Hideous!

Starring:Michael Citriniti, Rhonda Griffin, Mel Johnson Jr., Jacqueline Lovell, Tracie May, Gerard O'Donnell, Andrew Johnston (II), Mircea Constantinescu, Alexandru Agarici
Director: Charles Band
Studio: FULL MOON
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

COOL CLASSIC MONSTER MOVIE!
OK mom, right after they take a commercial brake, I promise
Forgettable Fifties Fluff
Nostalgic Horror Classic
Great Movie..............

The Hideous Sun Demon
Starring: Richard Cassarino , Robert Clarke , Xandra Conkling , Del Courtney , and Bill Currie (II)
Director: Robert Clarke
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Sci-Fi | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Monsters & Mutants | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Science Fiction | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Horror | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

The Brain From Planet Arous
Target Earth
Day the World Ended/She Creature
Cult Classics: Earth vs. the Spider/War of the Colossal Beast
The Monster That Challenged the World/It! The Terror From Beyond Space

ASIN: 6305772711
Release Date: 2000-03-21

Amazon.com

The Hideous Sun Demon is almost too wonderful to be believed. Scientist Dr. Gilbert McKenna drops his sample--oops!--of "a new isotope that has never existed in nature before" and consequently receives a massive dose of radiation. As so often happens in these cases, the results are gruesome and tragic--whenever he is exposed to sunlight Gil turns into a lizard man, driven to kill. "You mean a human being could evolve backwards through time?" asks the plucky Miss Lansing. Alas, her question can only be answered with a yes. Well, a yes and some hilarious "scientific" proof. Even though he becomes a murderous reptile at the pull of a curtain, some obscure legal statute says that Gil can't be kept in the hospital against his will. Full of whiskey and self-pity, he heads out on his own, a time bomb ready to go off the minute he runs out of zinc oxide. The pleasures of The Hideous Sun Demon are many: rubber lizard suits, headlines reading "Weird Killer Still at Large," a lounge singer named Trudy with an unusually lopsided piano playing style, and day-for-night sequences in which the night is so bright that one cannot see the actors' faces. Truly, a movie that must be experienced in DVD. --Ali Davis

Description

Screen star Robert Clarke, legendary science fiction leading man of the 1950s, produced, directed and starred in this Atomic Age chiller about a scientist that turns into a hideous prehistoric creature when exposed to the sun's deadly rays. This is it! The original cult classic, filled with tense radioactive atmosphere, as the Sun Demon stalks his prey while his primordial mating urges go berserk! An excellent modern-day horror screamer filled with murder, monsters, radioactive isotopes and a sizzling blonde babe with gravity-defying assets. Bring your sunglasses and tanning oil because "The Hideous Sun Demon" is on the loose!

Customer Reviews:

COOL CLASSIC MONSTER MOVIE!.......2007-05-03

"This is a pretty good classic monster story with a cool looking monster. The DVD comes with a second DVD which is called "return of" it's the same movie with a voice over dubbed like Mystery Science Theater 3000. Funny and worth picking up."

OK mom, right after they take a commercial brake, I promise.......2007-04-18

Yes it's me again reliving my past,searching for those movies that I liked as a child.
This one is one that I didn't like as well as I did then. To the best of my knowledge not one thing has changed about the movie but I just didn't enjoy it this time around. MY boys love it though, so i'll give it three for that.

Forgettable Fifties Fluff.......2007-02-27

The premise of "The Hideous Sun Demon" is intriguing, but unfortunately this low-budget 1959 film fails to deliver. The central idea here is that an accidental radiation overdose causes a scientist (Robert Clarke) to morph, or "de-evolve," into a scaly reptilian monster whenever he is exposed to sunlight. There are many interesting directions that the filmmakers could have taken this concept, but none of them show up in the film. In the end, "The Hideous Sun Demon" is like an episode of "Seinfeld"--it's really about nothing at all.

Some of today's sophisticated viewers may chuckle at the rubber creature costume, but I have no complaints about the "special effects." By the standards of the day, and considering the small production budget, the monster is actually nicely detailed and quite convincing, for the few brief moments that it appears on-screen. The crisp black-and-white photography is also excellent, featuring some striking, stark, deeply shadowed "noir-like" scenes that look great in this full-screen digital transfer. There are some muddy scenes in which day turns into night through the miracle of gross underexposure, but that technique was common at the time. The biggest problem with "The Hideous Sun Demon" is that there is no meaningful story, and essentially no character development. You never get to the point where you care about the scientist, the monster or anyone else.

