Lying in Wait (2001) User Reviews

"Who are you?", spoke the midget.

[Vomitron_G · 4/10 · 12 December 2005]

First of all I have to say that LYING IN WAIT is NOT the worst Rutger Hauer-movie ever (I haven't seen them all, so I'm not sure, but for the moment I'd say THE LAW OF THE DESERT has got to be the worst). I also must say that the best thing that happened while watching LYING IN WAIT, was that I lost interest in the movie halfway through it. By doing so, I completely did not see the twist in the end coming. So the movie got me there. An extra point for that.

The plot is a hit and miss one, becoming slow and boring in the mid-section. Babee Gordon (can you believe the stupid name?) is a young man living in the house of his deceased mother. His only occupations are his paintings and spending time with his friend El, a girl who likes him more than a little bit. Keith and Vera Miller arrive and become Babee's new neighbours. They invite him and El to dinner. A lot of seductive talking is being done, but nothing happens. When Babee gets invited a second time, however, things go wrong...

Virginia Madsen and Rutger Hauer succeed more or less in saving this film. Hauer's part in this movie is odd, to say the least. Due to a car crash he spends most of the movie (and I quote) in a "persistent vegetative state" (!?) Now is that an acknowledged medical term?? Wathever. Now you can also see Hauer play the accordion AND wearing a red helmet (though not at the same time). Those are two of my favorite props used by mr. Hauer and it's a mind-boggling experience seeing him associated with them (for a full list, check out Gravyshanks comment "Props for Rutger Hauer", however he forgot to mention Hauer caressing boobies and spanking buttocks). Anyway, an extra point for Hauer going at it with the props.

Then there are also two scenes which you just have to see. One is a one-minute-long David Lynch-type of scene which will make you go "What the f#@k!?!". It involves Babee entering a room containing some mental-patients, including a skinny mutant-midget with a high-pitched voice. The other scene has Virginia Madsen performing a singing/dancing/stripping-act on a beach for Babee. In my opinion her act is not very erotic, but rather embarrassing. Although she does not go all the way, we do get a good glimpse at what she's offering... So add another two points for those scenes.

So that makes 4 out of 10 points for LYING IN WAIT and 4 damned good reasons for you to watch this movie.

Boring

[mm-39 · 5/10 · 19 August 2002]

This is another boring film done by Rutger Huger. His career has been on the down slide for many years. I think he should just call it quits. He played a good weirdo but the story was lacking. The rest of the cast were no names and desperately needed acting lessons. Do yourself a favor and bypass this one. 5/10

erotic striptease

[redhazervn · 23 August 2002]

In this movie, Vera (Virginia Madsen) does a drunken, beachfront striptease, although her character quickly sobers up and realizes the inappropriateness of her actions. The abortive dance, with no overt nudity ,was one of the most erotic scenes in my recent cinema experience.

Obviously, eroticism is in the eye of the beholder, but if you find Virginia Madsen as attractive as I do, you'll want to track this film down.

Props for Rutger Hauer

[gravyshanks · 1/10 · 21 July 2005]

For those of you who haven't yet seen "Lying in Wait," please let me take a moment to list for you some props used by Rutger Hauer.

Accordion - Rutger Hauer plays the accordion on more than one occasion, one of which is a seduction scene. The other accordion scene occurs in the waning hours of a sexy party, complete with upright jazz bass accompaniment.

Cold hard cash - Rutger Hauer flashes a substantial wad of money he then bets on a horse. It's perhaps the most exciting moment of the first half of the movie.

Red helmet - Rutger Hauer wears a red helmet, the type the severely retarded or hyperactive will wear. After wearing the helmet a few times, he then dons non-protective headwear, specifically a woolen ski cap.

Motorized wheelchair - Rutger Hauer, avec woolen ski cap, implausibly forces another character over her own balcony by ramming her with his motorized wheelchair. Keep in mind this is a 3 1/2 foot balcony designed to keep people from falling, yet Rutger's wheelchair employs a type of metaphysics to thrust (was it Lois?) over, through, the railing to her doom below.

