Shameless
Shameless
Antonia begins a slow descent into heroin addiction, when she meets Mike in a chance encounter. At first, she merely uses Mike to run errands to get the drugs she desperately needs. But after a night of passion, she begins to fall in love.
List Price: $ 24.98
Price: $ 10.84
“Shameless” insufficient use of Jeremy Brett,
I don’t usually make a point to watch films this bad (predictable plot, laughable dialog, horrible music soundtrack, etc), but when I saw that my all-time favorite actor Jeremy Brett had a brief but memorable role in “Shameless” (originally titled “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”), I couldn’t resist. It’s a bizarre experience to witness an actor — who so perfectly embodied the iconic Sherlock Holmes in the beloved Granada TV series — appear in such an odd role of a drug-supplying sugar daddy. It’s even odder to see a glimpse of him in a modern-day sexual scene with a young woman. Regardless, as usual, he stole the movie even if he was only barely in it. I only wished the director has used Brett to his fullest talents instead of as an aside eccentric.
A young Elizabeth Hurley makes a mediocre attempt to portray a bored little rich girl with drug problems and C. Thomas Howell does his best to seem sexy in a grunge biker kind of way. But Brett’s booming voice, subtle expressions and dynamic presence wakes you up for just long enough to pay attention to his character. Once he disappears from the screen, you realize all too soon that the rest of the film is worthless. It takes a great actor to lift up a role from the muck, and I’m sorry to see that this was Brett’s only chance to do a modern-day storyline from his usual historic epics before he passed away.
He briefly commented in an interview why he did the role, and soon realized the film was a disaster.
On “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” (1995)– “I was mad to do it, but I wanted to show the world that I was still alive and I could do other things apart from Sherlock Holmes. I hope they don’t release it…”
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|3 stars for beautiful Elizabeth Hurley,
Originally entitled “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”, this movie is a typical British second grade thriller. Its tagline says all: “Murder, Vice, Corruption — All good English values”. Well, if you’re looking for a movie that delves into the complexity of London’s drug cartel and aristocratic world, you may be disappointed. But any fan of Liz Hurley can’t afford to miss this one, because she wouldn’t pose nude again, not even in “Dangerous Grounds”. The cinematography deserved a star too.
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|Waste of Time,
This has got to be one the worst screenplays/plots I have ever seen. It’s disjointed and makes no sense a lot of the time.
Elizabeth Hurley shows almost no emotion here, she’s mostly intent on smoking cigarettes and doing drugs. In fact, almost everyone in the film smokes like a chimney. About every scene Hurley is in starts with her lighting up – I have no idea why the director finds these constant closeups of her chain smoking so fascinating.
C. Thomas Howell tries hard to breathe some life in the film, but is saddled with a goofy, disheveled biker wardrobe, wearing the same outfit most of the time. I was hoping he would shower and change his clothes. The love story between the two is not believable because of Hurley’s acting, which seems to be phoned in. Jeremy Brett is wasted here, Joss Ackland is a great actor, but this film is beneath him.
The only reason someone might want to see this is for the topless scenes of Hurley.
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