the fresh films reviews

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Bad Influence (1990)

Director:
Curtis Hanson
COUNTRY
USA
Genre
Thriller
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Bad Influence
RUNNING TIME
96 minutes
Producer:
Steve Tisch
Screenwriter:
David Coepp


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Alex Rob Lowe ½
Michael Boll James Spader
Claire Lisa Zane
Ruth Fielding Marcia Cross
Britt Rosalyn Landor
Patterson Tony Maggio ½
Pismo Boll Christian Clemenson ½
Leslie Kathleen Wilhoite
Club Goer David Duchovny

 

Review

When this cat-and-mouse thriller was released in 1990, starring two of that period's biggest young stars, Rob Lowe and James Spader, it coincided with Lowe's infamous sex-tape scandal and Spader's rise to stardom the year before with sex, lies and videotapes. This is interesting (albeit mainly academically) seeing as one of Bad Influence's main plot devices is the Spader character's video camera - one of many features in his life taken control over by Lowe's bohemian, effervescent character. What the shy, average, white-collar Spader at first welcomes as a breath of fresh air in his life eventually spirals into something he cannot control, and doesn't know the magnitude of. And the game is on.

The director behind this obvious but not ineffective psychological thriller was a young Curtis Hanson, and he brings a lusciously attractive atmosphere to his film, with soothing images accompanied by Trevor Jones' jazzy score. And even if the plot is muddled and the antagonist becomes more and more plot-driven and less and less psychologically interesting as we go along, Hanson's visual skills and Spader's likeable lead performance keeps interest up. It's as superficially alluring as the yuppie culture it is set in.

Rereview: Copyright © 30.11.2012 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang
Original review:
Copyright © 19.6.1996 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang