Zandalee

This is a great-looking film, filmed in rich colors and beautiful New Orleans locations. But dramatically it doesn't fare so well; it's mostly a monotonous series of heavy-breathing sequences, interrupted by dialogue passages that seem to exist only because a film can't be made ONLY with sex scenes. We also get lots of gratuitous nudity from the statuesque Erika Anderson, who's married to Judge Reinhold (fairly good, but not good enough to be taken absolutely seriously as a dramatic actor yet) and pursued by Nicolas Cage (in a smug performance he would probably like to forget today). Overall, not a horrible film, but not outstanding, either. (**)

There is a reason this went straight to video- the story is smarmy, Nick Cage plays Johnny in a sleazy way- sex in churches, and other scenes that border on tasteless(like the scene in the laundry room) taint this movie. Judge Reinhold as the cuckold is okay- but the movie itself with its themes of degradation and revenge are not well done. But it is a good film for trivia contests- because so few people saw it.

ZANDALEE has an appalling score of 4,3 and only 15 reviews to date, and according to the trivia section, in the US was released straight to video. All this leads to a terrible movie, and when I saw it, I could see why.

Zandalee Martin is a young store owner that is married with Thierry Martin (Judge Reinhold) but is also frustrated because of his lack of passion and their marriage hit a snag. Soon she starts an affair with Thierry's friend Johnny Collins (Nicolas Cage), a painter that literally puts body and soul in his paintings. After a while Thierry discovers the affair and he and Johnny will fight over Zandalee. How it will end? See the movie... or better don't.

The main issue with this movie is that there is nobody to like or care about in the least. Erika Anderson is gorgeous but can't act outside a paper bag, Judge Reinhold looks like stoned and Nicolas Cage excells in overacting (something his haters complain with recent movies) and often gets mad for no reason at all. I was even tempted to leave this movie half-way, and I can't believe I saw it all. Only of interest for folks who watch a steady diet of bad movies, as they may get a kick out of it.

Zandalee is the kind of movie that a teenage boy would watch late at night on HBO...only after locking his bedroom door. New Orleans is very pretty, and there's some decent sex scenes, but other than that there's nothing more here that hasn't been done better somewhere else. It is what it is.

The movie is not as bad as the overall rating shows. I presume too many people saw it on account of Nicholas Cage and got disappointed. The problem is that the drama does not develop in one direction. It ended as a banal story about adultery culminating in a theatrical suicide and an unconvincing tragedy. Cage (Johnny), the outsider, turned up to be the guiltiest of all. Yet, until the middle the movie had developed around Anderson (Zandalee) and at some point it looked as if the victim of the drama would be exactly Cage who fell desperately in love with beautiful Anderson while she was using him to overcome her frustrations with husband Thierry. That seemed to be the purpose of the two supporting characters: Tatta and the gay shop-attendant who were pushing her into adultery, so as to save her marriage. At some point, either when shooting or when cutting, the concept changed and the triangle lost everything even remotely intriguing.