MALICIOUS (1995) A "Turkey of the Week" film review by Justin Felix Copyright 1998 Justin Felix
Rating: ** (out of five)
Written by George Saunders. Directed by Ian Corson. Starring Molly Ringwald, John Vernon, Mimi Kuzyk. Rated R (contains nudity, violence, and profanity) 92 mins.
Synopsis: Melissa, a mentally-disturbed woman who likes to smoke, seduces Doug, a minor-league baseball player who likes to study anatomy, work on motorcycles, and make out with his girlfriend in a public library. When Doug decides to stop seeing her, Melissa maliciously takes revenge on those around him, including his girlfriend, his mother, and his cat.
Comments: MALICIOUS, I suppose, is an acceptable moview for what it is: a cheap, B-movie thriller which rips off dozens and dozens of spurned-psycho-lover-who-wants-revenge films (like FATAL ATTRACTION, HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, etc. etc.) that have come before it. MALICIOUS, however, really doesn't provide very many particularly suspenseful moments. The plot starts off energetically enough, the main characters are introduced and the affair between Doug and Melissa begins and ends pretty early on in the film. It starts to drag, unfortunately, after this. Melissa will obviously try to take her revenge on Doug (as always seems to happen in movies like these), but she does so in unimaginative ways that have been done in other, better thrillers before. She drugs someone. She kills a family pet and leaves it in the girlfriend's apartment. And, of course, she stalks, so we see a number of shots, which are supposed to be suspenseful, where she's spying on Doug and his girlfriend. I won't reveal the ludicrous ending to this turkey, but I warn you that it's both painfully obvious and a real yawner.
John Vernon does a remarkably good job at playing the not-so-bright baseball jock who initially gets swept away by Melissa (one of the script's faults is to try to pass off a character like this as a pre-med student). The same cannot be said, though, for Molly Ringwald. At times, she can effectively pull off the obsessed lover routine, especially during her silent, I'm-going-to-stare-you-down scenes. At other times, however, she just seems somehow goofy and out of place. In one particular scene which I guess was supposed to be suspenseful, she screeches "f--k you, you b-----d" and throws a phone. She delivers the line so ridiculously that one can't help but laugh.
MALICIOUS certainly isn't the worst thriller of its kind out in the video racks (a number of really fat turkies in this genre are out there), but it isn't all that good or original either. Feel free to treat this film maliciously, watch something else.
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