On balance, "The Hideous Sun Demon" is not a bad film--it's just not much of a film at all. It's easy to watch, reasonably well-made and the DVD is relatively cheap. Completists can certainly justify buying it to round out their collection of 1950s sci-fi movies. By the way, despite the fact that it is supposed to include "liner notes and personal recollections by producer/director/writer/star Robert Clarke," there was nothing in the case I received except the DVD.

Nostalgic Horror Classic.......2006-03-13

This movie holds a lot of memories for me.

Maybe it's just my imagination but it seems like it always came on during the late afternoon when the sun was still shining brightly.

That's the interesting aspect of the story. It ties in with the mysterious, awesome power of the sun.

The location is a typical American small town from the 50s which is also interesting.

The sun demon looks very similar to the monster in:

IT ! The Terror From Beyond Space

Recommended further viewing:

The Manster
The Thing (from another world)
The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake
Horror Hotel
The Blob (with Steve McQueen)
The Flesh Eaters
The Indestructible Man
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
Not Of This Earth (original)
The Incredible Shrinking Man
IT (The Terror From Beyond Space)
Invasion Of The Saucer Men
The Fly / The Return Of The Fly / The Curse Of The Fly

Jeff Marzano

Great Movie.....................2006-03-07

I Thought This Was A Fun B Movie. It intrest me how some people take these B movies seriously. Just by looking at the title you can tell it's cheesy. For those who appreciate classic b movies from the 50's and 60's this movie is for you,for those who like saw and really modern mainstream horror movies stay away by all means....... this is not your type of movie.

Average customer rating:

Hideious
Deformed. Devious. Delightful.
A wonderful, insanely odd movie
FULL MOON'S BEST!!!
Leather shorts, hiking boots, and a gorilla mask

Hideous!
Starring: Michael Citriniti , Rhonda Griffin , Mel Johnson Jr. , Jacqueline Lovell , and Tracie May
Director: Charles Band
Manufacturer: FULL MOON
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

Full Moon Video | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Head of the Family
Blood Dolls
Shrieker
The Creeps
Castle Freak

ASIN: 1573471054
Release Date: 2001-12-04

Customer Reviews:

Hideious.......2006-02-25

Outrageous and funny. Perfect for those in the deformed gendre. I recommend it.

Deformed. Devious. Delightful........2005-07-30

Okay now, when it comes from Full Moon Pictures and has a title like HIDEOUS!, it should be obvious to any potential customer or renter that the film is not going to be Oscar quality. But it is equally reasonable to assume that connoisseurs of the tasteless and the outrageous are gonna be in for a treat. 1997's HIDEOUS! is another direct-to-video flick from the Full Moon duo of director Charles Band and writer Benjamin Carr, the same pair who gave the public B-movie gems like HEAD OF THE FAMILY (1996), THE CREEPS (1997), and Mystery Monsters (1997), to name but a few.

According to the plot of HIDEOUS!, there is a semi-underground network of the obscenely wealthy who collect "pickled" examples of biological deformities. The more unusual the deformity, the more valuable the piece to the collector. Superbitch Belinda Yost (Tracie May) is an opportunist who earns her very comfortable living by brokering sales of these titular "collectibles." She has connections to unsavories who work in places like sewage processing plants, and these folks seem to find all kinds of, um, interesting samples of biological deformities (both animal and human). And since Ms. Yost also knows the twisted moneyed folks who want these items, she's more than willing to act as the middle man.

When one of Ms. Yost's "suppliers" comes across a grossly mutated human embryo, she knows just who to sell it to and how to get the best price. Unfortunately, she underestimates the intelligence of her ditzy blonde secretary, who herself informs another collector of the bizarre find. And when the two rival collectors engage in a one-on-one struggle to gain possession of the unique freak, things get really weird!

