Captive
Subject: Review
of "Captive" with Erika Eleniak
From: William A.
Arvola <arvola@gte.net>
Digest:
volume98/570
Date: Fri, 11 Dec
1998 23:47:49 -0600
Here's a review of the movie "Captive" starring Erika Eleniak.
Title: Captive
Directed by:
Roger Cardinal
Written by:
Rodney Gibbons, Richard Stanford
Produced by:
Stephen Maynard, Holly A. Simpson [Blackwatch Communications.]
Starring: Erika
Eleniak, Michael Ironside, Catherine Colvey.
Rated: Estimated
PG-13
Affable wealthy fashion mogul marries young beautiful designer [Eleniak] and promptly gets murdered by party or parties unknown. Bereaved widow attempts suicide and is voluntarily committed to an institution at the coaxing of an overly solicitous brother-in-law. Alleged wife-beater and homicide investigator [Ironside] eyes the suspicious brother-in-law. A quirk in state law suspends mogul's will; formerly the estate would be split between brother-in-law and the very same institution now ministering to widow; now the widow gets all. Evil motives are revealed in the brother-in-law and a complicitous doctor [Colvey], however they manage to cast suspicion on a second doctor. An orderly of secondary villiany gives an insightful twist to the story's narration. The widow, sensing malice in every corner, escapes the institution with the aid of a fellow [mute] inmate, but her freedom is shortlived. The brother-in-law now has a change of heart and gets whacked by the evil doctor. The evil doctor now tries to whack the widow but instead gets whacked by the mute inmate. All appears well except for that nagging question, "Who whacked the mogul?" Does our "heroic" investigator have the last laugh?
This movie runs the typical ninety minutes. The first 75 minutes are mildly tedious with footage of the preliminary murder run over and over again to no real purpose. Erika is mildly cute with little screen presense until the final five minutes. She is the most convincing while kicking and screaming [a la her performance in "Under Siege."] The evil doctor [Colvey] is mildly sinister with perhaps the best performance of the movie. A bit of warm cuddly comic relief is provided by another inmate describing the psychodelic fantasies the institutional drugs induce. Having the movie narrated by a lesser villian is the most interesting technical device therein.
All in all, a mild exercise in entertainment. The last five minutes almost make up for the tedium of the first 75. If you have to see Erika, rent the aforementioned "Under Siege."
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1999/05/02