Such a frustrating disappointment

One of my all time favorites.

Captivating movie !

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I bumped into the last 45 minutes or so of this show on a local TV station while channel surfing after yesterday's (1/6/01) football games. I stopped to see the end of the film since, when I clicked in, I saw on screen a beautiful ingenue (Kath Barrese) and one of my favorite actors (Malcolm McDowell), so I figured it had to be worth a look.Alas, no. With a cast like McDowell, Meredith Baxter and Meg Foster, this movie had the potential to be good. It was apparently defeated by the scripting and, most importantly, the direction.There was no particular meaning to the story line that I could see, except perhaps that people who live in small seaside towns shouldn't drink too much. And the direction was so boring and choppy (even allowing for some apparent editing for TV, since it appeared that Ms. Barrese did at least one scene in the part I saw without the requisite minimum coverage) that the only reasons I stayed on channel was to see just how bad the movie could be, and to see a little more of Ms. Barrese. One might say that the only two worthwhile attributes in the movie were, in fact, Katherine Barrese.Every actor plowed through their lines as if they were automatons, which I believe must have been the effect the director wanted to achieve (as I know McDowell is anything but an automaton). And the characters' behaviours and interactions were inconsistent to the point of distraction. Additionally, rather than following the famous "W" formula (good times, followed by bad times, rising back to good times, dropping again, etc) to maintain viewer interest and excitement, the last half of this show at least was constantly "down". I believe the director was trying to instill a feeling of hopelessness; if so, he succeeded, since this movie is quite hopeless.Good Grief, even the film stock the movie was shot on was grainy and de-focused! And the character development, besides being inconsistent, made them ALL seem like they were zombies made of cardboard! By the time I saw 10 minutes of the movie, I really didn't care WHAT happened to any of the characters.I think this movie may be rated "R" for excessive boredom. You may feel the urge to go rent it (assuming you can FIND it anywhere; it's probably not popular enough to be stocked in any but the largest rental parlors), to see if Ms. Barrese does indeed do any interesting nude scenes. I recommend you resist that urge with all your moral fortitude; your money would be much better spent on "X-Men" trading cards or some such. But if you must do so, then at least find some discount place where you can get it for 99 cents (plus tax, of course). For even at that price, you will have spent more than 50 times the value of the viewing; I don't consider this movie worth 2 cents.

It's like something out of a movie, really. This (unheard of ) director comes to a small remote town (Eureka, Calif., 280 miles north of San Francisco) and makes headlines by filming "a big Hollywood production!" entirely in our area. We're so far from anything that this becomes very exciting, especially when they hire some local talent to act and work. At premiere time there is a big "opening night" at a local theater, complete with director and lots of publicity (lots by our standards). A large, excited crowd fills the film house and sits *stunned* by the horribly stupid plot that unfolds. At first we're excited by all the scenes of local beauty, and enchanted by a very pleasant soundtrack, but by the time we are halfway through, we realize we have wasted part of our lives, captive to a film turkey. We file out in silence, yes, *silence*. I heard only one person speak all the way to the parking lot a block away, offering, "well, the music was nice". The movie went straight to video and it has since become a local joke. It *does* do justice to our beautiful N.Calif. coastline but if you want that, rent "Outbreak" or even "The Lost World". They were also filmed here and went far to get the taste of Jezebel's Kiss out of our mouths!

This is probably not the greatest movie, but Katherine Barrese is very good and very beautiful! This is the only film with K.B. in main role, and this is shame!

The movie wasn't too good, but it was the first time I had ever heard the name Jezebel (I don't read the bible very often as you can tell) and it was so beautiful sounding that I'm naming my first child Jezebel (despite the derogatory meaning of the name itself), and I guess I have this movie to thank