The acting in HIDEOUS! is surprisingly good for a direct-to-video flick. Former soft-core porn star Jacqueline Lovell expertly delivers a lot of hilarious off-color quips and retorts, and the aforementioned Ms. May convincingly portrays Belinda Yost as one of those money-hungry sirens that you just love to hate. Michael Citriniti (a.k.a., J.W. Perra) is wonderfully smarmy as one of the rich collectors, and Mel Johnson, Jr., delivers one of his best performances to date as the prim and proper rival collector. Genre fans will recognize Mr. Johnson from his role as Benny, the mutant traitor, in 1990's Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle TOTAL RECALL.

The production design is fabulous, providing a deliciously dark ambiance. Most of the story is set inside of an old gothic castle owned by one of the collectors, and the sets, props, and set dressing are as fun to look at as the actors. The little mutant creatures look pretty cool, too, when they are not moving. Unfortunately, bugetary restrictions reduce the special FX to mere human-hand puppetry, and it is very noticeable when the "hideous" little buggers come to life. Nonetheless, this doesn't detract from enjoyment of the film whatsoever. (Indeed, some B-movie fans are known to admit that poor FX actually enhance the fun.)

Though HIDEOUS! is not nearly as witty or satirical as Full Moon's previous offering HEAD OF THE FAMILY, it is still pretty entertaining fodder for movie watchers who love the bizarrely burlesque, the lusciously ludicrous, and the truly tasteless. And for those film fans who watch horror solely for the gratuitous T&A--and you know who you are--the scene where the shapely Ms. Lovell runs around in the snow wearing nothing but a leather skirt and a gorilla mask is must-see video!

The DVD edition of HIDEOUS! is of the standard quality that one would expect from Full Moon. The film is offered in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and digital transfer is pretty good (the colors seem a bit too saturated, but not unbearably so). There is also a featurette with some behind-the-scenes footage, and as usual, there are several trailers for other Full Moon offerings. Well worth the reasonable price for collectors of "hideous" B-movie fare.

NOTE: If amazon.com allowed the use of half-stars in their rating system, HIDEOUS! would get 3.5 stars. But it's just not quite good enough to justify rounding up to 4 stars, hence the 3-star rating.

A wonderful, insanely odd movie.......2004-10-24

Great memories here. I saw this movie on Sci-Fi channel one night at 4am when me and my brother were just sitting up all night grooving (like always). Let me tell you, if a movie is so spectacular that they have to show it at 4 in the morning, then you KNOW it's worth it! In fact, watching movies in the middle of the night is the best way to find worthwhile films. When the commercail was on before Hideous, I asked my brother "Why do they call it hideous?" ...and then we found out!

Now that I've found this movie on DVD here at Amazon, I'm definetly going to buy it. It may not have a worthwhile plot, any innovative traits, or a supreme soundtrack (from what I remember), but life would be boring if every movie was the best. What 'Hideous' does have is freaky monsters and a weirdo plot. I've always been a fan of movies that are so off the senses and anti-good that they are great movies, but it's hard to know which ones to buy. Afterall, you don't want to get a movie if you're only ever going to enjoy it once. Hideous though, is one that I think will be worthwhile. Unfortunately, and I ask your forgiveness for this, I can't say much about the movie since I only saw it once, a year or so ago, and it was in the middle of the night. I can, however, promise that it's a fine movie to watch sporadically (don't worry about missing some parts if you're doing other things) when you're dazed & confused and you're with some friends or it's the middle of the night.

FULL MOON'S BEST!!!.......2003-05-31

This is an amazing dark comedy!TWO CRAZED COLLECTORS+ONE MONEY HUNGRY SALES WOMAN+ONE DETECTIVE+ONE SEXY ASSISTANT+ONE DITZ+FOUR DEFORMED,DEVEOUS,AND DEPRAVED MUTANTS=TROUBLE!Belinda Yoste sells mutatet embryos.Two crazed collectors Dr. Lorca and Dr.Lazar are after a new speciman that she is selling.After she sold it to Dr. Lazar Lorca's assistant Sheila steels it after they found out about it from Belinda's ditz receptionist Elvina.Soon after Lazar hires a detective, Mr.Kanter to find them.He,Mr.Lazar,Belinda,and Elvina travle to his castle to find them.It all hites the fan when Lorca's four mutants break free.Who will survive?How will they stop them?

Leather shorts, hiking boots, and a gorilla mask.......2003-04-28

The plot is simple: biological freaks vs collectors-- freaks 4, collectors 0.

