Cape Fear [1991]

See Larger Image	List Price: £9.99 Our Price: £3.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 7 to 11 days Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK Starring: Robert De Niro, Illeana Douglas, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker Directed By: Martin Scorsese Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5050582039696 Format: PAL Label: Universal Pictures UK Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Universal Pictures UK Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2005-12-05 Running Time: 122 Studio: Universal Pictures UK Theatrical Release Date: 1991
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Editorial Reviews: Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of J. Lee Thompson's 1962 thriller dabbles a bit in some fascinating psychological crosscurrents between its characters, but it finally trades in all that rich material for extensive and gratuitous violence. Robert De Niro plays a serial rapist released from prison after 14 years. Angry because his appalled attorney (Nick Nolte) made it easy for him to be convicted, this monster is out to hurt Nolte's character through his wife (Jessica Lange) and daughter (Juliette Lewis). The themes of interlocking guilt and anger between these people suggests a smart film in the making. But the final act, set on a boat with De Niro's vengeful pervert attacking Nolte and the two women, takes a more unfortunate direction. Stick with the original (which starred Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck, each of whom make a cameo appearance in this film). --Tom Keogh
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Breathtaking Comment: Looks in some respects like Taxi Driver, another film by the same director, Martin Scorsese and with the same main actor, Robert De Niro. In both films the themes are the lonliness of the (anti-)hero and his subversive attitude. This film is much more sophisticated. It is really a masterpiece. Taxi Driver (2 Disc Special Edition) [1976] Customer Rating: Summary: No justice for the crooked lawyer Comment: The very logic of the film is quite common (Stephen King or Richard Bachman among many others have used it in his novel Thinner). A criminal is sentenced to a long term in prison but the sentence is all the longer because the criminal's lawyer decided that since his client was guilty he could forget some important element that would have changed the length of the prison term. The prisoner gets out of prison one day and comes back to haunt the lawyer and get his vengeance. That's when the film gets particularly nasty and the lawyer reveals himself quite ugly when fear grasps his guts, revealing the little trust he has in justice and the police. And sure enough the end will be positive for that ugly character of a lawyer who deserved to really suffer and die. But that's when Scorsese plays with our nerves and makes the lawyer's daughter fall in love with the criminal for all the bad reasons you can imagine but then she will turn nasty with him for all the good reasons you may find. In other words everything is upside down and nothing will ever bring them back upside up because what counts is what we have in our minds and memories and not what the world believes. A great small little film that does hold us in suspense and apprehension. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines Customer Rating: Summary: A real Thriller Comment: 'Cape Fear' came out at around the same time as 'The Silence of the lambs' and 'Misery' and it was one of those really memorable chillers that nothing has touched ever since. The thing that really interested me was the coming together of Martin Scorsese and Amblin Entertainment (Spielberg's company). Totally different ways of film making but it really works in this movie. It is really frightening and disturbing at times but is without a doubt of the the best horror/thrillers ever made. Customer Rating: Summary: Remake of a 1962 classic Comment: Here, a very dangerous and evil man named Max Cady (played in one of the best villain roles of the 90's by Robert De Niro) gets out of jail after 14 years of imprisonment, and decides to get vengeance on the lawyer (Nick Nolte) and his family (Jessica Lange the mother and a young and supple Juliette Lewis as the daughter). At times the film is surprisingly slow, but the film is never boring, and suspense is always in the air; the climax/ending contains some of Scorsese and De Niro's finest work. Also, De Niro steals the show as the animal Cady by making the person who is supposed to be the hero into a flawed character, thereby turning the film almost into a Film-noir, which is quite a feat for Scorsese and company. Not perfect, but it shouldn't be. Customer Rating: Summary: Spine-tingling Comment: Scorsese cut and pasted the score from J. Lee Thompson's 1962 original as well as offering small roles to Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck (who played the original Max Cady and Sam Bowden respectively), but this brash re-imagination is largely its own beast. And beast is the word: a snarling and visceral creature. It is also an exercise in sustained psychological horror, as Robert De Niro's fearsomely muscular, tattooed rapist is set free with a score to settle with his own defence lawyer (Nick Nolte). Some have cited Scorsese's dizzying camera movements and Thelma Schoonmaker's zippy editing as crassly manipulative. But that's the point, for "manipulative" is the adjective that describes Cady best. He's a self-destructive psychotic for sure, but he intends to teach family man/adulterer Bowden a lesson about living by a principle before he goes down for good. Scorsese's ability to wring breathless performances from his cast has rarely served him with such stark success: here we have career-best work from Nolte as well as Juliette Lewis as Bowden's teenage daughter. To coin a cringe-worthy phrase, she's a blossoming flower - the scene in which Cady lures the brace-wearing Danielle onto an eerie school theatre stage, decked out with a Hansel & Gretel set (no one claims the symbolism is subtle!), is a childhood rite of passage as seen in a nightmare; it's also very skilfully paced and played. For all the fizz and suspense and manoeuvring, the climax, which takes place in the stormy waters off the titular cape, is somewhat disappointing. Where Lee Thompson's movie ended with a nail-biting game of cat-and-mouse in the shadowy reeds, Wesley Strick's screenplay resorts to genre convention, stripping Cady down to a babbling monster. But what an exhilarating ride it is getting there, full of memorable set-pieces interspersed with striking dreamy images. More Reviews