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Dressed To Kill on DVD (1979)

Dressed To Kill cover art
Average rating: 63%
1316420121024
3.0
from 172 members
 
Starring: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Dennis Franz, Keith Gordon, David Margulies
Director: Brian De Palma
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 100 mins
Certificate: 18
User collections: Videodrome Inspired
Genres: Thriller
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English, German
Subtitles: Dutch, English, French, Italian, Spanish
Released: 29/04/2002

Brief synopsis of Dressed To Kill

In this Brian De Palma film that combines Hitchcock's slick premises with modern-day gore, a lonely wife (Angie Dickinson) follows the advice of her shrink (Michael Caine) and seeks comfort in a stranger. After a seductive, dangerous encounter, the wife meets a homicidal maniac. The prostitute (Nancy Allen) who discovers the body and the victim's son (Keith Gordon) must track the killer.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Brian De Palma does his witty Hitchcock imitation again, but here adds his own trademark layers of macabre black comedy and visual ingenuity to the Psycho-influenced proceedings. After sex-starved housewife Angie Dickinson is murdered with a razor in a lift, her son Keith Gordon and prostitute Nancy Allen (then the director's wife) join forces to track down the killer. An eyebrow-raising performance from Michael Caine keeps this clever shocker moving along nicely, and De Palma's brilliant sleight-of-hand direction pulls out all the suspense stops, providing some unforgettable jolts. Pino Donaggio's marvellous score is a major plus, too.

Rating of 2 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Occasionally brilliant, generally nasty suspenser clearly derived from many viewings of Psycho. Certainly not for the squeamish.

Time Out

Beginning and ending with a pair of shower frissons, this brazen reworking of Psycho is most striking for its sheer... Read more on www.timeout.com

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 1 starsDressed To Kill

A customer from West Sussex, England , 02/11/2005

This film bored me so much i actually fell asleep, great if you are having trouble getting to sleep otherwise i would give it a miss

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 1 starsawful

susan humphreys from west ewell surrey kt19 9ja , 19/04/2006

i could not watch this movie to the end the plot upto were angie dickinson is murdered was a joke

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Rated - 4 starsClassic De Palma

kevin curtis from Wales , 18/07/2005

I'm a great fan of Brian de palma so had no problems recommending this classic. The very sexy Angie dickinson is murdered by a razor weilding nutter after having a sexual encounter with a stranger she meets in a art gallery, her nerdy son and a prostitute try to track down her killer. This is quite an old film but is still very watchable, if you haven't already seen it you should give it a try.

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Rated - 3 starsQuaint ...

A customer from Darlington England , 15/10/2006

...is the word for this one. De Palma directs an outrageous tongue-in-cheek concoction of slasher cliches, loosely held together by a laughably obvious story line. It's all there: long drawn out suspense sequences signalled by thunderstorms or a pounding score, a few - very few - real shocks, a bit of gory bloodletting and, of course, plenty of soft porn. In what must be the longest shower scene in modern cinema Angie Dickinson dreamily caresses her soapy self in soft focus (without disturbing her bouffant hairdo) meanwhile showing she has a pretty fair bod for a girl pushing 50 (but, disappointingly, that she may not be a natural blonde.) There is even the once obligatory long dream sequence, which serves only to confuse the story, and the film doesn't have a conclusion: it just stops, suddenly, as though De Palma had got bored or, more probably, had simply run out of cliches. And the acting! Michael Caine manages to keep a straight face, Nancy Allen reads her lines from a blackboard behind the camera and Dennis Franz delivers a hilarious OTT performance as the Noo Yoik cop in a bright orange leather jacket and a truly weird haircut. Mysteriously, no attempt has been made to adapt this wide screen production for television display, so for much of the action the main characters are split in half by the edge of the frame, but in spite of - or because of - all this clumsiness 'Dressed to Kill' may be worth a watch for its sheer curiosity value!

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 1 starsDressed To Kill

A customer from West Sussex, England , 02/11/2005

This film bored me so much i actually fell asleep, great if you are having trouble getting to sleep otherwise i would give it a miss

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 1 starsVery poor drama and stroy.

A customer from England , 10/01/2004

The movie focusses on a middle aged lady who gets murdered in mysterious circumstances. A poor build up of the plot and a weak storyline make this movie a must miss. The only 'excitement' in the story is the opening scene...that is if seeing middle aged women fantasising about their bodies while in the bath excites you.

  0 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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