 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1992 film death becomes her and it was a big one I think it did relatively well in the theaters. It's a Robert Zemeckis film. I Watched on HBO Max if anyone wants to know when I'm doing this review. That's where I watched it We did one of our things where my wife and I watch a movie over the phone with some friends And one of the big things that was said that I was just like, oh, yeah, you know You're kind of right my buddy had said it's very weird to watch an older film with Bruce Willis because he has hair And I totally agree with that. It's so odd because we just kind of know Bruce Willis now is not having any hair So it's just weird. But anyway done by Robert Zemeckis Directed by he did monster house romancing the stone the back to the future films forest gump Contact and cast away. That's just some of the more better known films that he's done So obviously huge career. This is one of the lesser knowns of the films that he's done But one of the things I like about Zemeckis is he has this ability to Capture Creepiness or scariness with a level of fun to it There's like a playful a playful nature to it and I think that's fully on display with death becomes her It's also in a film like monster house, which is animated for kids But his aesthetic is kind of that like when it's dark or it's creepy or it's scary There's always still this level of fun and playfulness to it Which I kind of like and that works really well for death becomes her in particular Because it's got a comedic aspect to it as well And it also kind of for people who aren't as much into horror It kind of like takes that horror element and still presents it But makes it a lot softer a lot more digestible for people who aren't into horror. So This was written by Martin Donovan who wrote scripts for a lot of TV shows here and there He wasn't the biggest name on the script The other person who worked on the script was David Kopp who did scripts for Jurassic Park I think he did revisions on Jurassic Park Carlitos way mission impossible stir of echoes Panic room and you should have left which was his most recent those are that's just a smattering the more Better-known ones and more horror oriented for the most part Obviously stars Bruce Willis, but also has Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep so huge cast especially at that time and very accomplished actor So obviously the acting is phenomenal in this film and that's one of the things like it looks awesome It looks amazing directing Cinematography acting just all that stuff so good the effects were good too and I'll talk about the effect specifically in a second This made some good money. It had a budget of 55 million dollars and it made a hundred and forty nine million dollars So nice for the studio who put it out It was the first film to use computer generated skin texture and it actually ended up pioneering a bunch of their of The effects that it used on this that would then go on to be used for Jurassic Park so you don't get the level of Effects for Jurassic Park without this film, which I think is a really cool tidbit of knowledge During the shovel fight scene with this film between Hawn and Streep Goldie Hawn's face was actually cut because they were using actual shovels And she got grazed at one point and she actually has a small a light scar From that shovel fight scene which I thought is interesting and it's important to point out that even with bigger budget films That you would assume accidents aren't happening Accidents happen. It's a film set and some things can go wrong So there was an original ending for this and I took a photo of it from the website I got it from because I didn't want to just write the whole thing over because it was a lot Okay, so most dramatically is talking about things that were different in the film Over the iterations of script the original ending was entirely redone after test audiences reacted negatively to it The ending featured Ernest after he has fled Les Lyles Liz Liz Lee's Whoever Isabella Rossellini's character after he fled her party meeting a bartender Who helps him fake his death to evade Madeline and Helen the two women in counter Ernest and the bartender 27 years later Living happily as a retired couple Zemeckis thought the ending was too happy and opted for the darker ending featured in the final cut Almond was one of the five actors with speaking roles in the film to be eliminated Other scenes that were eliminated included one in which Madeline talks to her agent Excuse me and one in which Ernest removes a frozen Madeline from the kitchen freezer He has stored her in none of the scenes have been released publicly But sequences can still be viewed in the original theatrical trailer. I thought that was interesting to note So they they originally had a happier ending and went for darker that which is Uncommon when you screen films usually it goes more people don't like the darker stuff So you make it happier. So I thought that was interesting that it went the opposite way this film opening with the musical sequence of Madeline singing in her, you know, what looked like a Broadway musical I Hate that beginning because there's no Quicker way to test the patience of your audience than doing an entire musical number right off the bat Unless the film is a musical so I hate that start to it That is one of my big criticisms of this film