I was expecting good things from THESIS, but, long story short, if a movie's gonna keep jerking me around, it should do it quickly.
The movie starts out well. We've got a spooky opening sequence, a mysterious video tape of unknown origin (where have we seen *that* before?), an early unexplained death, and a gorehound/Keith Gordon lookalike as a possible hero/love interest. But from the beginning credibility leaks out of the production, which always tests my patience.
First of all, the heroine is, for a college student, pretty stupid, choosing to hide in isolated corridors when being chased rather than remain in the safety of a public place. And she's turned on by her suspect? The possibility of him being a sadistic killer gives her erotic nightmares? That I can believe, I guess; I should give the movie the benefit of the doubt, ignoring the fact that she had no meaningful talk with him, knows nothing about him, and, if she were half as intelligent as her professor claims she is, would wake up and realize her predicament is reminiscent of the plot of BASIC INSTINCT. Wouldn't she have seen this movie? She's a film student writing her thesis on "audiovisual violence" in the media. Surely she'd be familiar with the work of Paul Verhoeven, since this movie obviously takes place in the real world, as evidenced by the real movie posters seen scattered throughout. Movies like this make the pop-culture savvy SCREAM troupe a blessing to us who grow tired of trying to relate to characters who exist in a closed-off world, where nothing exists outside the plot.
Are my points up to now ridiculous? Probably. I should focus on the plot instead of the milieu. But the plot, as I've said, is as close to BASIC INSTINCT's as can be without actually lifting dialogue verbatim from it. First she thinks her suspect is the killer. Then she thinks her partner is involved. Then her suspect again. Then her partner, and back and forth until they're both in the same room and she doesn't know which one to trust. It's Sharon Stone and Jeanne Tripplehorn with a sex change and a different passport.
What I also can't believe is that it takes her the whole movie to deduce what's been obvious to the viewer from the get-go. We know what's up, and wait for the characters to catch up to us. How frustrating is that when there's nothing else to occupy our minds? THESIS is visually drab and uninterestingly acted, and no dialogue is worth repeating, much less remembering.
And the conventions of this genre are of course present and accounted for. The old newspaper clippings. The photograph linking the past of two opposed characters. The hero bursting in not a moment too late. The climatic showdown. One that's missing, thanks, is the bad guy popping up for one last *boo!*. Guess the filmmakers couldn't afford that one at the Movie Cliché Store.
(Oh, am I wondering just where the hero was before he made his entrance. Off in the restroom? Waiting for his cue?)
I will give credit to THESIS for beating 8MM to the punch, so to speak. Snuff is a fascinating (if depraved) aspect of our imagination, and the movie does make some astute commentary on our culture's appetite for violence. And the final scene, while blunt and obvious, wraps everything up satisfactorily.
I"m making this sound like a terrible movie, but it's really not. While knowing the destination, I was still enjoying the trip, more or less. It's always nice when the movie geek is the hero and gets the girl. Some scenes (like the pivotal phone call) are successful in creating suspense, and despite my grousing, I still liked it, kinda.
6/10
The movie starts out well. We've got a spooky opening sequence, a mysterious video tape of unknown origin (where have we seen *that* before?), an early unexplained death, and a gorehound/Keith Gordon lookalike as a possible hero/love interest. But from the beginning credibility leaks out of the production, which always tests my patience.
First of all, the heroine is, for a college student, pretty stupid, choosing to hide in isolated corridors when being chased rather than remain in the safety of a public place. And she's turned on by her suspect? The possibility of him being a sadistic killer gives her erotic nightmares? That I can believe, I guess; I should give the movie the benefit of the doubt, ignoring the fact that she had no meaningful talk with him, knows nothing about him, and, if she were half as intelligent as her professor claims she is, would wake up and realize her predicament is reminiscent of the plot of BASIC INSTINCT. Wouldn't she have seen this movie? She's a film student writing her thesis on "audiovisual violence" in the media. Surely she'd be familiar with the work of Paul Verhoeven, since this movie obviously takes place in the real world, as evidenced by the real movie posters seen scattered throughout. Movies like this make the pop-culture savvy SCREAM troupe a blessing to us who grow tired of trying to relate to characters who exist in a closed-off world, where nothing exists outside the plot.
Are my points up to now ridiculous? Probably. I should focus on the plot instead of the milieu. But the plot, as I've said, is as close to BASIC INSTINCT's as can be without actually lifting dialogue verbatim from it. First she thinks her suspect is the killer. Then she thinks her partner is involved. Then her suspect again. Then her partner, and back and forth until they're both in the same room and she doesn't know which one to trust. It's Sharon Stone and Jeanne Tripplehorn with a sex change and a different passport.
What I also can't believe is that it takes her the whole movie to deduce what's been obvious to the viewer from the get-go. We know what's up, and wait for the characters to catch up to us. How frustrating is that when there's nothing else to occupy our minds? THESIS is visually drab and uninterestingly acted, and no dialogue is worth repeating, much less remembering.
And the conventions of this genre are of course present and accounted for. The old newspaper clippings. The photograph linking the past of two opposed characters. The hero bursting in not a moment too late. The climatic showdown. One that's missing, thanks, is the bad guy popping up for one last *boo!*. Guess the filmmakers couldn't afford that one at the Movie Cliché Store.
(Oh, am I wondering just where the hero was before he made his entrance. Off in the restroom? Waiting for his cue?)
I will give credit to THESIS for beating 8MM to the punch, so to speak. Snuff is a fascinating (if depraved) aspect of our imagination, and the movie does make some astute commentary on our culture's appetite for violence. And the final scene, while blunt and obvious, wraps everything up satisfactorily.
I"m making this sound like a terrible movie, but it's really not. While knowing the destination, I was still enjoying the trip, more or less. It's always nice when the movie geek is the hero and gets the girl. Some scenes (like the pivotal phone call) are successful in creating suspense, and despite my grousing, I still liked it, kinda.
6/10