6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
After a young woman is attacked in the elevator she meets her neighbours (two brothers) for the first time. One of the brothers has a secret, the other has a crush on her. Her analyst tries to help her over the attack, but when she is invited to a mysterious apartment things get worse and worse.
Starring: Sharon Stone, Steve Railsback, Ronny Cox, Michelle Phillips, Vicki FrederickHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
While Sharon Stone is best known for her seductive work in the 1992 thriller “Basic Instinct,” there was a decade of career ups and downs she had to manage before worldwide stardom changed everything. “Scissors” is a 1991 release that I’m positive the actress would rather have scratched off her filmography, but if there’s a single picture that epitomizes Stone’s wayward professional direction during the lean years, it’s this ridiculous chiller. Submitting herself to writer/director Frank De Felitta, Stone is completely lost in “Scissors,” left with nothing to do but make horrified faces as the screenplay fumbles around for a tone of mystery that’s psychologically stained by sexual dysfunction. It’s a bad movie, emerging as unintended camp as performances aim for the rafters and De Felitta struggles to stitch together even a basic sense of coherence as the screenplay plays an extended game of make-em-up to suggest sophistication.
The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation retains its period look with an older scan, with bright lighting and slightly duller colors contributing to the picture's style. Hues aren't muscular, but primaries emerge with reasonable lift, delivering the essentials in sexually charged reds and era-specific costuming. Skintones also remain intact. Detail remains appealing through, supplying adequate textures on close-ups and doll particulars, while wider spaces are open for inspection. Filtering isn't obvious, keeping acceptably filmic with some noise issues. Delineation isn't troublesome, preserving frame information during shadowy thriller sequences. Source is passably clean.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA mix doesn't put in a little more effort than the standard catalog title, carrying an indefatigable score that's always trying to underline the moment. Instrumentation remains, and the music never steamrolls over the dramatics. Dialogue exchanges are clean and clear, with the range of hysterics never slipping into distortive extremes. Atmospherics are limited but street life remains, and room expanse is supported through echo. Hiss isn't a problem, thought the track requires a little more volume to match normal listening standards. Silences are pure.
There is no supplementary material on this disc.
"Scissors" is a strange picture, but it goes off the deep end in its second half, where Angie is imprisoned inside a luxurious L.A. apartment (the movie insists it takes place in Chicago, but, come on), left to scramble for a way out while a bird threatens her from inside its cage and a dead body rots in the bedroom. De Felitta keeps the action inside the residence for what feels like an eternity, only breaking away to keep tabs on Alex and Dr. Carter, who's wrestling with a broken marriage to politician Ann (Michelle Phillips, in an extended cameo). Suddenly, long stretches of the effort are devoted to Angie's escape attempts and mounting hopelessness, which evolves into insanity, playing into a mad scheme that doesn't make much sense, but nothing really connects here. Instead, the whole film seems to exist only to support its final minutes of whiplash-inducing reveals, finding De Felitta working up a sweat to send the audience off on a note of shock and dastardly comeuppance. As with everything else in "Scissors," discoveries only lead to more questions, but the production doesn't have time to provide decent answers. Or, at times, any answers.
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