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7
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
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A
man walks into a bank, shoots three security guards,
takes several bags of cash and walks calmly out
to his Ferrari. After an incredible high-speed
chase in which the bank robber mows down pedestrians
and shoves other cars off the road, he's finally
stopped by a police roadblock, several bullets
and the explosion of the Ferrari's gas tank. Later,
in the hospital, cop Tom Beck (Michael Nouri)
is glad to find the doctors don’t think the criminal
will make it through the night. But this is anything
but a simple lunatic thrill-killer. Left alone,
the robber pulls himself out of bed and regurgitates
a bug-like creature out of his body and into his
elderly roommate's. At police headquarters Beck
meets Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan), an F.B.I.
agent from Seattle who's been tracking the bank
robber. When Gallagher arrives at the hospital
he is not surprised by the suspect's death or
his roommate's sudden disappearance. He now insists
that they have a new suspect —
the missing roommate. Beck isn't sure what to
think until an eyewitness places the elderly man
at the scene of a new murder. The hunt is on.
Beck starts to wonder about the federal agent
after he confesses to being after the elderly
man because he killed his Bureau partner. Meanwhile
our body-hopping criminal, realizing his current
host is in very poor health, moves into the body
of a curvaceous stripper (Claudia Christian).
Following a trail of corpses Beck and Gallagher
find the creature in the stripper's form and gun
her down, only to have it escape again, this time
in the body of a dog. During this encounter Gallagher
produces a strange alien-looking weapon, convincing
a wounded Beck there is something very wrong with
his new partner. Unknown to the cops, the body-hopping
creature has set its sights on a politician with
presidential aspirations... setting in motion
a plan to claim his form and eventually the White
House.
The
Hidden
is that all too rare thing: a really good 'B'
science fiction movie. Without a large budget
the producers of this gem made a great movie that
easily holds up 15 years later. The film is fast
and smart with action and chase scenes that are
exciting and tense. Throughout there is a solid
feeling that, when the bullets start to fly, anyone
could get hit — lending
a realistic veneer to scenes straight out of an
old EC comic. The science fiction elements are
introduced with great economy and skill and always
feel well thought out, constantly adding detail
and depth to the story. Throughout the film there
are many small touches that point towards the
nature of both the villain and Gallagher and as
they slowly add up the intelligence of the script
shines through. A lot of care is put into showing
us the reasons for Gallagher's obsessive quest
to stop this creature, with his visit to Beck's
home for dinner being a particularly well written
and acted sequence. As we become more aware of
his non-human nature we also see that what drives
him is very human. The film is anchored by two
solid performances from MacLachlan and Nouri.
Both actors do a great job providing nuance and
dimension to these very driven men. They make
an excellent team and it was only on second viewing
that I realized that the middle part of the movie
is essentially a buddy cop story. If only all
buddy cop movies were this interesting. Of course,
the sight of Claudia Christian (TV's Babylon
5) stripping to a G-string, caressing her
breasts and wielding a shotgun are big pluses
as well! The obvious inspiration for this movie
was the success of The Terminator
(1984) and the parallels are strong. Bad creature
comes to town to commit criminal act(s) while
good guy is dispatched to stop it. Good guy enlists
aid of earth counterpart and car chases and violence
ensues culminating in fiery death. The
Hidden even has a pretty effective double
ending with a final scene that is at least as
touching as the doomed love affair from Terminator.
Cameron's film is better, but the makers of The
Hidden can hold their heads high. They
made a damned good movie too!
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New
Line's DVD of
the film is very well done with enough extras to
make it a proud addition to any collection. The
movie is presented in either Widescreen 1.85:1 or
Fullscreen with the choice of a 5.1 Surround Sound
track (well done) or the original Mono mix (quite
serviceable). The transfer is, for the most part,
very good with solid colors and deep blacks, but
there are a few night scenes that look a little
grainy. I'm willing to bet that those moments were
unavoidable and stem from the film's low budget.
From what I've read, this DVD ports over all its
extra material from a previous Lumivision Laser
Disc release several years ago. Not everything made
the leap from Laser, but what is here is plentiful
and good. First there is a fantastic commentary
track with director Jack Sholder, hosted by Tim
Hunter. Hunter does a good job of prompting and
questioning Sholder throughout the film, but the
director came well prepared. He tells of the minor
rewriting he and others did to the script, such
as giving Beck a daughter to mirror Gallagher's
family and paring down the number of cops in the
story. Several times he praises the (admittedly
good) cop dialog in the movie and points out other
small polishes made by the actors as well. Sholder
also shares the unfortunate fact that Nouri was
very difficult to work with; their relationship
got worse as the filming continued. He's still not
happy with his lead actor, but does admire Nouri's
performance. One small problem shows up in the commentary...
At one point Sholder relates how he supervised the
Lumivision transfer of the film and why he decided
to take two lines of dialog out in the process.
He felt that their inclusion in the original had
been a mistake and detracted from the tension of
the scene in which they appear. After hearing his
points I agreed with him, but here's the problem:
the lines are in the film on this DVD. And
they are on both the 5.1 and Mono tracks. So much
for the director's preferred version! Of course,
this is a minor complaint, but I wish Mr. Sholder
had been involved in the audio mixing of the DVD
as well as the old Laser.
Also
included is some test footage of an unused idea
for the final showdown with Gallagher and the homicidal
alien. It's nice to see, but as the director says
in a voice-over, it just didn't fit the mood they
were going for at the end. The disc is rounded off
with the theatrical trailer and filmographies for
the two lead actors and Sholder that extend only
to 1999. Overall, a very good DVD of one of the
best sci-fi Bs of the 80s. I'm tempted to watch
it again! 9/14/02 |
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