Search - Frantic on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 1/18/2022...

Harrison Ford action and suspense but with a foreign twist. A must watch!

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

The 2004 transfer still lousy

Cedilla | 03/10/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"If you hope, as I did, that the 2001 and 2003 reviews that warn against the lousy transfer of this move do not apply to the 2004 edition, this is unfortunately not the case. The 2004 transfer looks like a bootleg made from a VHS tape. Why is Warner treating this movie so crappily? It is an excellent film and deserves a DVD release that does it justice."

Brilliance of Polanski...

Niki Savage | LA, CA | 06/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In addition to the great writing, directing, acting, music, etc... I appreciate how Polanski helps husbands exorcise their desire for going on vacation with someone other than their wife, in a safe manner and without having to feel guilty about wanting to do so.



As if in a dream --the doctor does actually fall asleep before he realizes his wife is gone-- Dick (Richard Walker) walks into a series of dangerous scenarios while on vacation in Paris. The authorities refuse to take him seriously as a man's conscience must in order for him to go on this adventure. To "get his wife back" Walker uses a phone number he finds on back of a matchbook, goes to nightclubs till "4a.m.", snorts the "white lady", secretly waits out a couple engaged in oral sex, pretends "Michelle" is a hooker as he asks the cop if he could "allow a married man some discretion", endures shameful stares of his associates at the airport who look at him and his company Michelle knowingly, sneaks into her apartment and gets into her bedroom and bed naked, etc...



To the Concierge, the Police, and anyone following him, it would look like in absence of his wife, Walker partied all night, trashed his room, paid a hot girl for sex, had "breakfast for two" in his hotel room the next morning, played a "crazy american" and got naked and in bed with the hot girl at her house, spent the day on a boat with a bunch of young guys in a band before going to a salacious bar and freak dancing with "the lady in red".



As Walker gets closer and closer to the end of his "trip" and getting his wife back, both of the women in his life are wearing the same red color dress. They pass each other by in the "exchange": Walker has had his fun and wants his wife back. Walker does fight for Michelle (his tendency for indiscretion) at the end and is pissed that she's gone but knows he has to give her up in order to have his life and marriage back. He and wife Sondra arrive back at the hotel with the same garbage truck and men in front of the cab as the first time they arrived at the hotel-- this "loop" in time and Walker's fantasy are over.



I'm sure all of above and much more that I missed up are in the dense pages of a film-theory-analysis book somewhere.



Once upon a time, there were brilliant provocative films being made... now I have to look forward to likes of Land of the Lost and New In Town... I'm sure they're filled with messages and meanings as well and I'm just too dull to pick those ones up.



Rose."