Reviews (21)

A wonderful and absorbing movie
I have to say Communion has to be one of my most favoirte movies. Christopher Walken is a great actor and he made this movie both funny and scary at the same time. I used to watch this movie when I was a kid. It was like a movie I have never seen before. Everytime I watch it I learn something else. The music is really good too which they play in the beginning and at the end of the movie. Whitley Streiber the character Chris Walken plays in many ways is alot like me. I understand the difficulty of being an author and how hard it is if you're work is earsed. But like what he said in the movie," It happened for a reason." I think the aliens wanted him to write that story about them. What is even more fascinating is that this is actually based on a true story. I own the book and the movie. Both in my opinoin are excellent. I can't describe in words what this movie has done for me. I must say when I was younger, I was a bit afraid of the movie. The thought of aliens coming down and taking me away to some unknown place was very scary. The scene I could never forget was the part where Whitley was sitting up in his chair and seen the wierd alien peak at him from the bookshelf. When I was a kid I was afraid of something being behind my bookshelf as well. I love the relationship Christopher Walken shared with his son. You'd never thought he could play such a loving father after playing in the movie "At Close Range" Communion is a movie you could bring over to a friends house and watch over and over. I can't count the times I have seen this movie. Now that I own it, I can watch it everynight if I wanted to. A wonderful and absorbng novel and movie!

Well-Acted, Sometimes Effective, not bad.
"Communion" the movie is a well-acted and sometimes effective drama. Christopher Walken does a good job here, though I've seen him do much better, but here he totally disappears in this character of Whitley Strieber. However, we are never quite clear of what the movie's intentions are. Is it a simple little creepy story? Or a serious dissection of the alien abduction phenomenon? I guess maybe it depends on your point of view on the subject. Which is, I guess, the same way people view the bestselling (non-fiction) book of the same name. I personally can say that I have never experienced some sort of UFO abduction and have my doubts on the existance of alien life, so I look at "Communion" from an outsider's view. For those of us who don't stay in the circle of UFO researchers or "Experiencers," "Communion" works as a good try at scaring the viewer. There are some effective sequences, especially those that take place in the Striebers' cabin, where the abductions first took place. The scenes with the alien beings look really well-done and real. I don't call "Communion" science fiction because it is, like the book, being sold as a true story and there are people who believe it and who have reported claims in the same nature and no offense is wished, so, for me "Communion" comes off as a creepy drama. It isn't completely horrific, indeed, I wished for a few better scares. The reason the movie didn't work completely for me, was that at the end I was left confused and puzzled, "Communion" isn't very clear on what happened or how. It was reported that a film was being worked on based on Strieber's follow-up, "Transformation," but it apparently never materialized, though I wished it had to shed some more light on the story. In fact, "Communion" is not clear when things ARE happening, not just when it shows flashbacks. Take the scene near the end when Walken apparently visits an alien vessel, I didn't understand zilch of what was going on in there and when Walken suddenly wakes up in his car, I was even more confused. Still, "Communion" isn't BAD, it works as an original story and as a showcasing of great performances through-out. UFO buffs will probably love it, outsiders like myself apparently need to not only read the book (which I haven't but now plan to) but watch the movie again after doing so. Not horrible, not terrible, not great, but entertaining and interesting.

WORST MOVIE EVER MADE!
I wasted my money, even though it was like 10 dollars, but still I feel so robbed. I'm an amateur film maker, and this movie has absolutely nothing going for it. I thought it was going to be the next "Intruders", or "Fire in the Sky", especially with Walken in it. Not only did this movie kill Walken's image in my mind, It also showed me how non creative some people are in this world, and that they think and some how do seem to make it. THIS MOVIE IS HIRINDOUSLY HORRIBLE FROM EVERY ANGLE YOU CAN IMAGINE. NEVER BUY!!!!!! NEVER WATCH!!!!!, AT BEST THIS IS A SMOKE UP MOVIE TO LAGUH AT. EVEN THAT IS PUSHING THE LIMITS. Any ALIEN BELIEVER OUT THERE THE SLIGHTEST will be embarrassed, and will wont to hunt down the pretentious director, with no IMAGINATION even with a low budget. WOW is all I can say, it really seems like a dream how bad it turned out...god man. This movie will take away any credibility from any real abduction or UFO case known to man. The real Whitley Strieber where ever he may be has to hate this director with a passion unknown to mankind. WE NEED TO BURN ALL COPIES! And by the way I'm a 110% STRONG believer in Aliens, this movie just pissed me off.

