Malicious

Malicious is a very poor film, reminiscent of the old B-Movies, only not as good. It appears to be a straight rip-off of Fatal Attraction, but omitting any pretension of a plot. Don't get me wrong, I like Molly Ringwald, she is good in most of her films and she tries hard in this one, but isn't given a chance. There is only so much that can be done with so little plot, which isn't helped by the character of Doug Gordon being so thin. If you like Ringwald, watch this movie, otherwise look elsewhere for a good thriller.

While MALICIOUS is of the tribe of FATAL ATTRACTION, I think other commentators here have overlooked its obvious progenitor. The scenario of the final section -- the psycho becomes the girlfriend's roommate under an assumed name -- is a direct lift from PLAY "MISTY" FOR ME. In this version, though, there are two huge improbabilities: A). Melissa is a notorious fugitive of wealthy background who did in her own dad -- it is incredible that Laura has never seen her picture; and B.) when our hero learns Melissa is in Laura's apartment, instead of calling the police immediately, he goes hurling across San Francisco on a motorcycle, unarmed, in the rain. I hope I never need him to rescue me.

The only reason I decided to watch this film is that I enjoy Molly Ringwald and certain thrillers like Basic Instinct. This feels more like a cheaply made Lifetime movie that drags along and doesn't fully pull you into the story.

A medical student (Molly Ringwald), obsessed with her school's star baseball player (Patrick McGaw), pursues him and finally manages to get him to spend the weekend with her. However, when he soon returns to his girlfriend, her anger at his "betrayal" causes her to go over the edge and places both her ex-lover's and his girlfriend's lives in danger.

Ringwald looks stunning and portrays a crazy scorned woman fine, but the cheapness of it all and stupid choices made by certain characters doesn't make it very believable. I also wonder how many times Ringwald's character smoked a cigarette in the film, you could probably make a drinking game out of it. Not to mention the annoying way she smokes them. A few nice sex scenes but other than that I see no reason to have this in your collection. The guy who plays the character she is obsessing over looks like he forgot how to act half the time. He's no Micheal Douglas that's for sure.

I knew nothing about this movie before I saw it, but it didn't take long for me to think of "Fatal Attraction", which was quite disturbing but better executed.

Yes, this is kind of scary, but it's not a classic movie or anything like that. In fact, it borders on comedy, mainly early.

I don't recall any outstanding performances, but the quality of this movie depends a lot on Molly Ringwald. She's quite good-looking and delivers a fine performance when she is acting normal. She's just a little too normal at times, though. I am reminded of someone's comment about Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs". After all those weirdos, we see this calm man also in a cage. And THAT'S scary. So one possible interpretation is that Ringwald is too calm and therefore scary because you know she should be more disturbing. And it could also be mediocre acting. One thing is certain, though. When she looks at Doug or anyone else disapprovingly, she is quite intimidating.

This isn't excessively violent but there is some blood, and one really disturbing scene. I don't recommend this as family viewing.

Laura is pretty but I found the scene where she got out of bed in just a t-shirt and underwear disappointing.

Not a great movie, but an opportunity to see the cute Molly Ringwald not so cute.

I was startled that this film has been ripped so mercilessly apart here, because I've always found it quite engaging. Years after it was released another filmmaker liked it enough to put huge chunks of it in "Swim Fan," which doesn't hold a candle to this original. I found Molly Ringwald quite chilling and felt that Patrick McGaw, playing a true innocent, broke my heart. Indeed, I think that McGaw almost singlehandedly SAVES this movie, because at least SOME of us care about him and the mess he ends up in after having hot (but oh so foolish) sex in Ringwald's car with her. Alas, she's a master manipulator and knows precisely which buttons to press to get what she wants, and later when McGaw's character suddenly gets a spine and begins to fight back, it becomes a race to see if he and his sweet girlfriend will survive Ringwald's lethal lunacy. I jumped at the chance to replace my VHS copy of this with the DVD and have never regretted it.