Black Widow

Everyone who criticized Verhoeven for Showgirls should more than reconsider. How he got a quite nice acting job out of Elizabeth Berkley should make any director proud. I don't want to sound to mean, especially if you consider the material at hand here, but judging from what you see here, you never would have guessed she has it in her to be any (even only by little) better than this.

But it would be unfair to only judge her (even if she is one of the main roles in this, especially considering the title) and not the entire movie. It's just all over the place and predictable does not even start to describe it. And I have to admit that I didn't even notice the one big "blooper" (if you wanna call it that, it's more of a big mistake, which isn't the editors fault as much as the directors and the continuity people on set ... if there were any to begin with that is) that some of the other reviewers noticed, because I was longing for this to end. It's the pool scene towards the end. If you want more info about that, without having to watch the movie, read the other reviews, I won't spoil that.

Black Widows are probably ashamed being associated with this movie ... that would be guess ;o)

This was apparently released in 2007, then re-cut and re-released in 2008.

It is a workable "journalist picks up story and tries to protect her friend from a Black Widow" storyline.

Alicia Coppola as the journalist does a decent job following the threads. Her longtime male friend does a good job as the "blinded by love" potential next victim.

The investigative phase is more-or-less plausible. Creative use of a Blackberry sets the timeframe. I am always amazed by how quickly a cellphone call connects in an American film!

The climax and denouement are efficiently handled, saving our heroine. This film helped to pass an afternoon spent ironing this week's laundry.

Elizabeth Berkley actually does a half decent acting job in this, not like the trash job she did on Showgirls. And she looks different, like she's had plastic surgery or something. Definitely lost some weight.

Apparently the original version was called Black Widow? The current version playing as of October 2011 is called Dark Beauty, and has clearly been cut at the end to remove MOST of the blooper where 'Olivia' is shot and falls into the pool. Apparently in the original version, she made a surprising resurrection after dying. That part was cut out in the updated and renamed version, but you can still see her left leg kick like she's swimming after she is killed and falls into the pool.

I only got to see about the last half of this movie, I only watched it out of curiosity because Elizabeth Berkley was in it and I was channel surfing. What I saw of it was typically low-grade made-for-TV movie fare, made on the cheap. So this isn't a review of the whole movie, just a commentary on how disappointing was the half I saw. And I will register the bloopers I saw also.

The story was somewhat unbelievable particularly as it was set more or less in present day, i.e. use of internet and cell phones. So the 'baddies' in my mind would have never have been as 'successful' as they were made out to be in this film.

This film would have received a lower vote had it not been for the final goof at the end, at the pool scene, which made me reconsider and therefore upped it to a 3 for the sheer clumsiness of the cutting room editor. Or perhaps was this deliberately left in??

How this scene got through the cutting room is beyond me? However, it made for a great laugh for what I would consider a predictable TV film.

I am surprised by the overall rating of 5.5.

The movie is OK - more at the end - but it is an incredible mistake, about 10 minutes from the end, which made me register with IMDb just so I could let others know.

Near the end, there is a body floating upside down in a swimming pool. I won't give more details, so this does not become a spoiler.

When you get to this scene, watch the body. The person moves around, lifts the head up breathing... Amazing this made it through the final editing.

The movie itself is typical for TV movies - OK to watch when you want to kill a couple of hours, but nothing you'll remember for long. The story line is predictable - (is there anyone who would not predict the incident with the cell phone in the hotel room...) My family enjoyed watching it, and laughed for hours about the pool body scene.