WATCHERS and Watching ........
DREADFUL DVD AND SOUND ....[shame!] BUT AN ABSOLUTELY 'MUST HAVE'.

WALKEN IS SUPERB AS THE MULTIFRACTURED HERO .....quite a tour-de-force and this one is very very chilling since you're [the watcher] never quite sure whether we're in Kansas or not. Last year's "Signs" brushes along similar lines - except this one is invasive ...... did they or didn't they ... and are they here or not????

DYNAMITE CAST includes the special Lindsay Crouse as Spouse, and Frances Sternhagen as the very perplexed psyc.

"Dreamcatcher" is another clone ... but this one [if it can] makes more sense.

WELL WORTH HAVING ..... those chilly New York night time shots and that cabin [sister dwelling to Amityville .......]

NOW, just click your Alien ....... there's no place like .....?

{Nicholas Roeg's "Don't Look Now" makes a terif. double-bill - something different, but also very creepy ~ then there's "The Comfort of Strangers" ..... another Walken triumph!]

Horrendous Letdown
It truly mystifies me how there could possibly be any good review of this film. I read the book, became engrossed in it for days, and enjoyed it immensely. It kept me thinking for a full year afterwards. If you've had a similar experience with the book, be prepared for absolute and total disappointment with the film. It will entirely pollute that part of your mind that the book developes so delicately and will leave you feeling deeply frustrated and disappointed. Worse still though, if you see the film before reading the book, you will be driven from the subject entirely, too repulsed to give the book a chance, not to mention the topic in general. The 'visitors' themselves represent a new low in film effects, and appear to be, at best, discount inflatable puppets motivated by discarded animatronics. In total, I feel an urgent sense that this film does a terrible disservice to Whitley Streiber, shifting the story of his experience from a place of thoughtful contemplation into the realm of the comically yet absolutely disregardable. Trust me, stay away, unless you enjoy pressing the fastforward button on your remote with desperate intensity. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Handcuffs and hairpins...
Partners, is a low budget, comedy adventure, that features the odd pairing of Casper Van Dien, with David Paymer. Van Dien is "Axel", a drifting pickpocket and petty thief. Paymer is "Bob", a man who has had enough, and won't take it any more. To prevent his employer from stealing software he developed, Bob has abandoned his wife, and run off, with the program in a briefcase chained to his wrist. He is on board a bus bound for LA, when the opportunistic Axel, lifts the case. Soon the two men are "partners" in the scheme to sell the valuable contents.

After procuring a car, the two set off for LA. There, with the help of Bob's beautiful Japanese girlfriend "Lin" (Seiko Matsuda), they plan to sell the stolen goods to an Asian buyer. After hitting town, they settle in at a motel, and begin to make their moves, doubling the selling price for the goods, at the meeting with the Asians. Axel renews ties with his estranged girlfriend, "Angel" (Vanessa Angel), and leaves the valuable briefcase with her for "safekeeping". A detective (Jennifer Lewis) is also hot on Bob's trail, determined to recover the missing software. With millions at stake, the players scamper to recover the briefcase, arrange an exchange, and then double cross and kill each other. The open-ended finish is interesting, and Bob does prove that he is not a total nerd.

Not great by any means, Joey Travolta's production is on par with a made for TV movie. The comedy isn't "laugh out loud", and the acting won't win any awards, but Partners is still entertaining, as the offbeat Van Dien/Paymer pairing, works just well enough. There is brief nudity, but not of the "angelic" variety. This little adventure, with some light comedy thrown in, is worth at least rental consideration. This feature does not have subtitles.

