What an Amazing film this was. The plot is thick with entrigue and it really keeps you there. I also think this movie is frightening in places, an not your average "jumping out of knowhere" or "Skull crushed to pulp" kind of scary but it's an emotional kind which is very rare to see in film. *****
shareI agree. I saw it several years ago, and several times since. I love the twists and turns in the plot. I also love Robin Williams. He is just so strange in this flick. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good, twisted who-done-it. It will leave you guessing until the end.
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I love this movie. It has a very old time thriller style to it. it's creepy and weird and has tons of style. This was the first movie I noticed Ken in and thought he and Emma were amazing in it. In fact everyone was amazing in it. Derek Jacobi rocks!
shareAmen. This is one of my all time favorite films!!
Peace and Love!
Terrific mystery...one of my all-time favorites. It's the best movie Hitchcock never made.
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt...
And then it's just hilarious!"
This movie is extremely underrated. The Chemistry between the leads is fantastic. Even though I prefer them as the current characters instead of the ones from 1949.
shareI absolutely love this film. Ive watched it dozens of times and have had so many people watch it.. and they in turn love it too.
Its just a very good quality movie thats classy... no unnecessary fluff in it.
I love it.
and yes - it is very very underrated.
Dead Again is absolutely brilliant, ingeniuous, and sparkling.
The humour was quick and intelligent, very innocently spoken. I've only seen a handful of films with such a high level of intelligent humour, one of which includes How To Kill Your Neighbour's Dog, which also stars Branagh.
The dialogue was sheer perfection. Not a word was wasted, the actors breathed life into every word they said. You could tell they all took pride and pleasure in making the lines work. I knew who Branagh, Jacobi, and Thompson were before they made Dead Again, and when I watched them in Dead again, I had the strong impression that they treated the script like a stage play by putting all their energy into making the script itself come theatrically alive. They had a strong faith in the production, and it shines through them onto the screen.
The plot blossomed skillfully, with clues hidden in the dialogue, charaterizations, and settings. There were dozens of little clues that were innocuously and witfully hidden throughout the film.
The musical score is better than Hitchcock's Psycho, simply because Roman's emotional symphony is interweaved in the score and reflects the mood of each scene (especially towards the end), the symphony includes a choir singing excerpts of Shakespeare's Othello (which is a play about jealousy), and because if you listen closely, you'll hear musical moments that echo Doyle's Henry V score, which was one of the greatest film scores ever created.
I watched Dead Again in a theatre when it was released in 1989, and remembered every single part, that is how fantastic this film was, and still is.
This was an excellent movie. I loved the suspence and how it all came together in the end. It was very well done! One of my favourites! Are there any similar movies that you would recomend?
shareThese modern films remind me of Dead Again:
Mulholland Dr.
Femme Fatale
Dark City
L.A. Confidential
Basic Instinct
Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
Wait Until Dark
Dead Again also borrowed heavily from psychological, gothic, suspense thrillers from the 1940's and 1950's. Everything in Dead Again reminded me of these classic Alfred Hitchcock films (and Branagh himself borrowed from them):
Spellbound
Dial M For Murder
Vertigo
Rebecca
Notorious
Shadow Of A Doubt
Suspicion
Psycho
Plus:
The Stranger (Orson Welles)
Touch Of Evil (Orson Welles)
Gaslight (George Cukor)
Dark Passage (Delmer Daves)
Laura (1944)
thank you! yes, i saw 'wait until dark' (Audrey Hepburn, wonderful actress!) and 'Laura' it was interesting as well! i'll be sure to check those out. Also i rented an old movie the other day called "sorry..wrong number" have you seen that? it's a little out dated i guess but i thought it was certainly interesting ! be sure to check it out :) thanks again, cya
shareYes, I love the original Sorry...Wrong Number. Barbara Stanwyck (Leona) was such an under-rated actress in her younger years.
What I really loved about the movie was how the plot details were revealed through phone conversations. You get small snippets of details, and the closer you get to the complete story, the more her life falls apart, and the closer she gets to death...
Very claustrophobic film.
Some recent additions to that list of quirky, just-WTF-is-going-on-here types of movies are:
The Usual Suspects
Memento
Frailty
I remember seeing HUSH, HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE when I was about 6, and loved it.
(Although the bit where Agnes Moorehead falls down the stairs was a little traumatic for me, since I also knew her as Endora on BEWITCHED at the time.)
RE: Alfred Hitchcock
Although all most all his movies are masterpieces that have stood the test of time, if DEAD AGAIN is an homage to any of them, it could be to THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, which is definitely one of Hitchcock's oddest, although still enjoyable films.
Another offbeat thriller, from the 60s, is William Castle's LET'S KILL UNCLE(if you can find a copy). Compared to todays FX standards, the shark in the backyard pool sucks, but still an oddball thriller that always knows it's at least 90% tongue-in-cheek, and hopefully, so does the viewer.
those are some great films. i loved wait until dark. amazing hepburn film.
i saw dead again during it's original run and have been in love with it since. it is an astonishingly underrrated film.
it's black, a pastel black really
Okay... I give. Where does this "It's black, a pastel black, really" come from????
shareDead Again is definitely one of the most underrated movies of the 90s along with Flatliners.
shareI think it's a quote from This is Spinal Tap.
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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.
Aside from the pretty appalling American accents (Thompson's considerably worse than Branagh's), it's a damn good movie. Kind of a neo-noir combined with a retro-noir, with Robin Williams and Derek Jacobi in small, but standout, roles.
All points aside, I could listen to Derek Jacobi read the phone book. His voice is so melodic - ironic since he's played a couple stutterers.
One of my faves. I had it on VHS and wanted it really bad on DVD and finally found a copy on Ebay. It has some great directors commentary by Kenneth on it.
Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?
The Breakfast Club
this is my favorite movie, i have it on DVD, but i never thought to watch the commentary!
thanks christy, i'll put that on my to-do list
i wish Branagh would make another mystery/thriller....he'd knock our socks off, especially w/the crap that is out there today...!
BLAH
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