Thomas Newton - Rutger Hauer uses actor Thomas Newton as a sort of personal hand puppet while the two of them excitedly watch a horse race. The action is thinly implied, yet when one advances the film frame by frame, one can almost see an expression of terror momentarily flash across Newton's face. It is the unmistakable look of doom caused by having a big, old Dutchman's fist in his rectum.

Urea - Rutger Hauer goes to an art opening and pees on the floor from his motorized wheelchair, causing the uncaring art crowd to titter. While not technically a prop (urea may be considered a special effect,) it is an artistic choice agreed upon by the screenwriter, director, producer, art department, financiers, etc. and executed by Mr. Hauer in a convincing fashion.

Motorized wheelchair redux - Rutger Hauer pushes a TV actor into a swimming pool using the wheelchair, pinning the man to the bottom and drowning him. For all you doubters, know that there's more than just one way to kill with wheels. Paraplegics rejoice! You are the rolling hurt machines of woe for us all.

Bloody Nose - Rutger Hauer has a bloody nose in the penultimate scene. It trickles into his mouth and gets on his teeth.

Note - Rutger Hauer spends over half of this movie in a persistent vegetative state and the fact that he's able to use props at all is remarkable.

Listing props is the only way to get through the movie. Good luck.

This film features a character so deep in the closet, the guy who wrote the script didn't realize he was gay

[MBunge · 3/10 · 24 August 2010]

I try not to spoil things in a review unless the movie is so unbelievably horrid that I want to be sure no one feels there's any reason at all to watch it. Lying in Wait isn't THAT bad, but it's awful close.

Babee Gordon (Thomas Newton) is the 20something son of a deceased TV actress. Yes, his mother actually named him Babee. Yes, people in the film comment on his name. No, the film never explains why he hasn't changed his name or just tells everyone to call him Rick or something. Babee's only real friend is his companion since childhood, the now-teenaged El (Vanessa Gordon). Yes, her name is actually El and not Elle. Are you already starting to get a sense of how terrible this film is? Babee is a wannabe painter who's been living in his mom's house on his mom's money. El is one of those drama queens whose seeming innocence masks real emotional problems. She's been carrying a torch for Babee since they were kids, but he shows absolutely no feelings for her…which I'll get into more later in the review.

Anyway, a new married couple moves in next door to Babee. Keith and Vera Miller (Rutger Hauer and Virginia Madsen) are rich, middle aged and very screwed up. Keith is a thrill seeker and the kind of guy who thinks he's deeply committed to his wife, even though he has sex with other women. Vera is a lonely, emotionally dependent woman who immediately latches onto Babee. When he sees Keith having sex with Lois (Shannon Whirry), Babee gets drawn into the Millers' twisted relationship.

Then a car accident puts Keith into a persistent vegetative state and Babee becomes caretaker to both Keith and the vulnerable Vera. He ends up having sex with Vera and talking with Keith, who apparently is just faking his brain damage but will only let Babee in on the secret. As the story unfolds, Keith winds up killing a couple of people, even though he's motionless in a wheelchair. Babee covers up for Keith, even when a police detective (Tony Bill) starts snooping around.

I won't spoil the story's twist, but if you've got half a brain, you'll figure it out about an hour before the movie reveals it. That's because it's the only possible explanation for Babee's behavior. This is the single most obvious, telegraphed and unavoidable twist I've ever seen in any film.

The only genuinely good thing about Lying in Wait is that it demonstrates quite clearly the difference between people who can't act and people who can but are just giving a poor performance. Thomas Newton and Vanessa Gordon can't act. They give performances straight out of a high school play. They were both fairly young when they made this film, so they may have gotten better. But Newton is boring when he's supposed to be the young hero of the story and he's just as boring when he's revealed to be something else. Gordon's acting is closer to a 40 year old man pretending to be a young girl than an actual young girl. Now, Rutger Hauer and Virginia Madsen also give awful performances in this film, but they suck in a way where you can tell they could be good in other circumstances. Hauer is very animated and carries a sense of menace even as a human vegetable. Madsen's Vera seems genuinely troubled and unhappy. The problem is their characters say and do such stupid things in the story that neither of them can really be believable. They're like musicians doing a pretty good job playing a really lame song. You don't enjoy the song but you can recognize the talent of the players.

