Nice cast in a sometimes very funny spoof of erotic thrillers that were appearing at the time. Beginning with "Body Heat" in 1981, you could pick one adjective from Column A and one noun from Column B. From Column A: Fatal, Basic, Dangerous, Lethal, or Deadly. From Column B: Affair, Instinct, Liaisons, or Encounters. And then there was the anomalous "Poisonous Panties: The True Story of the Victoria's Secret Murders." This hectic farce rips off scenes and themes from innumerable noirish thrillers with base overtones. I caught "Double Indemnity," "Body Heat," "Sleeping With The Enemy," "The Maltese Falcon," "The Postman Always Rings Twice." I'm not showing off. It's easy. And I'm sure I missed some. The "Airplane" people and those who produced this imitation of imitations -- a kind of meta-imitation -- must have just about run out of gags because there haven't been that many recently.
There's no reason to outline the plot. It has something to do with a wife's wanting to kill her husband for insurance but the plot is pulled apart by so many exotic allusions and so much word play, so many quips and monstrous metaphors, so many catachreses and zeugmas and whatnot, that it's often forgotten and just as well. Not that it's a masterpiece of literary play. People are always falling down stairs and doing forward flips for little discernible reason. We're not talking Oscar Wilde, but the dialog is pretty funny. I should have taken notes but, as it is, I can't recall any lines. My short-term memory is getting shoddy. I think my brain is turning to tofu and I may leave it to the American Culinary Institute for analysis.
Two observations though. One is that Armand Assante is an excellent comic character. I wouldn't have expected it from him. He put his arrant masculinity to ridiculous use. And Sean Young, for all her off-screen foibles, is a delicious creature, all cream and pearl.
I think you'll enjoy this unless you're in an irretrievably dark mood.
There's no reason to outline the plot. It has something to do with a wife's wanting to kill her husband for insurance but the plot is pulled apart by so many exotic allusions and so much word play, so many quips and monstrous metaphors, so many catachreses and zeugmas and whatnot, that it's often forgotten and just as well. Not that it's a masterpiece of literary play. People are always falling down stairs and doing forward flips for little discernible reason. We're not talking Oscar Wilde, but the dialog is pretty funny. I should have taken notes but, as it is, I can't recall any lines. My short-term memory is getting shoddy. I think my brain is turning to tofu and I may leave it to the American Culinary Institute for analysis.
Two observations though. One is that Armand Assante is an excellent comic character. I wouldn't have expected it from him. He put his arrant masculinity to ridiculous use. And Sean Young, for all her off-screen foibles, is a delicious creature, all cream and pearl.
I think you'll enjoy this unless you're in an irretrievably dark mood.