is that's a boring as hell way to start It does not grab the audience. It does not pull them in you need to start with something a little more attention grabbing So that did not happen the main conflict is quickly established though As well as the mental state of Helen's character You know the twisting of the cloth that she does when she's you know angry The facial expression she has like she's like about to lose it The time when she was twisting so hard on the piece of cloth that she started bleeding I assume that's from her nails digging into her hand watching scenes on repeat of Madeline getting strangled in whatever movie she was watching and then also just her living state and then you know She had packed on all those pounds. She looked like she wasn't taking care of herself She's living with all this cats which the whole crazy cat lady stereotype is overdone and ridiculous and stupid But I understand it was a thing back then so it's just a part of it But it's good that they established that mental state initially because you need that like you definitely need to know Who Helen is as a character how obsessed she is how she's not gonna give up And that obviously comes into play later when she's going hard at trying to get Ernest back Who I'm just gonna call Menville because he was referred to more as Menville than anything So I'm just gonna call Menville the scene where dr. Menville explains how to how he makes bodies look good with spray paint from the hardware store is a an interesting one and be a good social commentary because the woman he's talking to had just told him Oh, you did such an amazing job making my I think it was aunt look good for the funeral And then he tells her how she did it because she asks and the fact that it was spray paint from a hardware store like made the woman Appalled and that's an interesting thing because that happens in real life where people just They like the end state But it's this kind of thing of like how the sausage is made like you love the taste of sausage But when you find out how it's made people really don't like it anymore and they look at it very differently It's the same thing with getting people beautiful Cosmetically for funeral There's a lot of very intense stuff that goes into that stuff that if people knew they really wouldn't like it But they love the end state and I think this this scene in the film makes a really good point of that from us You know social standpoint. I love it. It's a very good scene Obviously strong for shadowing comes in when the thunder and lightning hit as Madeline You know takes those two pieces of the card and kind of puts them together and realizes You know, I can't keep aging. I'm losing my mojo basically because she just lost her lover to a younger woman And she's obviously not even all that interested in her own marriage anymore, which she had stolen him from her friend So it's a whole lot of cheating in this film Yeah, so but yeah heavy for shadowing but in general I think that actually lightning and thunder is used kind of too much in this film because it's used to not just do for shadowing, but it's that kind of like You know bop you over the head with the foreshadowing type thing that kind of says hey audience We don't think you're really that smart We're going to not just wink at you, but like wink at you and not stop winking at you until you Acknowledge back to us that we're winking to you So I hate that type of filmmaking where they just assume the audience is stupid So they need to bash them over the head with things because that's how that thunder and lightning use comes in Or how it plays out is it seems like that's what they're doing and I hate that Glowing liquid, especially when it's exquisitely displayed will never have a good outcome in the long run in film Although I do like how they made the liquid look. It's you know pink Glowing Aspect is really really cool looking and also the little vial they have it in looks beautiful And then the the extra step where they kind of like have the vial sit upright on its own at one point very cool I do like it. So design-wise nice During this time period people with European accents were actually used a lot to kind of be villains in films And that's kind of seen with Isabella Rossellini's character It's just this phenomena where all of a sudden like European accented people just started being viewed as Somehow not able to be trusted in movies and that just became a trope like a stereotype That just kept getting used over and over and over again I mean think also about you know going even further back bond villains a lot of bond villains had foreign accents And that was one of the big things is like oh, they're foreign, you know, you can't necessarily trust them You know your culture is different. So you don't know where they're coming from or what their motives are So just you know just a observation on that The montage of showing the actions while Helen lays out each step of the plan that she's proposing for getting rid of Madeleine Is a really cool way to have things done It's really nice because if you decide to go that route for the actual storyline Then you don't have to show the events again. You could just be like oh it happened and we're done So it's kind of a bit of a time-saver But obviously with this it's good because it shows you ideally how things were supposed to go And then obviously it doesn't go that way it