Unexpectedly good
This movie could have been awful. Some things about it are, kind of - some of the acting is wobbly, some of the pacing is a little slow. But it's unexpectedly funny, with a great starring role for David Paymer (a brilliant actor who's spent his entire career playing sidekicks and minor characters). There's some real chemistry between him and Casper van D., and the script is genuinely clever. Starts out very amusingly, and about thirty twists, turns and reverses later, it ends with a final reverse I did NOT see coming. Not art, but a great guilty pleasure. Compared to your average straight-to-video feature: way more intelligent character interaction, way less of the usual by-the-numbers, been-there-done-that kind of thing. Take a chance, it's cheap.

Casper does it again
Ever since Starship Troopers, this hot guy still seems to manage a good movie here and there. This is fortunately one of those unexpected good movies. In an action/comedy, Mr Van Dien seems to adjust to his role as a drifter quite well, opposite his on-screen partner. He drops his pants again for the camera, reminiscent of Starship Troopers, so girls and guys can drool once again. But aside from the eye candy (including Casper in jeans a tight singlet throughout - costume department must have had fun), the script is also very funny and enjoyable, for a reasonably lower budget movie. At the end of the day, Partners will not win any major academy awards, but is enjoyable movie around 85 mins.

Partner's makes for reasonable viewing
Action-man Casper Van Dien and Comedy-man Casper Van Dien team up for this moderately funny comedy-adventure, directed by Joey Travolta (yep, that's John's Brother).
Bob (Paymer) is a confused man. The one thing he has going for him is a computer program that he plans to sell to the highest bidder. Before he can even get to the buyer though, a street smart drifter (Van Dien) knocks it off - only to discover that he's not going to get pay dirt without Bob. They team up.
Unbeknown to Bob, the 'potential girlfriend' who has helped him find a buyer for his computer program doesn't exactly half his best interests at heart; the same goes for Van Dien's character's girlfriend, whose one-tracked mind revolved around the green stuff.
Plenty of double crossing, madcap moments and cheesy one-liners in this surprisingly chuckle-worthy film. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A wonderful and absorbing movie
I have to say Communion has to be one of my most favoirte movies. Christopher Walken is a great actor and he made this movie both funny and scary at the same time. I used to watch this movie when I was a kid. It was like a movie I have never seen before. Everytime I watch it I learn something else. The music is really good too which they play in the beginning and at the end of the movie. Whitley Streiber the character Chris Walken plays in many ways is alot like me. I understand the difficulty of being an author and how hard it is if you're work is earsed. But like what he said in the movie," It happened for a reason." I think the aliens wanted him to write that story about them. What is even more fascinating is that this is actually based on a true story. I own the book and the movie. Both in my opinoin are excellent. I can't describe in words what this movie has done for me. I must say when I was younger, I was a bit afraid of the movie. The thought of aliens coming down and taking me away to some unknown place was very scary. The scene I could never forget was the part where Whitley was sitting up in his chair and seen the wierd alien peak at him from the bookshelf. When I was a kid I was afraid of something being behind my bookshelf as well. I love the relationship Christopher Walken shared with his son. You'd never thought he could play such a loving father after playing in the movie "At Close Range" Communion is a movie you could bring over to a friends house and watch over and over. I can't count the times I have seen this movie. Now that I own it, I can watch it everynight if I wanted to. A wonderful and absorbng novel and movie!

Well-Acted, Sometimes Effective, not bad.
"Communion" the movie is a well-acted and sometimes effective drama. Christopher Walken does a good job here, though I've seen him do much better, but here he totally disappears in this character of Whitley Strieber. However, we are never quite clear of what the movie's intentions are. Is it a simple little creepy story? Or a serious dissection of the alien abduction phenomenon? I guess maybe it depends on your point of view on the subject. Which is, I guess, the same way people view the bestselling (non-fiction) book of the same name. I personally can say that I have never experienced some sort of UFO abduction and have my doubts on the existance of alien life, so I look at "Communion" from an outsider's view. For those of us who don't stay in the circle of UFO researchers or "Experiencers," "Communion" works as a good try at scaring the viewer. There are some effective sequences, especially those that take place in the Striebers' cabin, where the abductions first took place. The scenes with the alien beings look really well-done and real. I don't call "Communion" science fiction because it is, like the book, being sold as a true story and there are people who believe it and who have reported claims in the same nature and no offense is wished, so, for me "Communion" comes off as a creepy drama. It isn't completely horrific, indeed, I wished for a few better scares. The reason the movie didn't work completely for me, was that at the end I was left confused and puzzled, "Communion" isn't very clear on what happened or how. It was reported that a film was being worked on based on Strieber's follow-up, "Transformation," but it apparently never materialized, though I wished it had to shed some more light on the story. In fact, "Communion" is not clear when things ARE happening, not just when it shows flashbacks. Take the scene near the end when Walken apparently visits an alien vessel, I didn't understand zilch of what was going on in there and when Walken suddenly wakes up in his car, I was even more confused. Still, "Communion" isn't BAD, it works as an original story and as a showcasing of great performances through-out. UFO buffs will probably love it, outsiders like myself apparently need to not only read the book (which I haven't but now plan to) but watch the movie again after doing so. Not horrible, not terrible, not great, but entertaining and interesting.

