Cheap Oxygen (DVD) (Richard Shepard) Price

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Customer Reviews of Oxygen

What? No fava beans and chianti?
I saw this movie on late night cable. It's a wonderful substitute for "Silence of the Lambs" when I'm too lazy to pull out the DVD. Plot is excruciatingly similar-female cop has to drop her psychological armor to gain the trust of a psycho killer in order to free a high profile victim (a relative of a politician no less). Tierney and Brody gave very good performances. Too bad the characters' motives made absolutely no sense. One curious point-the husband/captain was named Tim. Actor Terry Kinney who played him also plays Tim McManus on HBO's Oz. To be typecast as a cop named Tim...

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Oxygen - a breath of fresh air!
Oxygen is an ambitious, if little-known thriller. In its short, feature-length span it manages to approach a depth of characterization usually felt in the longer form of the crime novel. It stars Adrian Brody and Maura Tierney when they were far less famous than they are today; it's amazing what a few years can mean to a career. One need only look to this film for validation that their present stature is well deserved (Brody was the star of The Pianist; Tierney is one of the bright spots on TV's ER). Brody plays a narcissistic maniac who buries women alive to extort ransom money. Tierney is the troubled cop who pursues and confronts him and, in so doing, must confront her own demons. A great supporting cast, and a crackling-good script by its young writer-director-producer Richard Shephard make Oxygen - pun not intended - a breath of fresh air. I would give it five stars but there was something a little uneven about the film - perhaps the direction, which was hokey in parts (watch for the brief scene where cops search the city for the Brody character's orthodontist). This may be a case of nitpicking, but the film tended to feel "flat" in spots. These weaknesses are more than compensated for, however, and I heartily recommend this film to fans of thriller, horror, and crime genres. Add the fifth star if you're a fan of Brody or Tierney.

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COMPELLING PSYCHODRAMA MAKES FOR AN ENGAGING THRILLER
I of course expected little from this small budget movie with unknown actors (including Brody, at that pre-Pianist time). Given these parameters, this is a very engaging thriller.

Very effectively creepy. The psycopath theme is occasionally so disturbing that it's hard to watch in places. But what frightens even more is the horrifying glimpse we get into the mind of a killer.

Brody offers us a frighteningly friendly and calm, hypnotically conniving psychopath, and Maura Tierney is very credible as a woman so self-destructive and full of self-hatred that in one disquieting scene she can barely look at herself in a mirror.

Definitely worth seeking out.