Saturday, August 11, 2012

Cold Sweat (1994)



Directed by: Gail Harvey

Starring: Ben Cross, Adam Baldwin, Shannon Tweed, Dave Thomas, Henry Czerny, Maria del Mar and Lenore Zann

Genre: Thriller, Erotic Thriller

Rated: R

Mark Cahill (Cross) is a family man with a beautiful wife and two healthy young boys. However, he is harboring a secret life as a gun for hire. After killing a woman (Zann) on his last job, she haunts him wherever he goes. Meanwhile, he is about to be caught in the middle of a web of betrayal when he is hired to kill his next target.

This was a pretty dull thriller. I went into it not expecting much and that’s about what I got out of it. None of the characters are really likable. The only one who is really sympathetic is Cahill’s wife Joanne (del Mar), as she has no clue about her husband’s true career or why he doesn’t seem to want to make love anymore. The rest of the characters are all rather despicable. Mark is a hit man who, up until his sudden development of a conscience, had no problem dispatching innocent people. Beth (Tweed) is having sex with every man in her life except her husband Larry (Thomas), which is almost understandable as he is such a jerk to her and everyone else around him. Sean (Czerny) is one of Beth’s lovers as well as Larry’s business partner, and Mitch (Baldwin) is her low-life former boyfriend turned lover. All of these characters have secrets and evil tendencies and no one is safe.

As this is classified as an erotic thriller, T&A abounds in this flick. Tweed is naked in at least 75% of her scenes, and both Zann and del Mar show off their breasts at least once. At least there was a little male nudity to make up for it from Baldwin and Czerny, but nothing to really get excited about.

The performances were alright for what the film called for. Cross’s performance was rather stiff as Cahill, and he really only showed some sort of emotion at the climax of the film, but not in scenes where he should. Thomas seems to have the grouchy, middle-aged, drug addicted business man down pact, and Tweed mostly just had to get naked with some attractive men. She does show a bit of talent at the twist-filled climax, however. Baldwin injects a little bit of humor into his childish hoodlum and Czerny is rather wooden. The performances fit the roles, but brought nothing special to them.

The plot is the biggest issue with this flick. Why does a man who has been killing professionally for years suddenly develop a conscience? There is nothing special about Zann’s character other than the fact that she’s cute, an overall innocent bystander, and Cross’s character witnesses her having sex with his intended victim. I don’t really see how any of these factors would make a man like him feel bad for what he’s done. Many of the people he’s been hired to kill are probably innocent too. Also, the twists and turns are fairly predictable and I saw the ending coming long before I reached it.

Overall, this is a pretty lame thriller with a problematic plot and unlikable characters, but plenty of nudity. It’s not terrible but it’s not really good either.

5/10 

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