Cheap Dead Again (DVD) (Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson) (Kenneth Branagh) Price

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Customer Reviews of Dead Again

Open Your Eyes, er...Grace?
DEAD AGAIN is a highly underrated suspense/thriller from 1991 that was also the inspiration for Dream Theater's 1999 masterpiece SCENES FROM A MEMORY. After watching the movie and listening to the album afterwards, there are a lot of similarities in the plot. I'm not accusing DT of ripping off the story, since they put their own spin on it and the characters in SFAM have different motives than the ones in DEAD AGAIN. Personally, I perfer SFAM because it's like a movie written in music which is more original, but this movie is still worth checking out.

Kenneth Branagh (who also directed the film) stars as Mike Church, a smooth L.A. investigator who knows how to talk to people and get secrets out of them. His next case, however, is much more difficult. He's assigned by a Catholic rehab center to take away one of their guests, an amnesiac woman (Emma Thompson) who doesn't talk much and keeps screaming in the middle of the night. The reason she screams is because she has nightmares of a man named Roman Strauss killing her with a pair of scissors. Mike decides to let her stay at his house, but even he doesn't know why he's suddenly drawn to her.

Out of nowhere comes a man named Franklin (Derek Jacobi) who turns out to be a hypnotherapist and is drawn to the woman's story. Franklin practices in hypnotic regression, meaning that he hypnotizes people that act like somebody else from a past life during the session. As it turns out, the woman (now called Grace by Mike) was actually Margaret Strauss, Roman's wife, in the 1940's. And in another strange twist, Mike turns out to be Roman reincarnated. Mike starts to fall hard for Grace, but when she starts to think that he might actually be Roman, that's where the tension begins to unravel.

The story is very interesting for the most part and the twists are pretty nifty, if not predictable. I like the fact that the scenes in the '40s were filmed in black and white and the scenes in 1991 were filmed in color. A perfect balance between past and present. Also, the acting is very good. There's even a hilarious supporting performance by Robin Williams as a former psychiatrist who now works at a supermarket ever since he was caught having an affair with a patient.

My only problem is that the ending is kind of disappointing. After the finale, you want more explanations. They gave enough throughout the movie, but at least one more to bring a forthright conclusion. Oh, well. That's more of a wish than a plot point. DEAD AGAIN is a solid, well-made mystery and makes for good viewing on a Friday night. Recommended.

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An all-time favorite you can watch again & again!
A brilliant and brilliantly-realized film using modern film techniques to evoke the best old films. A young woman suffering from amnesia and violent nightmares turns to a cynical private detective to help her uncover not only her present, but also explore her past, as they begin to suspect she's been reincarnated after a violent murder in the '40's. Kenneth Branagh directs a superb screenplay by Scott Frank and plays two roles (as does Emma Thompson and a few bit players). The film is shot in black and white AND color, with both stars using different accents and realizing two complete performances each. Cleverly, the script has characters both believing in -- and not believing in -- the idea of reincarnation, which gives depth and balance to both cynics and romantics in the audience. Beautiful film score by Patrick Doyle, which only heightens the melodrama. Everything about this film is tops (including an uncredited performance by Robin Williams -- and it's a gem). I'll never understand why it never received a single Oscar nomination -- Hollywood, you've done it again! If you truly love thrillers, this is one you can't afford to miss! END

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not at Hitchcock's level.
This movie has a good cast but it is not up to the level like the Hitchcock's movies.I like Emma Thompson and the cast in other movies that were good,but I had a hard time getting into the story.If Alfred Hitchcock was to had seen this movie he may be very angry at the writers and director.