VividSimon Simply Perfect

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

info-12388 — Sexual pickups always end badly— Transsexuals are mentally disturbed people— Black men on subway platforms are dangerous— Nerdy guys can build anything— If you really put your mind to it, you can wear anything and it will fit just fine, even a nurse's uniform clearly four or five sizes too small.This really has to be one of the worst films I've ever seen, with the one star given it for the cinematography. Everything else — acting, writing, direction, even the freaking music — is so bad that it becomes almost unwatchable halfway through. Never mind that the film starts and ends with naked women taking showers (and no, author of synopsis, Angie isn't taking a shower while her husband is shaving: that entire sequence is a fantasy she needs to get off while her husband is screwing her in the next sequence) with plenty of way over the top shots of naked breasts and vaginae. Never mind that the film's twist that the doctor is actually the killer is glaringly apparent looooong before anyone in the movie figures it out. Never mind tat the music score makes it sound like something from the Hallmark Channel. This thing is just a sad, sad, sad piece of work: misogynist, transphobic, far too sadistic in its use of close-up violence to inform the audience that sex is bad, no matter how it's being carried out.Appalling.

ben hibburd Dressed to Kill is written and directed by Brian de Palma. This film is essentially a hybrid between an American erotic thriller and a Italian Giallo. It features all the hallmarks of both genres of that time, a crazed slasher, sultry female leads, and buckets of blood, the only thing missing from this films is a synth score by Goblin or Tangerine Dream. This film has a far better structure then most Giallos. Even if this comes at the cost of not being surprised by who the killer is.Brian de Palma brings an extra level of finesse to this film. It's a more mature take on the Giallo genre, without it ever skimping out on De Palma's usual motifs. The shot compositions and his excellent camera movements are as good as any in his filmography.The film stars Nancy Allen as Liz Blake a high-class call girl, that witnesses a murder, and soon finds herself in the killers cross-hairs. Allen gives an alluring performance as the seductive Liz Blake. Even though her acting chops begin to stifle in any scene that requires any range or emotional weight. Though at times she's given some truly horrendous lines, that even George Lucas would cringe at.The film also stars Michael Caine as therapist Dr. Robert Elliott. After the murders begin he starts to receive messages on his answering machine, from one of his former patients, giving accurate accounts of the murder whilst claiming to be the killer. He begins to fall deeper into trouble, as he tries to reach out and help his former patient. He goes off on his his own Investigation, without the help of Police Detective. Marino who's played with typical gusto by Dennis Franz. The cast is rounded out with good performances from Angie Dickinson as Kate Miller a patient of Elliott's and Keith Gordon who plays her son.Dressed to Kill does have some issues, the dialogue at times can be rough on the ear, and the overall mystery is fairly simplistic, which leads to a slight lack of tension. Despite this, Dressed to Kill is an Incredibly fun and engaging film. It's masterfully shot, and is one of the best hybrid Giallos Iv'e seen.

Predrag The 'Pure Cinema' approach deployed here also evokes the best work of Dario Argento, though De Palma clearly has his own agenda. His script attends the fall-out from a terrifying attack on a frustrated housewife (Angie Dickinson) by a razor-wielding maniac who then turns his/her attentions to the sole witness, a streetwise hooker (Nancy Allen) who teams up with Dickinson's teenage son (Keith Gordon) when she becomes a suspect in the case.After a slow first 25 minutes, Dressed to Kill is filled with unbearable suspense for the next 75 minutes. The last 3 minutes of the film are particularly nerve wracking. There are so many great suspense sequences that work throughout the entire film, all the way from the elevator scene to a chase into the subway. Those scenes should give any viewer a good scare. It's certainly what one would describe as edge-of-your seat suspense. I know those sequences freaked me out, and those last few minutes in the film is a true heart-pounding nerve jangler. This is what De Palma is good at and he should make more films like this.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

jadavix I read somewhere that Hitchcock was reportedly unhappy with the extent to which De Palma's previous thriller, "Obsession" (1976), borrowed from his acknowledged masterpiece "Vertigo". If this is true, the master should have saved up his vitriol for the next de Palma work in the genre he made famous - "Dressed to Kill", which raises serious questions about the line between homage and rip off, if such a line exists at all.As a big fan of the movie, de Palma's best pure suspense work of all, I believe that its feet are firmly in the homage camp. De Palma had style of his own to spare; his movie doesn't rely on our familiarity with "Psycho" to carry itself along: rather it's a treat for fans of the 1960 classic as it wears its influence on its sleeve, but develops into a different beast."Dressed to Kill" - and this is not a slight on "Psycho" - goes further with some of the themes of the 1960 film. Transexuality was hinted at in Hitchcock's film; here it is actually explored. The killer's sexual motive is also more fully explored. A mere "rip off" would not bother trying to juggle these themes: it would give them a nod to make sure we caught them and leave it at that. Rip offs take laziness; proper homage takes dedication and research. We get them both here.It is also true that the movie uses another sublime Hitchcock touch which we also saw in his first thriller, "Sisters" - the character presumed to be the protagonist meets a surprising end and the movie abruptly shifts gear as a new, entirely different kind of main character is introduced.There are an infinite number of ways in which a filmmaker or storyteller can substitute one protagonist for another. The master did it particularly effectively, yes, but the technique is too broad in its applications for us to claim it as his own entirely.Lastly, a word about the casting, and its sexual implications. The surprisingly graphic opening scene, with an ageing Angie Dickinson in the shower, shows us perhaps more than we wanted to see. It is a blessing, then, when she is replaced by Nancy Allen's call girl, who has a few scenes that make this one of the sexiest movies ever made.