I loved this movie. In fact, as soon as I saw it I ran right back to Amazon and lost no time buying HEAD OF THE FAMILY, which is isn't as good, but still amuses. Jacqueline Lovell picks up this movie and walks off with it. Watch it with friends. We laughed, we groaned, we pointed out mistakes, and we all fell in love with Lovell's Sheila character. Anyone can be a highwayperson but how many do it in the dead of winter amidst a snow covered landscape dressed ONLY in hiking boots, leather shorts and a gorilla mask? Definately a first for me. However erotic many may have thought this scene, I found it full of fun and was one of those 'touches' that make a movie better.

The effects were laughable, which made the movie even more fun although I would like to have seen what they could have done with a bigger budget. I was totally impressed with the acting. Tracie May was fantastic as the 'middleman' in the genetic oddity business. Her customers, Michael Citrinti and Mel Johnson, Jr. were perfect fanatics. "Elvina" and the P.I. were great in their roles and, once again, surprisingly good actors. The castle in which most the action takes place was also impressive.

The only lack in this little flick was the special effects, but the fun more than made up for it.

Average customer rating:

My Name Is Tanino

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Brief Nudity, Adult Situations
Uncut Version
Italian Language Only
Interactive Menu
Bios & Commentary

ASIN: B000N63HW4

Product Description

A young, clue-free Italian finds and eludes trouble on numerous occasions as he journeys to and through America in director Paolo Virzi's 2001 comedy My Name Is Tanino. Naive optimist Tanino (Corrado Fortuna) gets romantically involved with an American tourist named Sally (Rachel McAdams), who happens to visit his hometown one fateful summer. After Sally's vacation ends, Tanino decides to follow her to the U.S. not realizing that Sally's interest in him ended when her vacation ended. Upon arriving in America, Tanino learns the truth about Sally while being mistaken by Sally's father for his wife's lover...

Average customer rating:

QUIRKY AND ENGAGING FILM...

Hideous Kinky [Region 2]
Starring: Kate Winslet , Saïd Taghmaoui , Bella Riza , Carrie Mullan , and Pierre Clémenti
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Holy Smoke!
Heavenly Creatures

ASIN: B00004R82O

Customer Reviews:

QUIRKY AND ENGAGING FILM..........2006-04-27

This is a wonderful film with stellar performances by the entire cast. It is about a young woman's quest for the meaning of life. Taking place in the early 1970s, it is very reminiscent of an era now passed, an era when "flower power" was the rule of the day.

Here, Kate Winslet plays Julia, a twenty five year old young mother of two children, nine year old Bea, stunningly acted by Bella Riza, and her younger sister, Lucy, charmingly played by Carrie Mullen. They abandon their structured, staid life in London, when Julia decides to leave their father to go to Marrakech in Morocco, then the capitol of the disaffected, in search of spiritual enlightenment.

Taking her children, Julia goes on an adventure, an adventure to which Lucy, the younger of her two daughters, takes to almost immediately. Nine year old Bea, on the other hand, begins to yearn for a more "normal", structured life. Julia, however, will have none of it. Living in a Moroccan slum with her girls, she romanticizes their existence.

Julia becomes involved with Bilal, a street performer of sorts, who looks out for them. Wonderfully acted by Said Taghemaoui, Bilal charms Julia and her daughters. He cannot, however, support them, and they cannot support themselves. This becomes clear as they begin a rag tag journey into the Moroccan country side.

Sooner, rather than later, reality sets in. The adventure wears thin on Bea who becomes estranged from her mother. The harsh reality of every day life confronts Julia, who ultimately realizes that traipsing around Morocco just puts her young daughters at risk. Unfortuntely, this realization does not occur to her until she almost loses Bea to illness. It is then that Bilal steps up to home plate and gives them the means to return. They leave Marrakech to begin their journey home, taking with them enough memories to last a lifetime.

This is a wonderful movie with exceptional cinematography. A virtual travelogue of Moroccan life, it is a visual feast that is sure to delight those who have a hankering for faraway, exotic places and a thirst for adventure.

The Hideous Sun Demon/Revenge of the Sun Demon

Average customer rating:

The Hideous Sun Demon/Revenge of the Sun Demon
Starring: Image 2pak
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Cult Classics: Earth vs. the Spider/War of the Colossal Beast
It Came From Outer Space
This Island Earth
Forbidden Planet (Ultimate Collector's Edition)

ASIN: B0000TAZG0
Release Date: 2003-12-30

Average customer rating:

QUIRKY AND ENGAGING FILM...

