Second Skin

I loved this movie. It was so beautifully shot and the acting was terrific across the board. It was great to see Angus Macfadyen from Braveheart in a completely different role. And Natasha Henstridge is a terrific actress. The story was very fun. Lots of twists and turns. And one great turn in the end. I loved the music. I looked up the credits and it was by Wendy and Lisa of Prince fame. Check out Peter Fonda for a wickedly tongue in cheek bad guy. All in all a fantastic stylish film. Why wasn't this in the theatres!

Pretty decent film noir, well acted, gets better as it goes along. Then a stupid tacked on surprise ending blows all sense of reality. God I hate it when they do that. Sure I was surprised. Why wouldn't I be? Why would I expect an ending that nothing suggested and that negates everything I've seen before? The movie has charismatic leads (Henstridge has done a lot of bad stuff, but she's very good here in what I can only describe as the Linda Fiorentino part), Peter Fonda is sho'nuff creepy as the villain, Liam Waite (Henstridge's real life partner) is convincing as a hit man, and Angus MacFadyn makes a believable hero. There are some nice (believable) twists and earned climaxes along the way. Some clichés, yes (amnesia). But all in all, a very good time until the silly betcha-didn't-see-that-coming, surprise-is-everything last couple of minutes. Oh well, life is full of disappointments.

Standard mob story with pretty girl falling for the wrong guy. She ends up with amnesia and starts her life over with the guy who happened to be there. Lots of behind the scenes intrigue going on, with secrets being kept by everyone. Tough to tell who is scamming who, and just how we got to this point of payback. It all comes apparent in the end, but by then you really don't care. The characters do there lines okay, but not much to work with. He gets the pretty girl, but there is no spark and no reason to believe she would ever be with him. Maybe if they used different actors, then the emotion would have been better. Then we would try to believe the mystery or even bother to understand it. This looks like it could have been okay, but along the way it just ends up flat.

Nothing quite appears as it seems, right up to the unexpected twist at the end. All the characters have some kind of hidden agenda. Most of the actors were unknown to me, except for Fonda and his was a minor part at best; but I think it was very well acted, directed, and the cinematography was very well done. All in all, I think it was a pretty cool movie.

The problem with this movie is the leaden touch of Darrell Roodt.

Pretty photography and an absolutely gorgeous lead babe can't hide the fact that there is no plot, that the girl is getting involved with a guy who has the charisma of a rotting potato and that by the time you get to the mystery, you've really stopped caring.

The movie _slowly_ meanders from one cliche to the next. Guy without a past runs a bookstore without clientele, when a beautiful babe comes in and spouts a number of tacky cliches. Then, in the mother of all plot devices, she walks out the store and _gets hit by a car_ so she can "lose her memory".

Who cares? I don't. A waste of money.