goes totally different So it kind of creates this good comedic aspect of here's the perfect plan And you think that's the way it's actually going because they're actually showing you the scenes and then you realize Oh, no, it got super screwed up So it's a little bit funny. I like that The amount of time Madeleine is almost falling down the stairs is insanely drawn out now This happens twice because it's it's in the part where you know Menville decides he's not going to save Madeleine and he actually pushes her down the stairs And then when it happens at the very very end of the film where I get I think it's Madeleine pushes Helen down and it mirrors the scene pretty much exactly but I don't like that kind of cartoonish nature of it where it's not realistic at all I understand that you know the premise of this film is not realistic in the beginning But that the the potion is the only aspect of it. That's not realistic The whole like how physics work in the film The fact that they're gonna mess with that is is dumb because like her teetering Especially when you see the angle that her feet are at on the edge of that stair It's ridiculous like she can't balance like that for as long as she does So I hate that scene for that reason and then the fact that they use it the same way At the end I think it's dumb It's a good shot when it's focused on Menville and Madeleine is putting her body back together behind him I think that's one of those perfect moments I talk about where it's either scary or creepy but also fun and playful at the same time and Part of the reason that plays out like that is the musical choices too. It's more of like a fun playful type Piece of music playing at that point So I love that scene like you're seeing you know in focus Menville on the phone explaining to Helen how things went wrong And behind him over his shoulder like blurred you're seeing Madeleine You know getting all of her joints back in place basically finally standing up and getting herself together except for you know Her head being on backwards Good scene really good scene the scene with the doctor is really funny I love that scene because the acting that the doctor does and how freaked out He is with the fact that he's seeing all these breaks and she has no pain And he just like he can't even fathom what's going on and then the extra step of him going and then just taking a Drink from the flask that Menville has I think is is pretty pretty good touch. I like it I do think it's a little too far when they then show him having a heart attack because of it I think that's a little too much. You don't need that. It doesn't do much It's it's one of the another one of those like overkill moments where they're bashing you over the head with things The shotgun scene and this is awesome when Madeleine puts the shotgun to Helen's Abdomen and just blows her away It looks great the fact that there's a giant hole blown in her looks really good The fact that she goes flying out into the area where the fountain is and then lands in the water And then how all the blood just like slowly comes out below her Awesome seeing a lot of impact really fun interesting looking and then when you realize once she gets up and you're like Oh, no, she also must have taken this potion and now you have two women who Basically embody death like they cannot die even though their bodies get broken down so insanely much It becomes clear that the bad blood isn't really about Menville after a bunch of years. It started about stealing You know stealing boyfriends basically and then it became about Menville and the fact that Helen became so focused on I'm gonna get him back I'm gonna get him back But at the root of it we find out after she you know after they've had their knock-down drag drag-out shovel fight We found out that you know That's not the root of all the problems and they finally do get to the root of the problems They still can't really stand each other But they're in the situation where they have to be together now So they figure out how to make that work, but it's interesting because then at that point It feels like Menville is not even that important to them anymore They just need him around to make them look better because of his skills to use all that spray paint from the hardware store to Match their color tone of their skin and make them look decent forever Obviously, he doesn't want to keep doing that though. That sounds like hell. I Know there are guys who fantasize about women fighting over them, but this shows how it can go really really poorly I don't I've never understand understood that fantasy of guys being like oh man I wish two women would fight over me Now I Just doesn't seem good, especially because then you have to make choices and a lot of drama Like I just don't like drama only like drama in my movies not in my life There are some people who are just driven by drama, and that's okay You can tell Menville isn't going to drink the potion when he's kind of like, you know hanging off the gutter over that big hole in in the Castle basically it looks like a castle you can tell he's not going to drink the potion because of how long they make the scene go It's one of those things where if you're watching it from a standpoint of like really paying attention to the film and Understanding that everything is for a reason Why would they focus on that scene as long as they do if he was actually just going