Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Michael_Elliott Lord of Illusions (1995)** 1/2 (out of 4) A dark illusionist named Nix (Daniel von Bargen) is leading a cult of people but his "understudy" Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) kills him and puts an end to his evil deeds. Or so he thinks. Flash-forward thirteen years and private detective Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula) travels from New York to L.A. and soon finds himself caught up with Swann's wife (Famke Janssen) and trying to determine what's going on with this magic cult including Nix coming back from the dead.Clive Barker's LORD OF ILLUSIONS is a film that I really enjoyed on many levels but I think there was one major problem with it that I will get to in a bit. As far as the film goes, it's currently available in two versions. There's the original theatrical cut as well as the Director's Cut, which is what I watched since Barker has made it very clear that he prefers that the version people should judge the film on.What I enjoyed most about the picture was the film noir elements. Barker apparently really loved this D'Amour character and it's easy to see. This film is basically a mystery/detective film with horror elements thrown into it. I really thought the detective angle worked quite well and the story was good enough to hold your attention throughout most of the picture. I'd argue that the performances were also quite good with Bakula doing fine in the lead role. Von Bargen is exceptionally good as the villain and Janssen was great in the lead female role.The film offers up some good visual effects, great cinematography and pretty much on a technical level the film is very impressive. As I said, I really enjoyed the film as I watched it but at the same time I thought the 121-minute running time was a bit too long. After a while you start to wish the ending would come to get everything over with. I think the film loses its focus somewhat during the final third of the picture, although there's no question that the special effects get bumped up during the finale.

generationofswine It's one of those movies that come from a certain time and place. But then, it's Clive Barker and he tends to primarily make movies that can really only fit into that beautiful era that opened up and allowed for anything to get the green light and small independent films to make it onto the big screen at your local theater.Man I miss those days.Anyway, Lord of Illusions should be classified as Neo-Noir...at least a little. It has all the right elements, detective, possible feme fatale, LA..you know it, hits most of the cliché's. And even the dress and make-up has throw backs to to the Bogart Era of film making. Subtle throwbacks.The cast is terrific, the soundtrack is awesome...but what stands out the most is how creepy it can get and do so without being over bearing and too serious.It has a Manson Family meets Lucifer himself feel to it while being wound up in an old fashioned detective story...with some of the best lines you'll ever hear come out of a horror movie delivered by some of the more disturbing performances you will see in a genre that is often lacking in serious actors and actresses.And though it is admittedly far from an all star cast, Scott Bakula, Kevin J. O'Connor, Daniel von Bargen, and Famke Janssen consistently deliver good performances and are all at the absolute top of their game for a movie that can't easily fit into any molded horror cliché.Two thumbs up, ten of ten stars, one of the films you should see before you die.

SnoopyStyle In the Mojave Desert, practitioner of the dark arts Nix (Daniel von Bargen) leads a cult and has kidnapped a girl named Dorothea. His apprentice Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) leads former cult members to rescue the girl. Nix can't be killed but Swann binds him and buries him. Thirteen years later, Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula) is a NY private eye specializing in the occult. He travels to L.A. on a case where he stumbles onto Swann, and his now wife Dorothea (Famke Janssen) as followers of Nix try to find the burial site and free Nix.This is a fine Clive Barker story. It has a compelling plot. Scott Bakula is good as the lead. The major drawback is the weak special effects and some weak directing from Barker. The CGI is pretty bad and some get really cheesy. The Nix apparition looks horrible. The final battle has some good parts and some bad parts. The makeup is mostly good. I like the henchman character Butterfield but I wish that he be played by the same actor in both time frame. I don't understand why there are two actors playing that character.

RavenGlamDVDCollector Long story: Years ago, mid-Nineties, I saw bits of a movie at a friend's house after opting not to videotape it back home. It turned out to be better than I expected, and now, years later, I'm trying to find it. Problem is, I don't know the name of the movie. Or the actors.So why bother the fans of LORD OF ILLUSIONS? It clearly isn't this movie as I downloaded the trailer last night. But what I do remember of the target I'm searching for is (1) character name Swann (2) bad guy had a mandrill in a cage, a young girl in a cage, he intimated that he was going to put the girl in the cage with this horny creature (3) mind-bending powers of bad guy...You're all screaming this is LORD OF ILLUSIONS. I insist that it is not. I saw your movie trailer last night, and Scott Bakula doesn't ring a bell, and I'm RavenGlamDVDCollector, Famke GOLDENEYE Janssen would have rung a bell.The movie I saw was on South African pay-channel M-Net during the mid-Nineties, which places it in the same era as your movie. MAJOR POINT HERE: TV Trope & Idioms site refers to the movie's maniac monkey as a mandrill. From the flash of it seen in the downloaded trailer, THAT IS NOT A MANDRILL. Movie I'm talking about featured a big, hulking male mandrill with that 'war-painted horrible face', not the little fun thing from FRIENDS and CALIFORNICATION gone momentarily berserk.Identifying it hinges on the mentioned key scene: Does your LORD OF ILLUSIONS feature a despicable guy threatening to put a captive girl in a cage with an adult male mandrill (with for all practical purposes is a rainbow-faced baboon, very intimidating)And if I have just been wasting your time, kindly note that SOMEWHERE OUT THERE IS A MOVIE VERY SIMILAR IN KEY STRUCTURE, perhaps inspired by Clive Barker's work. Or am I 'barking' up the wrong tree? RavenGlamDVDCollector@gmail.com eagerly awaits your response. Please enlighten me with any comments and clues.