One other striking thing about Lying in Wait is that Babee Gordon is clearly gay. He is a deep in the closet, self-deceiving, what used to be called latent homosexual. But not only do none of the characters in the movie realize it, the guy who wrote and directed the movie doesn't appear to have realized it! I don't know if Thomas Newton is gay and a bad actor or straight and a bad actor, but he has zero sexual chemistry with either Vanessa Gordon or Virginia Madsen. When you can't have sexual chemistry with Virginia Madsen, there's something massively wrong. The movie tries to say that Babee grew up with El and just doesn't feel that way about her, but she's a hot, young thing and she's constantly throwing herself at Babee and he's never uncomfortable. He's just annoyed with it. Newton never shows and the movie never acknowledges the natural, physical reactions and impulses that arise out of that situation. And Babee's seduction/being seduced by Vera is even worse. Again, there's zero sexual chemistry and the story never bothers to justify in any way the supposed attraction between this older woman and younger man. If you just cut out about 45 seconds of lame sex scenes between Babee and Vera, you would swear this was a story about a middle aged woman with a bad marriage befriending the unhappy and artistic gay boy next door. In fact, while I was waiting for the film to reveal it's big twist, I was also waiting for it to reveal that Babee was was homosexual. It never does.

In addition to being bad, Lying in Wait is also a big tease. It's rated R for Strong Sexual Content…but that content is a single brief nude scene with Shannon Whirry and a shot of Virginia Madsen's thong. That's it. If you're making a crappy sex thriller, especially one so cheap the DVD doesn't even have a menu screen, you can at least fill it with plenty of sex.

One of the worst movies ever!

[spectredoggie · 1/10 · 1 September 2003]

Where do I start??? Horrible direction. Bad acting. Bad writing. Oh yeah, did I mention the directing was awful?

This could have been a decent thriller had it a tiny smidgen of subtlety and taste in how it was delivered. As it stands, it's just another waste of an hour and a half.

Avoid this like the plague!!!

The Worst.

[CrzyMuthaRugger · 1/10 · 8 December 2003]

This is quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. Now I have seen a lot of movies, some were B movies some were great Academy Award movies, but nothing that I have ever seen prepared me for the journey that I refer to as Lying in Wait. I have never seen worse acting, not even in my old high school acting classes. Pathetic. If you can seen one movie this year, heck, if you can see 1,000,000 movies this year make sure YOU DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE. Regrets are all that follows. Regrets of lost time and missed opportunities.

RUBBISH!

[Caps Fan · 1/10 · 25 September 2001]

This is an abysmal film, totally lacking in suspense and peopled by characters I couldn't give a flying fig about. The actors move and speak like marionettes, as if they can't wait to get off-camera. Not surprising really, since you can hardly see them in the murky photography. Add insipid music and silly plot development and you have the kind of movie experience it's well worth the trouble of avoiding. Rating: 1/10

An Interesting Psychological Character Study

[sjcjrice · 7/10 · 10 June 2001]

Although I'm not sure this film works as a thriller, it is an effective character study. Babee is the reclusive son of a late television star who lives alone in a large, somewhat decrepit, Hollywood mansion. His only friend is a beautiful young neighbor who grew up with him. His life changes drastically when a troubled couple (Rutger Hauer and Virginia Madsen) moves in next door. Hauer's amoral character, Keith Miller, decides to tutor Babee in the finer things in life (drinking, gambling and women). After Miller is severely brain damaged in an accident, Babee becomes his caretaker. When Miller's enemies start dying, however, Babee becomes convinced that Miller is faking his injury. Although most people could predict the ending around the beginning of the movie, "Lying in Wait" is well made and the acting is very good.

More than meets the eye

[Willy-51 · 9/10 · 24 June 2001]

I admit I'm a big Rutger fan, which is why I rented the movie, and Virginia Madsen is no slouch either. And I must say I was quite impressed with the film! It's not jump out of your seat scary, more creepy and foreboding. Pretty good acting all around (I especially liked Thomas Newton) and solid direction, camera, etc. But the thing is, I realized at the end of the movie that it's not about Babee, the young, reclusive artist, but about the girl next door! I think she may be the true crazy! Pretty good script, interesting little film. I totally recommend this little gem!

