanton), meets sexually charged Latino guy (Antonio Banderas) and indulges in passions unbound. Then she starts to get very unwelcome presents in the post...The erotic thriller has been well trodden, and will continue to be so for sure, so it feels a little churlish to decry Hall's movie for coming off as a weak willed imitator of previous purveyors of the sub-genre, but this blend of Silence of the Lambs meets Sea of Love - cum - Dressed to Kill - cum Fatal Attraction etc etc just comes across as a cheat. And that's because it is!The makers know this and try to hide their ridiculous folly behind eroticism as the two lovely looking headlining stars get sweaty and wet, indulging in sexual play that's as powerful as the surroundings (Banderas lives in a loft apartment resplendent with metal cage and wrought iron doors). But, or should that be butt? The mystery element is weak, the suspense equally so, while the back story of De Mornay's father (a key character) is hopelessly under developed.Then there is H.D. Stanton, stealing every scene is he is in, quid pro quo indeed, yet he's hardly in the film, which ultimately proves to be a tragedy as the plot hurtles towards its implausible and risible revelations. Red herrings come and go as quickly as Becca and Tony's underwear (the continuity editor should have been sacked along with the writers because of one scene BTW), and even though Pino Donaggio scores the music with customary swirling qualities, this just comes off as a piggyback tactic...This is a poor thriller in spite of two very committed and visually attractive perfs from the leads - and of course Stanton's knowingly sleazy turn. Seek this out only if you think Body of Evidence is in the upper echelons of erotic thrillers. 5/10

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** We first get to see pretty blond psychologist Dr. Sarah Taylor, Rebecca De Mornay, interviewing her favorite mental patient convicted serial murder and sex fiend Max Cheski, Harry Dean Stanton. Max seems to be far more knowledgeable in the science of multiple personalities then even Sarah is even though she's supposed to be the expert in these matters. It's much later in the film that we begin to realize how right Max was in that he's suffers from a multiple personality complex himself!Sarah later gets involved with ex-cop Tony Ramirez, Antonio Banderas,whom she met in the wine department of her local supermarket. Tony a guy who can't take no for an answer sweep the icy blond off her feet and within hours the two have a sizzling as well as kinky affair at Tony's loft apartment. The affair between Sarah and Tony gets under the skin of Sarah's boyfriend Cliff Raddison, Dennis Miller, who in how he handles himself may be in need of psychiatric treatment, like Sarah's patients, himself.The movie gets even more confusing when Sarah's father Henry Taylor, Len Cariou, unexpectedly shows up wanting to crash her place, because he doesn't have money for a hotel room, for the Christmas Holiday's. Henry has been estranged from his daughter since her mother died in a car smash-up when she was a little girl. It soon becomes evident that the circumstances of Sarah's mothers death are not exactly as her father told her in fact she was at the scene and made, through brainwashing, to forget the whole thing! As we soon learn it was Sarah's mothers death that was the reason that got her interested in becoming a psychologist in the first place!It's when Sarah starts to get strange packages sent to her, one with the dismembered body of her pet cat Sam, that she starts to suspect that Tony, whom she's now having a stormy relationship with,is behind them. Sarah also finds out by breaking into, at his loft, Tony's personal belongings that he's been keeping a secret file on her, with newspaper clippings and police reports, that go back to he time when her mothers died some 20 years ago! Hiring private investigator Dudkoff, Eugene Lipinski, to shadow Tony's movement he reports to her that Tony may not only be an alcoholic in that he spent $700.00 on booze at the liquor store, in one day, but is also married with a five year old daughter!It's when ex-boyfriend Cliff gets the hell beat out of him by a masked assailant that Sarah finally suspects, if she didn't already, that Tony is responsible for all the terror that she now finds herself engulfed in. ****SPOILER ALERT**** What Sarah didn't realize is that her troubles are a lot closer to home then she could ever have imagined!Nothing special in this Alfred Hitchcock-like thriller with the exception of the typical icy blond, Sarah Taylor, really heating up the screen in her almost X-rated acrobatics with Tony Rameiriz. Something that even the "Master", Alfred Hitchcock, would more then hesitate in putting into his films!

LeroyBrown-2 This is one of the worst movie I have ever seen. It's a thriller with a rather ridiculous ending. I watched this movie hoping for the best and instead found something truly bad. the movie starred two actors that I like very much, Rebecca DeMornay and Antonio Banderas. Sure they had decent chemistry together but for what? The movie's premise was bad to begin with and the execution just made it even worst.Miss DeMornay plays Sarah Taylor, a psychologist trying to analyze a convicted serial killer whose defense hinge on multiple personality disorder. That pretty much will give you a hint to where the movie is going and the identity of the killer. Early in the movie she gets an unexpected visit from her father. This being made in the 1990's when the bad daddy was the in thing in Hollywood is another clue to the ultimate conclusion.Mr. Banderas plays a mystery man named Tony Ramirez, who comes into Sarah's life. The whole first meeting and first encounter between Tony and Sarah is so badly done and so unconvincing it makes you wonder how it even got shot. And there's a sequence where the two of them are supposed to be knowing each other that is so sappy it doesn't seem to belong here. One thing that I would admit was that there was a sex scene that's very hot. Anyway creepy things start to happen after he arrives, weird packages arriving, things falling off the wall that could kill Sarah, incident that say things aren't normal anymore. Overall the movie was badly conceived, the editing at times seem jumpy, and the conclusion was laughable. Another thing that bugged me about this movie was the whole Orchestral music playing in the background. A more subtle musical score would have been better. I have to say this, no matter how bad the ending was, Miss DeMornay was very good in that sequence. It's sad that she never got first rate materials in her career. She's that rare combination of talent and beauty.

flimbuff but nothing more. DeMornay looks great for the guys and Banderas looks great for the ladies and they fit together nicely in this supposed thriller about a police psychologist who may or may not be the victim of a stalker and who may or may not have been abused as a child. The plot has some twists that are pretty easy to pick up and there are no surprises but it is still more watchable than the usual fare on LIFETIME TV.