FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

wrcong Okay, seeing Dennis Hopper naked is not something that was on my list of things to do in my lifetime, but it was not the abomination that some of the reviews make it out to be. I give Hopper and the director and screenwriter a lot of credit for fearlessly letting it all hang out, as it were, when that privilege is usually reserved for the "beautiful people" of Hollywood. That's what people look like -- it's just not such a big deal (no offense intended, Dennis).My vote places this film into what I consider the vast "average" category. There are some issues here. Casting is one of them. Amy Locane was 25 playing 17 in this film. No sale. I have a 17 year old son, and not a one of his female friends looks much like Amy Locane. She was just not a convincing teenager. I realize that there are issues with having an actual seventeen year old in this role, but the casting director should have worked a little harder to find a more convincing actor for such a pivotal role. Locane invoked Lolita's aunt that works at Hooters more than she invoked Lolita.Hopper was quite good as the male lead, acting out the fantasy that Sting and the Police put to music so many years ago. Amy Irving was quite good as the "comfortable" love interest.Still, this story was rather predictable. The middle-aged teacher climbs out of his routine by having a sexual fling with one of his students, with predictable unhappy results. Still, despite the unhappy results, the fling was life-affirming over against all those stifling impulses that compel us into the comfort and safety of the routine.This re-telling of the Lolita tale put a somewhat more human face on the lonely, love-lorn middle-aged man, but may have replaced that image with the notion that such relationships are really the fault of the young nymphettes who tempt them. That is a troublesome notion. Relationships such as this one need not necessarily be portrayed in terms of "victimization," but to the extent that there was a victim in this film, it was the teacher, the authority figure, who was the victim of the slutty teen-aged girl. In a sense, I guess that completes the Lolita fantasy -- that it is the young woman who creates and insist upon the relationship to the point that the resistant will of the older man is overcome. That image is a fantasy to the Nth degree.Nonetheless, this is a reasonably entertaining little evening's diversion for the thoughtful performances of Hopper, Irving and Gary Busey as Catherine's father. I wouldn't go out of my way to find it, but if it shows up again on IFC, it's worth a look.

ilovelucy77 Oh my God! I finished watching "Carried Away." How disturbing! I can't see how someone as young and sexy as Amy Locane would find someone who looks like Dennis Hopper sexually arousing. Hot babes like that do not go for old men unless they are wealthy.***spoilers ahead*** Those sex scenes in "Carried Away" between Dennis Hopper and Amy Locane as well as the one sex scene between Amy Irving and Dennis Hopper looked so real it made "Wild Things" look like a kids' movie. This should be considered a porn film.I could have been spared the full frontal nudity of Dennis Hopper before his character had sex with Amy Irving's character. And it was odd that she did frontal nudity in this film when she swore against doing it in "Carrie." Then again, Amy Irving was a lot younger when she did "Carrie."

smatysia It's been interesting to watch Dennis Hopper grow up in films, from the skinny, scared kid in "The Sons of Katie Elder", to his iconic role as Billy in "Easy Rider", to the whacked-out journalist in "Apocalypse Now", to this thoroughly middle-aged character. Here, he is the ultimate grown-up, at least at first, who feels the need to go back to years past in the idea of love/sex with the young student. He nailed his part. Amy Irving nailed hers, too, though it was a bit of a smaller part. Amy Locane provided the eye candy, for us as well as for Joseph Svenden (Hopper). Harder to understand her character's (Catherine) motivations. I can see that the pickings were pretty slim in that time and place, but the 47-year-old semi-crippled more-or-less engaged teacher? This film is worth seeing, if you can take some fairly unsettling images (Hopper naked). Grade: B

yellowdaisy1978 I saw this movie on HBO a few years back and I am still scarred from it. The story line itself wasn't all that bad and the acting was mediocre at best. My question is: WHY DID DENNIS HOPPER HAVE TO DO FULL-FRONTAL NUDITY?????? Pointless for the sake of the story, not to mention just scary to see. What were these people thinking?