Amusing

[leno · 7/10 · 29 October 2004]

I read this page before watching the movie so I expected a pretty bad movie. Now I can say that is not true. The story doesn't make much sense and the ending is far fetched, but it's very amusing. Hauer plays a excellent role, a psycho who uses Babee Gordon as a hand puppet. You can see Hauer really enjoys his role and he shows he can do better then the roles he usually gets (offered). Without Hauer this movie would be just another B thriller, perhaps a even a C thriller. Madsen shows she isn't only a nice woman to look at but she can also act. Thomas Newton is okay but the real fireworks come from Hauer..

See this movie at least twice. Gets better and better!

[hartert · 10/10 · 29 June 2001]

Some nice little surprises here! Very well acted and an interesting story. You definately need to view this film more than once to appreciate it fully. The casting was great and the dialogue quite believable. This is a dark and yet delightful movie,,,Well done!

Stupid story - some good performances

[bob the moo · 21 December 2001]

Young bachelor Babee is looking after his dead mother's estate when married couple Keith and Vera move in. Babee becomes attracted to them by the beautiful Vera and the risk taking Keith. However at a party Vera crashes her car, putting Keith into a coma. When Keith comes out he is in a semi-vegetative state and must rely on Vera to look after him. Keith can't move or speak but reveals to Babee that he can still talk and starts to kill those that wronged him with Babee's help.

This starts reasonably enough - it looks like a femme-fatale type deal. However after the accident (early on in the film) it all gets a bit silly and doesn't make sense any more. The main problem is the ridiculous idea of this man totally paralysed rolling into people in his wheelchair to kill them. The fact that the innocent Babee, so attracted to Vera, would assist him to do things in secret is even more unlikely. And the ending is just absurd - not only the set-up but the conclusion.

Virginia Madsen is quite good in the role of Vera. Likewise Thomas Newton and Vanessa Dorman are good as Babee and Elle respectively. However Hauer seems to have lost any ability to pick good roles - Bladerunner and the Hitcher were clearly early flukes. He spends most of his time in a wheelchair and looks stupid as he pretends to be a vegetable, he really has a thankless role.

Overall this is a sloppy film. It has several good performances but the plot is very thin - at times it feels like no one knows what they're doing. What plot there is (paralysed man in a wheelchair bumps people off) is stupid and badly handled. Overall, an occasionally embarrassing mess.

a nifty little thriller

[twgame · 9/10 · 28 March 2002]

Obviously a low budget film that went straight to video, but hugely better than most that fit that bill, and better than many so-called studio thrillers as well. While it's not jump in your seat scary, it's more creepy, foreboding, and surprisingly literate. How many movies quote from "Day of the Locust" which ties into the plot as well. This movie is saying quite a bit, I think, about Hollywood, illusion and reality, etc. And it's got Virginia Madsen showing us her thong underwear on the beach!

Quirky, fascinating thriller, highly recommended!

[j_skillin · 8/10 · 15 March 2005]

While it is surely not for every taste, I highly recommend "Lying in Wait" to anyone who enjoys an off-beat thriller, with a talented cast and some surprising plot twists. Fans of Virginia Madsen will relish her fine performance here, another in her gallery of memorable femmes fatales ("Gotham," "Hot Spot," et al). Miss Madsen's seductive dance at the beach, with thundering surf as a backdrop, is one of those transcendent moments she often delivers -- even in her more mediocre films.

But "Lying in Wait" is not a mediocre film. On the contrary, it is more art film than conventional thriller. The young neighbors (wonderfully portrayed by Vanessa Dorman and Thomas Newton) intrigue us with their innocent eccentricity. The story unfolds in dream-like fashion. It demands of us a "willing suspension of disbelief," but what psychological thriller does not?

