The Fury
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Movie Reviews of The Fury
Movie Review: I BOUGHT IT AND I'M "FURY"-OUS!
Summary: 2 Stars
Having not viewed THE FURY for nearly 20 years, I very recently purchased a copy of it from Amazon to see if it had improved with age. Let's put it this way: Fine wine it ain't!
This is fairly typical of much of the simple-minded bovine excrement that Hollywood began churning out in the 1970s and masqueraded as "entertainment." It's a psychological thriller/horror mutt that will "entertain" 14-year-olds who are fascinated by the sight of people blowing up or bleeding from various bodily orifices. Otherwise, it hasn't got much going for it. The story revolves around a man (Kirk Douglas) whose psychic son (Andrew Stevens) is kidnapped by a rogue U.S. Government agency for the purpose of conducting mind-control experiments. Douglas enlists the help of another psychic teenager (Amy Irving) in order to locate his son.
Yeah, it's just that simplistic and it's B-O-R-I-N-G!
The only semi-legitimate excuse for spending 2 hours watching THE FURY (as so many of my fellow reviewers have observed) is to get an early glimpse of a few performers who later went on to become household names, including Dennis Franz, Daryl Hannah, James Belushi (?) and Stephen T. McCarthy. (Well, I'm a household name around MY house!) Yeah, that's my 18-year-old, mop-haired profile as I sit back-to-back with Amy Irving and we wordlessly play a 30 second game of flash card mental telepathy. I remember that day vividly; the girl kept coming-on to me. It was so annoying that I couldn't even get into character. Finally Ol' Brian had to tell her to leave me alone. I understand that she eventually SETTLED for a different Steve (Spielberg) after I had rebuffed her every advance. (Aw c'mon! Let a guy feed his ego why don'tcha?!)
If it's a psychological thriller you want, I suggest JACOB'S LADDER; THE SIXTH SENSE; HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE; Hitchcock's, PSYCHO and John Carpenter's, THE THING. Or, if you want your time to be REALLY well-spent, I recommend that you read any of the titles included in my Listmania Book List. But why would you waste your valuable time on THE FURY - a hybrid dog that "EVEN STEPHEN" (T. McCarthy) at the height of his creative powers couldn't save?! (Yeah, I meant that strictly as a joke, alright?)
Movie Review: Make sure your fast forward is working before viewing
Summary: 2 Stars
This review concentrates both on the quality of the DVD and that of the film itself. For the most part, the picture is clear and evenly lit. However, there are about 14 scenes where the picture quality is devastatingly poor. A constant "popcorn" effect during these scenes makes the average VHS quality look superlative. It is somewhat jarring since in some scenes as camera angles change, the quality of the image changes drastically, whilst still within the same scene. Night scenes and close-ups are especially horrid. Now the film....Don't get too hung up on plot. In fact, I would suggest watching the first ten minutes then fast forwarding about 25 minutes, then stopping once again and fast forwarding for another 15 minutes. You get the picture. There are so many scenes that serve no purpose. Not only do they not advance the plot, but they actually weigh down the picture. They also are not particuarly stylish and are sometimes actually painful to focus on. DePalma tries his hand at comedy in a few of these scenes with nauseating results. Not only are the actors ill-suited for comedy bits, but they clash with the seriousness of the main characters struggle. And forget about character development...you'd be better off creating a little background for each character on your own. Andrew Stevens' character supposedly went through some kind of metamorphosis in this film, and thank god some other characters chat about it casually because who the heck knows how he got from point A to point B.
In addition, Pino Donaggio and Bernard Herrmann are sorely missed. John William's score, though dramatic, is only dramatically boring.
The two stars are for the well-orchestrated paragon institute escape scene and amy irving's telekinesis scenes, and depalma's selection of carrie snodgress for a small role.
This one is only for DEPALMA heads. You'll have a good time picking up on DePalma ripping off his own films and spotting DePalma regulars such as Denis Franz, William Finley, & Charles Durning as well no-names at that time, Laura Innes, Darryl Hannah, Melody Thomas Scott and James Belushi. If you're looking for DePalma's best, try Blow Out!, Carrie, Dressed to Kill, or Obsession.
Movie Review: Very Little Suspense, Very Many Unintentional Laughs
Summary: 2 Stars
When I was a young child in 1978-79 watching this on HBO I thought this movie was cool because people blew up in it and a fairground ride went spinning out of control.25 years later, I watch it again and hardly anything is cool about it. The dialogue is laughable, Kirk Douglas is ridiculous as a geriatric James Bond who leaps out 4 story bedroom windows in his underpants, comandeers a shiny new Cadillac just to drive it off the end of a pier, and seranades his girlfriend with an obscene phone call.
John Cassavetes looks like he's trying to parody some Dr. Strangelove-type villian by walking around in a sling with a black glove on his useless hand, glaring at everyone and spouting the worst sort of "bad guy" cliches.
What else? Well, when Carrie Snodgrass goes flying through the windshield of a car, the windshield shatters like some plate glass saloon window from a low-budget Western. And there's plenty of blood in this movie, but not a drop of it looks real.
Andrew Stevens goes from lovable son to patricidal maniac without so much as a shred of explanation. Amy Irving escapes from a supposedly fortress-like prison by simply shoving a bunch of packages at someone and running out the backdoor. Oh, yeah, you know when Andrew Stevens is really, REALLY mad when the veins on his forehead pop out. Sometimes his eyes even glow blue. There's more, but what's the use recounting it?
I'll give it two stars because it's not the worst movie ever. But at times it really comes close. Isn't DePalma supposed to be a genius or something?
Movie Review: It was BOMB In 78', and it's still a BOMB.
Summary: 1 Stars
Oh, please! Some of these reviewers giving this turkey 4 stars is like saying Andrew Stevens was an acting genius of his time. I saw this flop when it first came out, and I distinctly remember the crowd walking out after saying how bad it was.
Time hasn't helped this DePalma mess out either, unless you're into getting in a few laughs at the dialogue, acting and especially terrible effects. Anybody who claims this as anything close to "Carrie" needs a serious MRI done, because the closest this flop is to that classic, is the actors (if you consider Amy Irving an actress) and the extra buckets of fake blood. It's also painful watching Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes reading lines off each other, fully knowing, it's all for the paycheck.
Please, if you want to view a decent DePalma flick, pick up "Dressed To Kill" of "Blowout". Both more superior than this lame duck.