Poison

April. 04,2000      R
Rating:
3.9
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Traci is a devious teenage girl who befriends and kills anyone who comes between her and her mother, Dana, a failed movie actress who lies for and protects Traci. If looks could kill, they'd look like Traci: young, innocent, appealing, deadly. Traci clings like ivy to her devoted mother and strikes with a vengeance at any man who intrudes on their relationship. Traci's mother is an attractive woman with a healthy sexual appetite, and the attention she pays to the men in her life, whether for business or pleasure, sends Traci into a frenzy of jealousy and rage. Now Traci, using her budding sexuality, will do anything... seduce anyone... murder everyone who threatens to come between them.

Rosanna Arquette as  Dana
Jürgen Prochnow as  Carl Krieger
Mandy Schaffer as  Traci
Michael Des Barres as  Evan Lazlo
Mark Humphrey as  David
Stacy Grant as  Mary Collins
Thomas Kretschmann as  Johnny Krieger
Suzanne Coy as  Carmen
James Leard as  Sheriff

Reviews

Invaderbank
2000/04/04

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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AshUnow
2000/04/05

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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Nayan Gough
2000/04/06

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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Maleeha Vincent
2000/04/07

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

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JMcClane02
2000/04/08

Wow what a flop. This movie wasn't a total waste of time. I was introduced to the newest member of my "fox" list: Mandy Schaffer. Her complete hotness is really the only reason I sat through it. No I'm not a perv. But it just goes to show a pretty face and killer body go a long way. As for the acting she pulled the psycho routine off well, but it was still too predictable. And the rest of the cast did the best they could with a weak screenplay. My recommendation: Watch this for the shear joy of seeing that gorgeous Mandy Schaffer.

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heckles
2000/04/09

Oh man. If you want to give your internal Crow T. Robot a real workout, this is the movie to pop into the ol' VCR. The potential for cut-up lines in this film is just endless.(Minor spoilers ahead. Hey, do you really care if a film of this quality is "spoiled?") Traci is a girl with a problem. Psychology has developed names for it when a child develops a sexual crush on the opposite-sex parent. But this girl seems to have one for her same-sex one, and I don't think there's a term for that. It might be because her mother Dana is played by Rosanna Arquette, whose cute overbite, neo-flowerchild sexuality and luscious figure makes me forgive her any number of bad movies or unsympathetic characters. Here Dana is not only clueless to her daughter's conduct; she seems to be competing for the gold medal in the Olympic Indulgent Mother competition. It's possible that Dana misses Traci's murderous streak because truth be told, Traci seems to have the criminal skills of a hamster. It's only because the script dictates so that she manages to pull off any kind of a body count.A particularly hilarious note in this movie is the character of Carmen, a Mexican maid who is described by Dana as around so long she's like one of the family although she dresses in what the director thought would say, "I just fell off the tomato truck from Guadalajara." Carmen is so wise to Traci's scheming, she might also wear a sign saying, "Hey, I'm the Next Victim!" Sure enough, Traci confronts Carmen as Carmen is making her way back from Mass, and bops her with one of those slightly angled lug wrenches that car manufacturers put next to your spare as a bad joke. I rather suspect than in real life those things are as useless as a murder weapon as they are for changing a tire. In another sequence, Arquette wears a flimsy dress to a vineyard, under cloudy skies, talking to the owner. Cut to her in another flimsy dress under sunny skies, talking to the owner's brother. Then cut to her wearing the first dress, in the first location, under cloudy skies - but it's supposed to be later. You get the picture. We're talking really bad directing.As for skin, don't expect much, although Traci does own a nice couple of bikinis. For those looking for a trash wallow, 8. For anybody else, 1/2.

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Victor Field
2000/04/10

A truly, truly dire Canadian-German co-production, the ever-wonderful Rosanna Arquette plays an actress whose teenage daughter redefines the term "problem child" - a few uears prior to the "action" the child murdered her father, and mum took the fall for the offspring. Now she's moved up to the Northwest US to start over, but her child still has a problem in that she's devoted to her mother. So devoted in fact that she kills anyone who might be seen as a threat to their bond.Unfortunately Mandy Schaeffer (as the daughter) murders more than people - she delivers such a terrible performance that she also wipes out the movie, though the incoherent script, useless direction and appalling music (check out the saxophone the first time she displays her bikini-clad bod) don't help any; we're supposed to find her sexy and scary, but she fails on both counts. Almost completely unalluring and not even bad enough to be amusing (not to mention the fact that Arquette and Schaeffer don't really convince as mother and daughter), all condolences to Miss Arquette and Jurgen Prochnow, both of whom are worthy of far more than this, and both of whom (particularly Rosanna) are the only sane reasons for anyone to sit through this farrago.One of the production companies is called Quality International Films - not since the three-hour "Love, Lies And Murder" (from Two Short Productions) has there been such a "You must be joking" credit.

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p1phillips
2000/04/11

Here we have another psycho-girl-on-the-rampage movie, this time portrayed by Mandy Schaffer. She is a seventeen-year-old who is fixated on her mother (Rosanna Arquette) and is never happy when a man comes between them. This time the man (Thomas Kretschman) is the brother of Arquette's business partner (Jurgen Prochnow, in a nice change from his usual creepy bad guy roles). Of course, Schaffer is soon bumping off anybody who gets suspicious or just plain gets in her way. There really is nothing new here, but Arquette is watchable in just about anything, and there's nothing wrong with the occasional cheap thrill, of which this movie provides plenty.

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