The Keeper

So here's an example of a movie that's easy to dislike, since it shamelessly rips off "Lady in a cage" and "The Collector", was done on a shoe-string budget with five to six cameras running during one scene and it has Lochlyn Munro in it. It's got all the creative looks of your typical movie-of-the-week and Asia Argento may be one of the prettiest faces, but her acting abilities are zip to zero. Nevertheless I have seen much worse. The Keeper is done fairly tongue-in-cheek with quite a wry, witty sense of humor and Helen Shaver is in fine form giving a performance so hammy she 's entering Vincent-Price-terrain. And Hopper doing his Hopper-routine is always more entertaining than watching any of those lame-assed method actors. O.K. for the price of an overnight rental, but you won't write home about it. 4/10

This Canadian 'maniac cop'-type thriller inaugurates a lengthy series of movies that I plan to watch throughout this month in tribute to its hell-raising star, the late Dennis Hopper. His co-star here is the equally notorious Italian starlet Asia Argento who, portraying a stripper that instills dubiously redemptive tendencies in Hopper, shows that she still has trouble in shedding her heavy accent which needs to be excused by making her an émigré. The presence of these two (who appeared together again a year later in George A. Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD) would have been enough to entice me to watch this modest effort somewhere along the line but, thankfully, the screenplay adds a few interesting touches to the overly-familiar COLLECTOR scenario.

In fact, Hopper has a sideline in puppeteering which he exploits by touring schools in an anti-drug campaign (which, knowing Hopper's highly-publicized drug-fueled antics of the past, makes for the ultimate irony); to further complicate matters, one of the teachers (Helen Shaver) has a big crush on him and wants to manage his 'career' and turn him into a household word!; Hopper's junior partner starts getting in too deep into Argento's disappearance and, inevitably, getting on Hopper's nerves; and, finally, an escaped serial killer who has been hunting down Argento's 'colleagues'.

Unfortunately, director Paul Lynch's (of the original PROM NIGHT fame) thoroughly uninspired handling deadens most of the impact that these subplots might have had and it is left to the two lead actors – but mostly Hopper (whose mania is predictably explained as being caused by a religious-fanatic-of-a-cop dad), since Argento's predicament limits her movements (although she still gets to do a pole dance over the opening credits sequence and have a couple of gratuitous showers along the way!) – to keep non-discriminating viewers watching.

It's truly odd how individuals who can't seem to master simple grammar and syntax will unabashedly critique a movie as if they have the cinematic genius of Roman Polanski.

If you fall into the category of viewer who thinks a film just isn't gosh darn entertaining unless things are "blown up real good", then by all means, give this one a pass. However if you don't spend your day breathing through your mouth and admiring your unibrow, then you will probably find this film to be the entertainment it aims to be.

If there's one type of role Dennis Hopper has down, it's that of a restrained nut job. And in this movie he gets to sink his teeth into the meaty role of a supreme nut job by playing a twisted small town sheriff who thinks he can convince a woman to fall in love with him by abducting her and locking her in a cell in his basement.

Heavily dialog driven, Hopper at times carries this film on his back with his highly compelling performance. Asia Argento, the daughter of Italian horror director Dario, is easy on the eyes and does a perfectly capable job in the role of the captive. Veteran Canadian actress Helen Shaver, surfaces as an equally unhinged groupie to Hopper's character, and her scenes with him eerily evoke fleeting similarities to that of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, Canada's infamous serial killer couple.

The film is capably directed by Paul Lynch, who has made a career out of directing Canadian-filmed US television shows, something which isn't a leap considering that this film was shot in British Columbia.

Overall it's a pretty decent and entertaining little movie. It will hold you to the end and not leave you feeling ripped off. As for some of the other reviewers of this film, well, let's just say it's probably time that they changed the batteries in their singing wall-mounted fish and sat down to some more engaging entertainment.

In Redwood County, the dancer Gina (Asia Argento) is attacked and her boyfriend is killed by a maniac in a motel. Gina is attended by Sergeant Burns (Lochlyn Munro) and Lieutenant Krebs (Dennis Hopper) insists in giving a lift to her when she leaves the hospital. However, he kidnaps Gina and arrests her in a cell in the basement of his isolated house. The deranged policeman has a serious trauma from his childhood with dancers of night-clubs and establishes rules and punctuations for Gina while she is imprisoned. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Krebs is stalked by a local, Ruthie (Helen Shaver), who has a crush on him and wants to promote his amateurish puppet show with the character Deputy Rock, his alter-ego. Sgt. Burns is trying to find a clue where the missing Gina may be.

"The Keeper" is another predictable rip-off of William Wyler's "The Collector". This time, the captor is a deranged lieutenant and the captive is a dancer. The story entertains, but Dennis Hopper is too old and fat for the lead character. The heavy make-up on his face is highlighted in the image of the DVD. It is ridiculous the scene where a young dancer that is keeping her shape working-out in her cell is chased by an old fat man that is able to catch her. Today is a rainy day in Rio de Janeiro, and this movie was a reasonable choice for a boring afternoon. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Obsessão" ("Obsession")

The only reason to watch this badly written movie would be if you were a fan of either Helen Shaver (a great actress) or the legendary Dennis Hopper. If you desire to see these two together in a film, choose 'The Ostetrman Weekend', which is by far the better film. The basic story line is the prisoner wanting to escape the jailer. (similer to the much better 'Misery')

Without going into too much detail so as not to spoil the plot (well, what plot there is), lets just say this is best avoided. There are millions of films out there to spend 90 minutes on, don't make it this one.