Hourglass

I bought this movie because it offered Kiefer Sutherland as one of the leading cast... he was in it, for about 5 minutes.

Anyway, when I fell out with one of my friends, I gave him the video knowing that he would sit and watch it, wasting 90 minutes of his life. Enough said.

Beautiful, smart, dangerous, ruthless, tai-chi practicing Sophia Shinas is pretty much the only bright spot of this dud. For the story to have any chance of being less than absolutely ludicrous, we have to believe that the male lead can clearly see that the right thing to do is run away from this woman, but he is unable to do so because she is simply irresistible. And thanks to Shinas' presence, we believe it. The rest of the movie though....C. Thomas Howell is bland until maybe the last 5 minutes, and the plot couldn't be any more predictable. And don't be deceived by some famous names mentioned on the video box (Kiefer Sutherland, Timothy Bottoms, Lou Diamond Phillips), they all have essentially cameos. (*1/2)

Fashion magnate Michael Jardine (C. Thomas Howell) discovers his wife's dead body. Thus, begins Michael's journey into a nightmare world of darkness and death.

Or, something like that.

We're also shown a nightmare world of the fashions, exercise crazes, and music of the 1990's! A world where a beautiful woman (Sofia Shinas) simply appears in Michael's life, and Ed Begley Jr. Plays a cop.

HOURGLASS is what could be called an erratic erotic thriller. Howell and Shinas do have a certain chemistry, in the same way that jumbo burritos and beer generate a certain chemistry when voraciously indulged in.

The story is disjointed and absurd. It could / should have been a schlock classic like TROLL 2, but its boredom factor is far too high, relegating it to the toilet-raft section. This is very sad. After all, how many movies feature cameos by both Carrot Top AND Don(ny) "Ralph Malph" Most?!

I rest my case...

A business executive gets mixed up with a killer female and her lesbian roommate, who plot to take over his fashion business.

I thought this had potential, with C. Thomas Howell and Ed Begley. And maybe if I gave it another chance, I would like it more. But overall I find it rather blah and not even a bad cameo from Carrot Top could save it.

Maybe some day I will see this again and give it a better, more thorough review. But all I really thought was it was neither good nor bad and largely forgettable. I suppose it might even be better to be bad and memorable than average and forgettable...

This film isn't half that bad. Howell who graduated to B movies many years, has also managed to direct a couple. He was a director and co writer on this one, where a couple of recognizable stars pop up, some who've been in hiding for so long. It's some pretty interesting casting here. What we have is Howell who's head of a fashion business, in partnership with his brother, comedian Anthony Clark, falling for a femme fatale, Shinas, a devious sex pot who has big plans to destroy Howell and take over his business. Dead bodies of employees, start appearing and Howell, who has a weakness for beautiful women, is a prime suspect, where it's a race against time, to find out who's the murderous hand. Some scenes here are completely unwarranted, but Hourglass has a style about it, and a quite interesting storyline, yet also a not such happy ending for Howell. Johhny Venocur is a laugh as one of Howell's, soon to be dead employees.