Quicksilver Highway | Christopher Lloyd, Matt Frewer | Excellent Lloyd, So so for the rest

Quicksilver Highway | Christopher Lloyd, Matt Frewer | Protective Toys and Hands with Minds of their Own

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Quicksilver Highway

	Quicksilver Highway Christopher Lloyd, Matt Frewer Starz / Anchor Bay, 2005 average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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Christopher Lloyd stars as Quicksilver, a delightful collector of oddities. After a newlywed couple's car breaks down, the husband goes off for help. Along comes Quicksilver in his Rolls Royce, offering the fearsome bride refuge. He then tells her a story of a traveling salesman who stops at a rustic little diner and is given a set of "chattering teeth" as a birthday present. He picks up a hitchhiker and trouble follows. In the second story, Matt Frewer plays a petty pickpocket who meets Lloyd in his house of oddities and is todl the story of a plastic surgeon whose hands stage a revolt against him for their independence.

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Excellent Lloyd, So so for the rest

The Wrap Around concept that Lloyd plays a part of is quite a great idea. As such, I find Lloyd's work as Quicksilver very malevolent, and is all part of the consummate skill he possesses, in fact Lloyd can be quite a chameleon.
And whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the stories he related, I suspect that this will not appeal to all fans of this genre.
Very worthwhile film; great trip, and hopefully the concept will be "resurrected" at some later stage.

ENJOY

Protective Toys and Hands with Minds of their Own

Enthusiastically given 5 stars. The stories are well done. And seeing the cameos by Clive Barker, Mick Garris's wife and John Landis was fun. Good production, good actors, good editing. If you like creepy but without the blood and guts, this would be a good place to start.

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Killer novelty teeth and jimmy hands...

I've always enjoyed a good horror anthology movie (although I'm not sure after watching this film it actually fits in that category), some of my favorites being (in no particular order) Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), and Creepshow (1982), so, when I Quicksilver Highway (1997) appeared on my radar, I was naturally curious...a curiosity that wasn't necessarily rewarded as I got around to watching it last night...this made for TV feature is based on two short stories, one titled `Chattery Teeth' by Stephen King, and another titled `The Body Politic' by Clive Barker, both well known authors in the field of horror literature. Adapted and directed by Mick Garris (Critters 2: The Main Course, Sleepwalkers), the film stars Christopher Lloyd (The Addams Family) and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom). Also appearing is Raphael Sbarge (Risky Business, My Science Project), Missy Crider (Gigli), Silas Weir Mitchell (The Whole Ten Yards), Bill Nunn (Spider-Man 2), Veronica Cartwright (Alien, The Right Stuff), and Cynthia Garris, who just happens to be married to the director and all of her credits happen to be productions her husband directed...whatever...

The film begins on a lonely desert highway where we see a recently married young couple stranded due to a flat tire and an even flatter spare...the knuckleheaded husband decides the only thing to do is to leave his wife, who's pregnant by the way, at the car and go off in seek of help, but not in the direction they came from (which would seem the logical choice, since one would know what was behind), but forward, into the unknown...anyway, while the woman waits nervously, aide appears in the form of a Rolls Royce with motor home (with a Victorian interior) in tow, driven by a weirdo named Aaron Quicksilver (Lloyd), who offers the safety of his company while waiting for the husband to return. He describes himself as a traveler and a collector of interesting stories and facts, to which he proceeds to relate a particularly stupid tale about a traveling salesman, a sinister hitchhiker (aren't they all), and a pair of murderous, oversized, chattering, novelty teeth (seriously). After this we switch to scenes of a carnival and we're witnessing a pickpocket on his rounds, ducking into an exhibition called `Exposition of Delightful Horrors' in hopes of eluding the police. Guess who happens to be running the exhibition? Aaron Quicksilver...who then begins to tell a tale of a successful cosmetic surgeon (Frewer) suffering from a severe case of the `jimmy' hands, in other words, his hands begin acting of their own accord, and even to the point where they begin plotting a revolt...a `digital revolution', if you will...

Okay, I'm not really sure what kind of look they were going for when they made Christopher Lloyd up the way they did, but he comes off like some unholy hybrid of Liza Minnelli and Carol Burnett...which is pretty creepy (in a sleazy sort of way), but really didn't put me in the mood for receiving tales of terror (of which there are none here, by the way)...and I love the fact that the only people Lloyd's character could get to listen to his particularly lame stories are those who were essentially trapped into doing so...you see, the newly married woman got stuck with him because night was falling and the coyotes began howling, while the thief was forced into Quicksilver's company to avoid being arrested...and both of these people asked virtually the same question after the end of each tale in that of `Is their any point to your story?' So essentially what you have is a cross-dressing, psuedo-metaphilosophical, freaky deaky traveling around the back roads of America in a Victoria style motor home telling pointless stories to people whose only other choices beyond listening to said stories are incarceration or death? Great premise for a film...as far as the movie itself, the production values were decent, the actors professional (I hope Lloyd got paid really well for having present himself in such a manner), the direction capable, the music exceptional (composed by Mark Mothersbaugh) with the main weakness being in the material. This just served to confirm my ardent belief that not every bit of literature necessarily deserves to be turned into a movie or TV show, even if they're based on material written by the likes of Clive Barker or Stephen King. I haven't read either of the stories these adaptations are based on, so I couldn't tell you if this was a case of weak source material or just a rather lame adaptation. Did Stephen King really write a story about a pair of chattering novelty teeth coming alive and biting people to death? Perhaps the once deep waters of inspiration have since suffered a drought...maybe it was from his Bachman days...as far as the Barker story, I'm sure it came across much better on paper than it did on screen. There were some comical moments, specifically with regards to the hands `communicating' with each, talking about freedom and revolution in high pitched voices sound a lot like those little Brownie characters from the George Lucas/Ron Howard film Willow (1988). One aspect that did creep me out a little was the fact the director had his wife Cynthia cast in the 2nd story, as the surgeon's wife, specifically the scenes when her character and Frewer's began making out, all while her husband was behind the camera giving direction...so he got paid to film his wife, who is also got paid, making out with another man? That's beautiful...I know, I know...actors and directors are supposed to be professionals, but still, wouldn't you feel the least bit off watching your spouse getting it on with another?

The original full screen format (it was a made for TV movie, remember?) looks very sharp and clean, and the audio comes through clearly. There are actually some special features including a recent interview with Matt Frewer (9:32) where he talks about his experiences filming his piece, tending to get a bit gushy about director Mick Garris probably because Garris continues to help keep him employed by putting him in other King televised and big screen adaptations like Riding the Bullet (2004) and "Desperation" (2005). Also included is a commentary track with director Garris and his wife/actress Cynthia Garris, who happened to be in the film for all of about 10 minutes so I'm sure she'll have a lot to offer...she is really hot, though, but that's not really something that'd come through on a commentary track. Along with these features, there's also a trailer, a storyboard gallery, and a teleplay, which is on the DVD-ROM portion of the DVD.

Cookieman108

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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