Death Becomes Her

I had High hopes for this movie but if you have seen the trailer you have seen the best parts. I loved the special effects and hated everything else. Special effects alone are not enough. It might have worked better for me if it had been a silent movie. I found the characters one dimensional and very annoying. It would have been great to see a character with at least one redeeming quality. Weak, vain, petty and stupid is how I would describe them. Basically I would have been happy to see all of them die. I guess the actors did what they could for this dud. I'm very fond of Goldie Hawn but she couldn't begin to save this film....0 stars for this one, I'd give it a minus star if that was possible.

I saw this film when i was about 9, since then i have been hooked on it! Its hilarious and cool. Meryl Streep, is superb and funny and knows how to light up the screen. This is definatly one of my favourite films of all time and very good if you want a laugh. Death Becomes Her has great special effects and is an excellent 'black comedy'.

When I first watched this movie, I felt like it is just one of those movies that I would give a 6 score. But I found myself watching this movie again and again. As conversations or question of immortality arises, I found myself quoting or referencing the movie. Because the movie is so watchable after so many viewings, I think this is a classic movie. It is about two woman trying to steal a man and fighting over their differences and jealousy. These woman wants to pursue immortality while another man wants to choose mortality and live a full life. It is the question of superficiality and immortality that struck me deep. The other issue is the desire to find that fountain of youth at the same time. The issues are as old as time. How do you feel when someone comes to you and say "You are old!". That was one of the phrases when a young man complains to Meryl Streep. These are some of the things you will ponder. Bruce Willis really surprise me this one as he no longer plays the tough man image. While Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep play great opposite roles as the two jealous fighting women who fight over differences and yet have to live together inspite of it. Yes, I have people I really detest and must live with them. Therefore, a lot of issues in this movie really hits me deep.

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I have seen this movie at least a dozen times and still find things to laugh at. >From the scene when Madeline falls down and breaks her neck to the ending where they both fly apart, it just does not get any better. I recommend this movie to any one wanting to see something completely different. This movie goes to prove that beauty is more than skin deep when it comes to the celebrities. I give this movie a 10 out of 10! Bravo!! to all three actors.

Robert Zemeckis is not my favorite director, "Contact" notwithstanding. There's nothing wrong with his movies; they're just fluffy. "Back to the Future" had an exhilarating two-billion-thread plot, but a disappointing moral climax-Marty's reengineered past creates an alternate present where his family is wealthy and the thing he covets most, a 4x4, is in the garage. (Such was our national mood--blame Reagan.) And "Forrest Gump", a decent and poignant melodrama, tried to be a satire too but instead of knowing commentary it delivered cliches (John Lennon on the Dick Cavett show answers questions using only lyrics from "Imagine"; an anti-war protester at a Washington rally makes his case before the crowd with the argument "Viet F...in' Nam!"). On the other hand, Zemeckis directed this, one of the great black comedies of the '90s. "Death Becomes Her" is a delicious, well-observed satire about makeup, makeup and more makeup. In Hollywood, if you're old you're run out of town on a rail and Meryl Streep's character is horrified that her body is going south. Streep has great comic timing (this role and her role in "Postcards from the Edge" are too-infrequent examples of it) and she makes a believable ogre of Madeline Ashton, a Streisand-esque demon. As the film begins in 1978 Madeline is onstage in a Broadway musical version of "Sweet Bird of Youth", hilariously retooled as an unironic paean to her girlish looks (she sings the unforgettable "I See Me" to her own reflection). Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn) and her fiancee Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) are in the audience, and after the show Madeline greets old friend Helen backstage, and promptly steals Ernest away from her for marriage. Flash forward seven years; Helen is overweight, living alone with dozens of cats and endlessly rewatching movie star Madeline being murdered in a scene from one of her films. She is evicted and arrested but in jail she hits on an elegant solution for eliminating Madeline from her mind: eliminating her. Flash forward to 1992 Los Angeles; has-been Madeline is caking on makeup and scheduling multiple face-lifts to fend off the inevitable. Ernest, formerly a plastic surgeon with a promising career, is now a mortician who dresses and retouches the best-looking corpses in the business. (His secret: spraypaint.) No sooner has Madeline rediscovered a drop-dead gorgeous Helen--looking impossibly young and voluptuous at her own 50th birthday party--then she panics and becomes desperate for a quick fix for her fading looks. She ends up in a mysterious Hollywood mansion with a sorceress (Isabella Rossellini) who gives her a magic potion granting eternal youth. Meanwhile Helen seduces Ernest and enlists his help in murdering Madeline. But comes a twist (literally) and suddenly Madeline gets a looks at immortality, and her own rear end, following a nasty fall down a staircase. All the actors shine here. Goldie Hawn is hilarious. Bruce Willis, an underrated comic actor, is goofier than he's been since "Moonlighting". Sydney Pollack does a virtuoso one-take cameo as a doctor who loses it after examining a dead-but-still-breathing Madeline. There are a lot of twists and surprises, not the least of which is that the FX get some of the biggest laughs. With technology these days being so good FX often slip invisibly into the background, this movie flaunts its CG-manipulated human bodies as something to goggle at. Zemeckis' usual trademarks are here, including elaborate tracking shots in expositional scenes and the use of mirrors to combine on- and off-screen space (in this movie about vanity there is a surplus of mirrors, one in practically every scene). The movie was written by Martin Donovan and David Koepp (they cowrote "Apartment Zero"; Koepp wrote "Jurassic Park" and its sequel). The mordant, sour-as-kumquats score is by Alan Silvestri ("Back to the Future", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"). The special effects were produced by Industrial Light and Magic.

We all want to stay beautiful and young; the desire that only gets stronger as we grow older and weaker. True, there's the pilates and avocado salads, but what if you could have it all just by taking a shot? You'd take it, I bet you would. I would. As the society of today is only getting more and more paranoid and fixated on the culture of youth, this movie's message should only get more important. We are not that far away from creating the potion of eternal youth, and surely we're far closer than we were in 1992 when the movie was made. And the questions posed by the makers, and even answered by them in the very next lines, should only be remembered fonder: what do we get if we erase a part of life, the death, from the process of life? What will really happen? Sure, this movie is a comedy: a black comedy of course, but still a comedy, not too be taken too seriously and surely not a motto to live your life by. And yet, I can't shake the feeling that the creators had a more significant message to portray, other than "don't shoot your friend in the stomach after drinking the potion or she'll be saying goodbye to bikinis forever". "Death Becomes Her" is one of those movies that guarantee great entertainment (but it's kind of a given with Streep, Hawn and Willis as the top three) and on top of it all, give you something to think about, even merely 17 years after it's been released.

Ok, call me crazy but wasn't this the first film that anyone had ever seen Bruce Willis play a character that didn't involve him blasting bad guys into the air with a machine gun? Don't get me wrong, I loved "Die Hard" and am a big fan of Bruce but it was just so refreshing to see him play a character that was so different to his previous (and, indeed, later) roles. His performance of the downtrodden, weedy "Ernest" is masterful as he strikes a perfect balance between the comedy and darkness of the film. If you like black comedies (like me), you'll love this! Whoever thought of casting such a genius combination of these three great actors in this film should be applauded. Hawn and Streep are excellently cast as the two feisty women competing over Ernest, desperately hanging on to their long-gone youth and stopping at NOTHING to get what they want - the bitch fight between the two gals is a scene NOT to be missed! All in all, "Death Becomes Her" is a deliciously dark comedy with a brilliant cast, great direction and some pretty convincing special effects - considering it was made way back in 1992!