WORST MOVIE EVER MADE!
I wasted my money, even though it was like 10 dollars, but still I feel so robbed. I'm an amateur film maker, and this movie has absolutely nothing going for it. I thought it was going to be the next "Intruders", or "Fire in the Sky", especially with Walken in it. Not only did this movie kill Walken's image in my mind, It also showed me how non creative some people are in this world, and that they think and some how do seem to make it. THIS MOVIE IS HIRINDOUSLY HORRIBLE FROM EVERY ANGLE YOU CAN IMAGINE. NEVER BUY!!!!!! NEVER WATCH!!!!!, AT BEST THIS IS A SMOKE UP MOVIE TO LAGUH AT. EVEN THAT IS PUSHING THE LIMITS. Any ALIEN BELIEVER OUT THERE THE SLIGHTEST will be embarrassed, and will wont to hunt down the pretentious director, with no IMAGINATION even with a low budget. WOW is all I can say, it really seems like a dream how bad it turned out...god man. This movie will take away any credibility from any real abduction or UFO case known to man. The real Whitley Strieber where ever he may be has to hate this director with a passion unknown to mankind. WE NEED TO BURN ALL COPIES! And by the way I'm a 110% STRONG believer in Aliens, this movie just pissed me off.

WATCHERS and Watching ........
DREADFUL DVD AND SOUND ....[shame!] BUT AN ABSOLUTELY 'MUST HAVE'.

WALKEN IS SUPERB AS THE MULTIFRACTURED HERO .....quite a tour-de-force and this one is very very chilling since you're [the watcher] never quite sure whether we're in Kansas or not. Last year's "Signs" brushes along similar lines - except this one is invasive ...... did they or didn't they ... and are they here or not????

DYNAMITE CAST includes the special Lindsay Crouse as Spouse, and Frances Sternhagen as the very perplexed psyc.

"Dreamcatcher" is another clone ... but this one [if it can] makes more sense.

WELL WORTH HAVING ..... those chilly New York night time shots and that cabin [sister dwelling to Amityville .......]

NOW, just click your Alien ....... there's no place like .....?

{Nicholas Roeg's "Don't Look Now" makes a terif. double-bill - something different, but also very creepy ~ then there's "The Comfort of Strangers" ..... another Walken triumph!]

Horrendous Letdown
It truly mystifies me how there could possibly be any good review of this film. I read the book, became engrossed in it for days, and enjoyed it immensely. It kept me thinking for a full year afterwards. If you've had a similar experience with the book, be prepared for absolute and total disappointment with the film. It will entirely pollute that part of your mind that the book developes so delicately and will leave you feeling deeply frustrated and disappointed. Worse still though, if you see the film before reading the book, you will be driven from the subject entirely, too repulsed to give the book a chance, not to mention the topic in general. The 'visitors' themselves represent a new low in film effects, and appear to be, at best, discount inflatable puppets motivated by discarded animatronics. In total, I feel an urgent sense that this film does a terrible disservice to Whitley Streiber, shifting the story of his experience from a place of thoughtful contemplation into the realm of the comically yet absolutely disregardable. Trust me, stay away, unless you enjoy pressing the fastforward button on your remote with desperate intensity. ... Read more