to take the potion? Yeah, you just know based off how long it's going. Yeah, there's he's not going to take the potion at all now What you don't necessarily know is that he won't die So that was a good twist that you didn't didn't necessarily see coming And then obviously he gets away. He lives the rest of his life I mean while they're stuck because they were so vain and so concerned about their looks and aging and their mortality That they end up having a terrible life because this is this is something that's been in film for a long time the whole idea of Immortality not actually being everything. It's cracked up to be and this is just another one of those films I Don't understand how they popped apart at the end like mannequins I understand the idea behind it because when they were talking about using the spray paint to match the color tones for people Who are dead? He said like they do for mannequins and so I get that callback as a joke But it doesn't make sense once again much like the teetering on that stair before falling Popping apart like a mannequin makes absolutely no sense because they're still held together like normal human Beings for the most part so I didn't like that it kind of takes you out of things it kind It's just absurd. It's once again another one of those like you went too far type moments, and you didn't need to it's a little too out of Character for the actual story and just it's just too much. You don't need it There's a point of how people try to defy aging in this film and fight off death with cosmetic surgery And that's certainly a thing it's very much ingrained in society and a lot of that being that you know There's a there's a large focus on people's looks in society I think it's much less now than it has been in the past and hopefully it continues to be much less Because you know being that vain is obviously potentially self-destructive like this film is showing and It also portrays as pretty dark and creepy Like the glimpse of the person getting that blood transfusion when she first goes to talk about options Madeleine They closed the door and someone was in there like getting a blood transfusion and like this rotating circular thing Like that was creepy like real dark and creepy and I felt like that was an intentional thing to kind of be like look Cosmetic surgery is kind of dark and creepy like if you think about it It really is like do you even know how they do nose jobs that is brutal nose jobs are brutal They literally like chisel cartilage out of people's noses like I've seen some footage of it I One time and I was just like never again like they literally have a hammer and chisel and just like Whack at the cartilage in the nose like it is Violent and terrible and then you consider that people are doing that just for looks just to maintain a certain look or to change their look It's terrible. So, you know ultimately With the this is kind of speaking about the basic fear of mortality and with us being mortal as we age and we get closer To death our bodies breaking down and part of our body breaking down is our looks don't become as good You know, do you think you know all of these? Lines in my forehead were there like 10 years ago or so absolutely not and that's just gonna continue They're gonna become deeper and more pronounced over time the lines that I have here. That's another thing I didn't have these in my 20s. I'm almost 40 years old like you know the fact that you know I'm gonna end up like Bruce Willis at some point here. You know, it's That's what happens your body changes and not for the good. It goes downhill continually until you die and this film just kind of takes that because everyone's afraid of that to some degree and You know, ultimately, it's really about mortality about dying about getting closer to death But it's also a little bit about not feeling like you have value in the eyes of society Especially when society ends up focusing so much on how you physically look and not who you are up here Even though as you age up here ends up going as well. So, you know anyway My thoughts on this film overall with five stars possible half stars in play. I think it's a pretty solid film It's not the best. I already, you know, obviously gave some of my issues with it I'm gonna give it a solid three and a half star rating. I like it. I thought it was good. It was actually the first time I've ever seen it Solid film I could see myself watching it again I think it's fun to see what the characters are gonna have happened in them next and then how they're gonna try and Cover that up and what that end product is gonna look like So pretty pretty fun film Anyway, love to know your thoughts on it put some comments down there But first I would really love it if you would go ahead and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already Really doesn't mean a lot to me. This is my personal plea to help me grow this channel And then if we do I can do more fun videos do more engaging stuff And also if you have ideas for horror related videos, I would I would be open to that So please hit that subscribe button Also, make sure that you hit the notification bell at the same time because that'll let you know whenever you're putting up Whenever I'm putting up a new video unboxing movie review or doing live stream. So yeah But regardless, I appreciate you taking the time to watch this review and until next time keep it brutal