Dead Again
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Movie Reviews of Dead Again
Movie Review: Good movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this movie. Glad I was able to add it to my collection. Amazon sent it on time and in perfect condition.Movie Review: Dead Again DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
The DVD was in excellent condition and the delivery was speedy! Highly recomend this sellerMovie Review: Life After Love, Love After Death
Summary: 4 Stars
Kenneth Branagh's film Dead Again is a superbly crafted thriller that cleverly combines film noir, supernatural suspense, melodrama, and romance. Branagh (Henry V) pulls double duty, both directing and starring in this stylish update of the mystery genre. The film stars Branagh and his wife Emma Thompson in dual-roles, as well as featuring an impressive supporting cast including Andy Garcia, Derek Jacobi, Hanna Schygulla, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams.
The film utilizes all of the trappings of a Hitchcock picture, while remaining completely original and contemporary. Though at times pretentious and over the top, Dead Again is a welcome return to a genre that in recent years has been dormant and waiting to be resurrected.
When L.A. private investigator Mike Church is asked to help an emotionally troubled amnesiac woman discover her identity, he is plunged into a mystery that will forever alter both of their lives. After an antiques dealer hypnotizes the woman, they trace her troubles to a murder in the past. In 1948 famous opera composer Roman Strauss was blamed for the murder of his wife, Margaret. Could the answer to this woman's troubles lie in a past life experience. As Mike and the woman learn more about Roman and Margaret, they find themselves falling in love. But then it seems possible that Margaret's killer may still be alive and looking to kill again. Soon Mike discovers the truth, but is it too late to stop history from repeating itself?
The film features an appropriately operatic finale, which is heightened by the dramatic musical score, composed by Patrick Doyle.
Contrived, convoluted, and manipulative, Dead Again received mixed reviews mainly because some critics failed to understand the more humorous elements of the plot. The film's screenplay was written by Scott Frank, who imbues the story with both ironic humor and melodramatic romance. Yet this is part of the film's overall charm. Both Branagh and Scott are clearly having fun with the genre, referencing filmmakers like Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock.
In the end, Dead Again is an effective thriller that will have audiences screaming and laughing one minute, gasping the next, and finally catching their breath after the climax.
Also recommended:
Rebecca
Spellbound
Dark Passage
Vertigo
Psycho
Eyes of Laura Mars
Somewhere in Time
Ghost
The Fisher King
Movie Review: History repeating itself
Summary: 4 Stars
This story takes place in the present day and is about an unnamed woman (Emma Thompson) who keeps having reoccurring nightmares about a man named Roman Strauss who, in the 1940's, was convicted and sentenced to death for killing his wife Margaret Strauss. What's interesting is that Margaret in these dreams also looks identical to the unnamed woman of present day.
We're also told that something traumatic happened to this unnamed woman that has caused her to lose both her memory and her voice.
One day, a L.A. private eye named Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh), who also happens to look identical to Roman Strauss in the dreams, is instructed to transport this unnamed woman (whom he's called "Grace") to a mental hospital. However, once they get there, he has a change of heart and instead, has Grace stay at his place.
To help get her memory back, Mike also has Grace see a hypnotist (Derek Jacobi) who might be able to uncover some of her traumatic memories.
What's interesting is that, as we're told more and more about her dreams, the events from the 1940's start to happen in present day, too. And so, there's building suspense if Mike will end up killing Grace just like Roman ended up killing his wife Margaret in the 1940's. But the story gets even more complicated as more suspects start entering the picture, too. There then becomes a possibility that maybe Roman was wrongly accused of a crime he didn't commit....so then where does that leave Grace's fate?
This is a very entertaining and compelling movie to watch. The acting is pretty good, too, except in some cases, Branagh looks a little awkward in this role. There is, however, good chemistry between Branagh and Thompson (it helps they were a real life married couple during this time).
I liked that her dreams are presented in black and white as a way to help you get a feel for that era...and to also help distinguish the two stories apart.
However, there was something odd I noticed, too. For example, when Grace first meets Mike, she isn't surprised that he looks identical to the murdering husband in her dreams, which is odd. Also, when they're visiting the hypnotist and the hypnotist shows Mike and Grace a photo of Roman and Margaret Strauss, neither look surprised that the couple look identical to them.
There's also a problem with the first dream Grace has involving Roman and the detective (Andy Garcia). Given how the movie ends, this first scene doesn't make sense.
Another problem I had was the fight scene towards the end looked kind of silly.
But other than that, I found this movie suspenseful and entertaining.
Movie Review: Classy, Noir-ish, Stylish, and Very Memorable
Summary: 4 Stars
Although he received tremendous praise for his memorable film production of Shakespeare's HENRY V, DEAD AGAIN was the film that really introduced actor/director Kenneth Branagh to mainstream American film, and for a time he and then-wife Emma Thompson were the most celebrated acting couple since Olivier and Leigh. The marriage did not last, but fortunately this film did--and I say fortunately, for although it is somewhat forgotten today, DEAD AGAIN is an overlooked jewel of a film: classy, noir-ish, stylish, and very memorable indeed.The story is fanciful. In the late 1940s noted composer Roman Strauss was convicted of mudering his noted pianist wife Margaret, and was sentenced to death. Some forty years later, a young woman suffering from amnesia falls into the hands of a no-nonsense Los Angeles private eye--and under hypnosis she recalls not her immediate past, but the lives of Roman and Margaret. Is this reincarnation? Is she Margaret Strauss? Is the private eye to whom she is attracted but of whom she is also strangely fearful the reincarnation of Roman Strauss, Margaret's killer? Is history repeating itself?
Scott Frank's clever script makes for a fast-paced, twisting, and fascinating plot-driven film--and it is flawlessly played by Branagh and Thompson, who assume dual roles as the 1940s Roman and Margaret Strauss and the 1980s Mike Church and Grace. The supporting cast is also excellent, with memorable performances by Andy Garcia and Derek Jacobi--and a truly exceptional cameo by Robin Williams, who here for the first time demonstrated that his talents went far beyond comedy. The shifts between past and present, nightmare and reality are exceedingly well done, and although the plot becomes more and more fantastic the entire film is so perfectly executed that one buys into it every step of the way.
If DEAD AGAIN has a flaw, it is that some of the twists and turns are predictable--but in the film's favor I must admit that it sweeps you along so quickly that you seldom have time to analyse that failing while you actually watch the film. It is also to a certain extent a "one trick pony" film; the film is at its most powerful upon a first viewing, when one is oblivious to what is coming. But even so, it is tremendously effective and it holds up as well today as when it first appeared on the big screen. The DVD includes little in the way of extras beyond commentary tracks by producer Lindsay Doran, writer Scott Frank, and director-star Kenneth Branagh--and these are as hit-and-miss as commentary tracks usually are, but they hit more often than miss. The picture and sound quality is overall very good. Recommended!