Awww the 90's, my era & a beautiful time to into movies. I loved spending ages in Blockbuster looking at all the videos & seeing all the Awesome looking B-movies with all the awesome B-movie stars gracing the covers & i loved finding James Belushi films.
I grew up watching & loving Belushi in Red Heat & K-9 both 80's Cop Classic's & during late 90's & early 2000's i discovered lots of Belushi gems. Yes they were direct-to-video B-movies but Belushi was always great in anything. I remember absolutely loving the direct-to-video sequel K-911 (1999) & watched it countless times. Jim Belushi was always excellent at playing Cops (good or bad) & he's just a damn enjoyable screen presence in any movie. Jim Belushi is hilarious, silly, goofy, sarcastic & alot of fun but he can equally be a dramatic dark force (Retroactive, Gang Related, One Way Out) when needed, he's a damn good actor.
Anyway yes I'm a Jim Belushi fan & have been since the 90's. My favourite Belushi character will always be Mike Dooley from the K-9 films but here in this thrilling suspense film is definitely one of Belushi's best characters & performances.
I discovered this gem in a really cool video shop called Enterprise Video. There they had sections for actors & i found a Robert Patrick section (Another fave actor of mine) & James Belushi & i discovered some Belushi gens such as Separate Lives, Traces of Red, Royce, Retroactive & Mr. Destiny. Belushi was always great at playing Cops & especially during the 90's & here he puts in an excellent performance as Tom Beckwith, an ex-Cop & a psychology student who is asked by his teacher, Professor Lauren Porter (an excellent Linda Hamilton) spy on her as she suffers from a split personality. Linda Hamilton (Terminator 2, Dante's Peak, Shadow Conspiracy) is excellent, she has a very challenging part to play as she has to play two completely different characters in the same body. Hamilton plays the prim 'n' proper Lauren & the wickedly seductive & dangerous Lena. Hamilton nails the roles. Belushi is excellent as Tom, a good man & loving father (some lovely & funny scenes with his little daughter who is hilarious) but he has suffered tragedy after his wife committed suicide a few years earlier. Belushi mostly plays it serious with just a few hints of comedy but really Belushi plays it as it is, a serious & thrilling suspenseful psychological flick with a twist of Noir style. For a low-budget Direct-to-video "Typical cheap B-movie" Separate Lives is pretty excellent. Really well directed by David Madden, a guy who only directed two films ever. The look/cinematography is lovely in all it's cosy 90's style. I loved the music score throughout that went from cheesy Erotic Thriller score to exciting Cop Thriller score & all 90's as it's a product of it's time. Yes there is that Typical 90's Erotic thriller stuff in here as expected for a direct-to-video thriller made in 1995. There's murder, suspense & mystery & what else could you want from a B-movie Thriller.
Separate Lives is very interesting with it's themes of mental health (which is a huge issue now 2022) & the film is kept exciting with Tom's investigating & tracking of Lena. The film is just damn good & so well made with two Knock-out performances as Belushi & Hamilton put in some of their best work into making this thriller really work. Truly one of Belushi's best performances.
A superb 90's mystery thriller with a top performance from the brilliant Jim Belushi.