Finally, those who complain about murky photography are missing the point. "Lying in Wait" is best viewed as a waking dream and we must not expect to see everything clearly when we are dreaming. I believe the director and cinematographer were quite deliberate in taking this heavily stylized approach. (You can find this same kind of high-contrast photography and lighting in the film noir classics of the 1940s; the only difference being that most of those were shot in b&w.)

lying in wait, worth watching

[schultz_jennifer · 8/10 · 16 August 2005]

Lying in Wait is a well developed characters study, you know these people. The movie is a plot driven thriller with a twist. The movie is not driven by sex or violence though both ocur in very limited moderation. The screen play is worth watching twice to get the nuances and subtle humor. Other than Rutgar Howard, most of the actor/actresses are not recognizable and maybe with the exception of "L" deliver fair to good performances. If you watch it twice, Rutger gets a little old as he continues to get older. The film quality is grainy and the sets are somewhat dark, which fits with the dark quality of the subject matter. I have seen better films, but certainly have seen worse. There is no doubt that Lying in Wait is a low budget film, but generally a well done low budget film. 

A young man has a fling with his neighbor's wife while covering up the trail of the husband's murderous rampage.

[Willy-51 · 9/10 · 28 March 2002]

An excellent psychological thriller. Edgy, dark and witty. Good cast, although Tony Bill was a bit flat. The plot twists were authentic with a solid surprise at the end. The only real flaw, not sexy enough. Virginia Madsen was good but would have traded her for an actress that was willing to show some skin. Rutger Hauer was, as always, on top of his game.

A Good Film that Impressed Me

[The Creeper · 10/10 · 25 December 2001]

This Film Impressed Me. It hit all of the Essential Categories that Make a Classic. Horror, Suspense, Drama, Romance, and Thrills. This film had it ALL! It was way Better than "Scream", And I Think It could only be Compared to "Silence of the Lambs". It's Good. 10 out of 10. Also Recommended: The Gardener (AKA: Garden of Evil).

If you like 'Desperate Housewives' or 'Dallas' ...

[vchimpanzee · 28 February 2006]

Six months after Babee Gordon's mother Sue died, Mr. Horn recommends he sell the house because the trust fund is running out and Babee doesn't seem capable of making a living, though he does like to paint. Sue was a wealthy and reclusive actress who apparently had a popular TV series. She was also a talented artist, though it's not clear if she made any money other than from her acting career. Babee was a prop man's poodle, though Sue acted like it was hers, and what she did when her son was born was unbelievably cruel. We never learn about Babee's father.

Keith and Vera are Babee's new neighbors. Vera flirts with Babee, and Keith seems to enjoy spending time with Babee's pretty, perky and selfish aspiring dancer girlfriend El. At a party, Keith wants to fix Babee up with Lois--which makes no sense because Keith wants her too. Lois didn't care for Sue's TV series.

Keith and Vera are obviously not happy in their marriage, but Keith is unwilling to get a divorce.

Keith enjoys living on the edge (no, I won't make a 'Smallville' joke here). He makes his living gambling, having become discouraged working in the film industry. Apparently he's very good at it, because he has a nice house. He doesn't believe in insurance, but his wife does. She has a life insurance policy which will pay her well if Keith dies. Fortunately, she also seems to have health insurance which covers Keith.

George wants to exhibit Babee's art work at the Fletcher Gallery. Apparently Babee inherited his mother's talent.

Several murders and attempted murders take place, and the person we believe committed the murders has a perfect alibi.

The ending made no sense--at first. The movie was progressing in a certain way, and it seemed like the writers defied logic to rush the movie to its conclusion when they ran out of time. Or did they?

Rutger Hauer does a fine job here. At the horse track, Keith's passion is clear. And there's another dimension to Hauer's performance which I don't want to give away.

I thought Shannon Whirry was Elizabeth Berkley at first, but she's too good an actress--deliciously evil is a good way to describe her performance. And she's quite pretty.

Ian Buchanan also had a nasty side, also reminiscent of the campy soaps such as 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty'.

In my opinion, most of the leading actors did a good job. I'm not sure, though, about Vanessa Dorman, who narrated the movie at times.

This is not a movie for kids. The characters seem to have no morals, except possibly Babee, El, and the detective. And even Babee wasn't that moral.

I didn't like most of the music (not counting background music, which I don't really recall). For example, there is the alternative rock 'Black Sleep' used with the closing credits, which is a style so many people enjoy these days. But Keith did play the accordion several times, and for me that was enjoyable.

This is certainly not the high-quality production that a series like 'Desperate Housewives' is, but at times it achieves at least some of the campy feeling. There are some good moments.