Hideous Kinky [Region 2]
Starring: Kate Winslet , Saïd Taghmaoui , Bella Riza , Carrie Mullan , and Pierre Clémenti
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Holy Smoke!
Heavenly Creatures

ASIN: B00004RYVH

Customer Reviews:

QUIRKY AND ENGAGING FILM..........2006-04-27

Average customer rating:

"The Truth Is A Man Standing Upright In The Sun" ~ Duties And Passing Pleasures On The Road To Annihilation
Mothers on a journey often abandon their children
Hideously Good
A movie seemingly in search of itself
A woman finds herself in Morocco trying to find herself

Hideous Kinky
Starring: Kate Winslet , Saïd Taghmaoui , Bella Riza , Carrie Mullan , and Pierre Clémenti
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Period Piece | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Holy Smoke!
Jude
Hideous Kinky: A Novel
Iris (2001)
Heavenly Creatures

ASIN: B00000K3U6
Release Date: 1999-10-26

Amazon.com

Hideous Kinky journeys back to the early 1970s to Marrakesh, that hippy mecca for everyone from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Gillies MacKinnon, the director of this movie. Here you'll find one nice but confused middle-class young woman escaping the daily grind of a drab London with her two young daughters in tow. Whereas Esther Freud's book was told from the younger girl's perspective, the film-script places Julia centre-stage as she searches for what she describes wistfully as "the annihilation of the ego."

Though fresh from her Titanic experience, Kate Winslet is no drippy hippy, bringing a refreshing feistiness to her role and looking fetching swathed in diaphanous layers. As her two daughters, Bella Riza (Bea, the wide-eyed younger one) and Carrie Mullan (Lucy, the sensible one) are brilliant discoveries--unselfconscious, charmingly quirky, and enjoying a camaraderie that belies their difference in characters. Completing the family unit is Julia's lover, the endearingly unreliable Bilal (a fiery performance from Saïd Taghmaoui). When the money runs out, their adventures begin and the resilience and practicality of the girls is contrasted throughout with the dreaminess of their mother, her sense of duty vying with her quest for self-discovery. Visually, it's a veritable feast as we're pitched from the color and cacophony of the marketplace to the dusty harshness of the mountains. And that elusive title--which is never explained in the film--is in fact a phrase coined by the girls as a term of approbation. --Harriet Smith

Customer Reviews:

"The Truth Is A Man Standing Upright In The Sun" ~ Duties And Passing Pleasures On The Road To Annihilation.......2007-02-27

Synopsis: Set in the year 1972 in Marrakech, Morocco we find twenty-five year old British hippie Julia (Kate Winslet) wandering about Marrakech with her two young daughters. Tired of the sameness of everyday life she has left the father of her children behind in London in search of "something different" for the children and herself in North Africa.

Julia and the girls wander about the exotic landscape interacting with the locals, other occidental fellow seekers and an occasional British ex-patriot or two. She becomes involved in a romantic interlude with a street performer named Bilal (Said Taqhmaoui) but her real quest is not to find another man, but to discover the Truth (yes, with a capital T). She hopes what she is looking for will be revealed to her by the resident leader of a group of Sufi's, a sect of Islamic mystics flourishing in the area. The only question is whether or not she's ready for the answer?

Critique: `Hideous Kinky' released in '99 is an exquisite film that insightfully captures the innate human desire to find some form of spiritual underpinning in life to counterbalance a mundane world consisting of nothing more than duties and passing pleasures. The film takes the viewer on a slow, meandering, hypnotic journey through the cities and countryside of Morocco. The goal of the storyline is at times unclear, but then so is any true spiritual journey. And like any real quest for truth the answers one receives are generally not answers at all, only more questions. It's this ambiguity of thought and motion that is the real beauty and message of this mesmerizing film. The amazing scenery coupled with a soundtrack consisting of late `60's, early `70's pop tunes interspersed between African rhythms and Sufi trance music make for a magical mystery tour to another world.

Recommendation: This film belongs in your permanent DVD collection.

