FEAR
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
The Smell of FEAR Stinks
(Uni)
Directed by James Foley
Written by Christopher Crowe and James Foley
Cast Makr Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, William Peterson, Alyssa
Milano
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for language, violence, gore, and sexual
content)
Running Time 95 minutes
Reviewed at Mission Valley Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (10APR96)
==
This howler of a thriller stars the Artist Formerly Known as Marky Mark as a young psycho who seduces and later terrorizes a 16-year-old high-schooler (Reese Witherspoon). She's a nice girl from a nice family who learns too much too late about her seemingly sane boyfriend. Good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. With better casting, director James Foley (GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS) might've had something here. He picked a good pair for the parents-- Amy Brenneman (HEAT) and the always reliable William Petersen-- and that's about as far as he got. Ms. Witherspoon has no screen presence to speak of, while Underwear Boy is a hollow creeper, at best. (And he looks a good ten-years older than his character! Oh, how we could've ended things early if Dad had just spoken up and said "for Christsake, Nicole, he looks like he's thirty!") Completing the terrible triumvirate is Alyssa Milano, wildly overacting as Nichole's slut girlfriend (a.k.a. the Bad Influence). Yes, they're unwatchable, but the story is so mercifully straight-forward that you may find yourself getting caught up in the camp. A surprisingly engaging ending also keeps the film from collapsing on itself. If there's a single redeeming feature to speak of, it's that the story is a virtual primer for teenage girls on how to identify a predator. Of course, they *could* just listen to their dads...
Grade: D+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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