Striking Poses (1999)

Thanks for the memories!

Crappy film

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

(Some Spoilers) Mind numbing thriller involving popular tabloid photographer Gage Sullivan, Shanner Doherty, who thinks that she's being stalked by an either secret admirer, from afar, or a murderously bent psycho. The stalker who's about as obvious to the audience, when you see him without his flowing red wig, as the nose on theirs faces is only interested in photographing the tabloid photographer which is something that she does, greatly annoying those whom she photographs, for a living. Which is why whatever surprises there is in the film evaporates as soon as he makes his long awaited, for those still around and awake watching, grand appearance.Terrified in that she may be attacked or even killed by this chewing gum chewing, he leaves his chewed up chewing gum as a calling card, nut-case Gage hires at the insistence of her secretary Casey Roper, Tamara Gorski, the good looking tall dark & handsome Nick Angel, Joseph Griffin, to protect her. Nick just happens to be an electronic security expert, with just three years experience, who puts in a state of the art security system in Gage's home to keep her, and the local police, informed whenever the chewing gum chewing psycho is trying to break into her residence.As you would expect Nick soon falls for the cute tabloid photographer and that has him neglect his job of keeping her from getting killed or kidnapped by her stalker. What in fact happens is that Gage's secretary-Casey Roper-is kidnapped by the chewing gum chewing man when she ordered a pizza with everything on it, that's when Gage & Nick were out on the town, on the internet that he, the stalker, intercepted! We actually see at the start of the film that Gage escaped from her stalker while covered with blood, not her own, and were given this hour long flashback to what lead to the situation that she, at the beginning of the film, found herself in.***SPOILERS**** It's then when you think you've finally got some kind of a handle to what going on in the movie that it really starts to fall apart with enough double-crossing among everyone involved that you can fill, with crosses, a dozen Tic-Tac-Toe game boards! By the time the movie finally and mercifully ends your so punch drunk from from all the double-crossing in it that you couldn't care less to what it was trying to tell you for the previous 90 or so minutes. Which even its screenwriter aren't quite sure of!

Doherty plays a woman who when the movie begins, tries to hide some bloody garments under some snow at the roadside. She's caught and questioned, and we learn what led up to that scene.She's a paparazzi photographer, and on some of her jobs and in her home she's being stalked by a photographer who leaves behind gum. It becomes clear he means to do more than just take photos, and she hires a security consultant, and when things worsen, a hit-man.The movie takes an unexpected but welcome twist. The events also go well past the opening scene once it comers around again. There's another twist that is expected, and it's gratifying that one of the characters saw it coming too.

An obviously cheap Canadian production but not too bad for what it is. The plot moves along convincingly but the worst things here are the "acting" of Shannen Doherty and Joseph Griffin who both show as much emotion as a pair of zombies. David Mamet's "The Spanish Prisoner" is a much better variation on this theme.

This movie is fabulous! Not only does Doherty demonstrate her ability to be the most convincing character possible, but her versatility shines through as we look back at 90210.The camera can be seen as a metaphor for many of the subplots during the film, yet it is not overdone as so many movies have done before. The dialogue is cleverly done, subtle enough so that you really should pay attention if you want to absorb the essence of this fine production.As for her past accomplishments, "Blindfold: Acts of Obsession" was probably her premiere work before "Striking Poses." She has developed even further as an actress, outdoing her still-marvelous performance in the aforementioned film, a masterpiece itself.In conclusion, you will laugh, cry, and be left speechless throughout "Striking Poses." Don't be surprised if we see some Acadamy Awards come this way, especially for the top notch performance of one of the finest actresses alive, Shannen Doherty.