Mothers on a journey often abandon their children.......2007-01-14

Kate Winslet stars as a single English mother of two who takes them to Morocco with her on her spiritual journey. They have many adventures, which begin as a fun time, but they run out of money and the girls begin to miss home. I loved the movie because I related so much with Kate Winslet's character until she turned into a self-obsessed mother - one of my greatest fears.

Hideously Good.......2006-10-11

Kate Winslet is a very good actress, there is no doubt about it. She is one of few actors who gives a very honest account of the character she is playing being extremely focused to her work. She does this movie a lot of justice. The story moves slow at times, but fast enough to keep you captivated. Kate is very convincing as a young single British mother on a spiritual journey and quest of self discovery in Morocco. The scenery is also spectacular. Buy this movie along with Holy Smoke if you can. It works out cheaper, it is certainly not worth the money being asked of it on its own.

A movie seemingly in search of itself.......2005-12-27

Single mom Julia tries to make a living in Morocco with hopes of fulfilling her spiritual quest with her two young daughters Lucy and Bea. The script rambles a bit; Julia's relationship with her daughters' father is glossed over and reduced to his inability to pay child support on time, and a romance with street performer Bilal isn't deeply explored.Bilal apparently has an estranged wife, but although she's briefly depicted, little is said about their relationship except that Bilal is neglectful of her.

The film does do a good job of including pop culture with music by America and Jefferson Starship, but too much of the characters' relationship isn't fully explored. Worth a look though for the beauty and talent of Kate Winslet and the culture of Morocco.

A woman finds herself in Morocco trying to find herself.......2004-09-26

"Hideous Kinky" is based on an autobiographical novel by Esther Freud (Sigmund's great-granddaughter, not that this means anything in terms of the story) and stars Kate Winslet as Julia, a young British woman who has traveled to Marrakech in 1972 with her two young daughters in tow, 8-year old Bea (Bella Riza) and 6-year old Lucy (Carrie Mullan). Julia seems to be living in this exotic world because is a truth-seeker, but she is also running away from her life in London, where she caught her "husband" (i.e., the man who fathered her children), cheating on her. He is supposed to be sending them checks and care passages from home, but what usually happens is that the checks never arrive or are less than expected while the packages are intended for his "other" family.

This film holds us at a distance because the perspective is not so much that of the mother as it is of the daughters. Conveniently one of them is game for being dragged around a foreign land while the other becomes rebellious. The world does seemed turned upside down when a young girl tells her hippie mother: "I don't need another adventure, Mom. I need to go to school. I need to learn things." Julia wants to understand Sufi philosophy and find inner peace. Her daughters would like to taste rice pudding again (every time the older one has something to say the younger one announces the fact).

It is not so much that the movie condemns Julia as it is that it fails to understand her, largely because she clearly does not understand herself. Throughout the film director Gillies MacKinnon uses familiar songs by the likes of Jefferson Airplane and Richie Havens to substitute for action and to provide the film with the appropriate vibe. If these songs are being played loudly then what Julia is doing in a strange land with her children must be a good thing because these are good songs.

Yet we come to the conclusion that this what matters here in the end is not going to be a quest for enlightenment but simply the effort by Julia to get out of Morocco alive with both of her girls. However the crucial factor in this appears to be neither Julia nor the Europeans with whom she has some connections in Morocco, but Bilal (Said Taghamoui), a street performer who may be running from the policy and who becomes not only Julia's lover but a father figure of sorts to the girls. He may be a rogue, but he is a charming one and we have reason to believe that he cares about these women, even if he is ultimately powerless to help them.

In the end "Hideous Kinky" is more about people and a place more than anything else. The performances, including Winslet's first after the mega-success of "Titanic," are certainly solid enough. But memorable moments in this film are more likely to be when a familiar song, such as America's "Horse With No Name," pops up while Julia and the girls are hitchhiking across the desert. We get a sense of the culture of Morocco, but no real understanding of it, any more than Julia really understands herself any better in the end. But what we see is captivating enough that like Julia's children, we go along for the adventure.

Average customer rating:

Hideious
Deformed. Devious. Delightful.
A wonderful, insanely odd movie
FULL MOON'S BEST!!!
Leather shorts, hiking boots, and a gorilla mask

Hideous! [Region 2]
Starring: Michael Citriniti , Rhonda Griffin , Mel Johnson Jr. , Jacqueline Lovell , and Tracie May
Director: Charles Band
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items: