Zandalee

"Not the best . . .but . . . Reviewer: A viewer from edison, nj USA For those of us who cherish the steamy city of New Orleans, Zandalee captures the steaminess while transcending its shortcomings.

Rehinhold could have made more of an effort to exhibit a more tragic figure - and could have made an attempt at maintaining ANY accent. Cage is satan personified. More than a bit melodramatic in many scenes, good cameo appearances by Marissa Tomei, Joe Pantoliano (pricesless cross-dresser!) and Steve Buscemi (playing Steve Buscemi) add to the memorable scenes and memorable/quotable dialogue: ("I'm your reality check" "Its a heartifact" "A little decorum!".

Its worth the 3 bucks to rent of the $15 to buy it. Nice steamy, sexy movie. Not the greatest . . . but . . .

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.

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.

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. (**)

In New Orleans, Zandalee (Erika Anderson) is married to poet-at-heart Thierry Martin (Judge Reinhold). He's struggling to keep afloat his father's business. Their marriage is in trouble. Childhood friend Johnny Collins (Nicolas Cage) comes back into his life after a bachelor party. Zandalee starts an affair with the wild painter Johnny.

This is a lifeless movie. The stone-faced Erika Anderson lacks any kind of acting charisma. She was probably much better as a model. Her main contribution to the movie is nudity. Director Sam Pillsbury tries to inject nudity to spice up this tired melodrama. It doesn't work. The dialog is clunky as heck. The pace is as slow as molasses. This is sexploitation B-movie with a lot of great actors and Erika.