A Kiss Before Dying

11/18/2017

Kiss of life required to ignite this film noir re-imaging. A remake of the 1956 film of the same name, A Kiss Before Dying is directed by James Dearden and Dearden adapts the screenplay from Ira Levin's novel. It stars Sean Young, Matt Dillon, Max von Sydow, Dianne Ladd and James Russo. Music is by Howard Shore and cinematography by Mike Southon. Story has Dillon as a troubled young man who murders his pregnant girlfriend (Young) and then hones in on her twin sister (Young again obviously) for further psychotic shenanigans. It's just about an average thriller at best, where even if the plot line and character motivations are intriguing enough to hold the attention to keep one interested to the ending, even there the outcome is rushed and unsatisfying. From the negative reaction at

8/27/2022

Jonathan (Matt Dillon) is obssessed with inheriting Thor Carlsson’s (the majestic Max von Sydow) copper empire. Why? Presumably, because as a poor child literally living on the wrong side of the tracks, he would sit in his room and stare at the endless parade of freight trains passing by, all of them bearing the Carlsson company logo. Jonathan has successfully wooed Carlsson’s daughter Dorothy (Sean Young), and the two plan to get married. However, when he finds out she’s pregnant with his child, he lures her to a rooftop and pushes Dorothy to her death. Why? He fears old Carlsson would have disowned her; perhaps Jonathan should have thought of that before he had unprotected, premarital sex with her. Luckily for him, Dorothy has an extremely conveniente identical twin sister, Ellen (