Sten

I saw this on PBS a few years ago on a Christmas afternoon and my family and I were entranced and delighted. This is the familiar story transported to the American South in what seem to be the 1920s. The evil stepmother is an embittered and insanely jealous stage actress, the stepdaughter is lovely and talented, and the seven dwarfs have been replaced with a traveling medicine show. It's simultaneously down-to-earth and darker; the stepmother's fate is rather gruesome.

This is part of a series of classic fairy tales directed by Tom Davenport, all re-set in rural America. I haven't seen the rest but if they're as good as this film then they'll be worth checking out. Davenport is going to be honored by the American Film Institute soon and I also understand that the whole series will be available on a DVD set, which I may have to get as soon as I can!

One of the worst movies of its time. This stinker was so terrible that even the makers of the game now mock the movie.

The acting was terrible, the dialog stilted and artificial. Marlon Wayans so annoying, and the character he played was demeaning. Snails was a character who deserved to die. Jeremy Irons was obviously slumming; in interviews he openly said that he did this film for the money. His performance was over-the-top ham at its worst.

When I saw it in the theaters, people were either walking out or laughing when the movie was trying to be serious and dramatic, or staying stone quiet when it was trying to be funny.

This film has an overall juvenile feel to it, and probably would have been good for children had it been less violent. As it stands, it's a piece of garbage.

Tepid at best. The story is so cliched that within the first 15 minutes I was able to guess everything that was going to happen in the movie. It held no surprises for me.

And...let's talk about the miscasting. Rutger Hauer was obviously middle-aged, and it's blindingly obvious that Roberts is at least a decade younger, and yet we're supposed to believe they're high school classmates? Give me a break! That sort of sloppiness is inexcusable.

Another thing that really offended me was how they made Roberts' wife bisexual. It had absolutely nothing to do with the plot or the story; it was just there to increase the "ick" factor and make people go "ewwwww!" I hate that sort of thing with a passion. It's a cheap tactic, one that I think we all should just bury and forget.

There could have been a lot more tension in this, but the story's predictability hampers any suspense. Also, the fact that they regularly go ashore robs the plot of any of the claustrophobia that marked DEAD CALM.

I found this film memorable only because it was so bad. A trite story, so-so acting (and Hauer looks terrible!), and bad writing and direction make this a loser.