Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786303914893 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC ISBN: 6303914896 Label: New Line Home Video Manufacturer: New Line Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: New Line Home Video Release Date: November 04, 1997 Running Time: 90 minutes Sales Rank: 13130 Studio: New Line Home Video Theatrical Release Date: May 08, 1992
Amazon.com: Sight unseen, it's tempting to dismiss Poison Ivy as a teen variation on your standard trashy erotic thriller, a genre born with such promise in Body Heat that has since been in steady devolution. But while Ivy is no Heat, it's better than virtually any of those movies that star someone named Shannon. Crisp directing is supported by a script that takes a smart look at dysfunctional family dynamics, but most of all, it's the performances. Much has been made of Drew Barrymore's perfect casting as the title character, but she also does a sneaky and subtle job of straddling the fence: is Ivy a desperate, lonely young woman, an evil barracuda, or both? Tom Skerritt matches her step for step, playing the fallen husband as both hopelessly vain boob and genuinely lost soul. Cheryl Ladd delivers a sharp, minimalist performance as his Beverly Hills trophy wife dying of emphysema--becoming the still-life center of everyone else's life. And Sara Gilbert does a fine job in a role that gives her all the heavy lifting, playing tortured straight man to this pathetic and compelling tree full of coconuts. This DVD features both R-rated and unrated versions. The latter shows a bit more skin, although it's still fairly tame compared to the average skin flick. It also leaves Ivy a bit more ambiguous, and is thus a bit more fun. --Geof Miller
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Average Rating:
Rating: - The movie as a whole is poison; but Barrymore is utter perfection...
In all honesty `Poison Ivy' is a terrible movie. The plot is predictable and campy, the script is poorly written and the mood of the film is manipulated and cheesy. That said; it is campy fun. `Wild Things' proved that camp can be done to perfection, and while this is no `Wild Things' it is certainly no `Showgirls'. What separates `Poison Ivy' from becoming the diluted mess that `Showgirls' was is the acting (although Gina Gershon was fantastic; seriously), which actually saves this film from being nothing more than a poorly conceived skin flick with `Lifetime' movie direction.
Ivy is a seductive teen who befriends Sylvie, an introverted girl whose mother is very sick and whose father is obviously suffering as much as his wife. Ivy moves in with this family and soon begins spinning her web and spreading her vine into the crevices of her new life. This involves seducing Sylvie's father Darryl ... Read More
Rating: - Would you like to be Ivy?
I bought this DVD on a whim. I originally bought the sequel - with Alyssa Milano, cos I'm having serious withdrawal symptoms from Charmed - and since it seems to be stupid to have the sequel without the original, I bought the original.
Set in somewhere extremely rainy (it rains pretty much every other scene), Sylvie meets a girl who she calls Ivy, because of the tattoo transfer of a cross with ivy at the bottom. (Do we ever find out her real name? Cos all 'Ivy' says when Sylvie says that's her name, is: "It gives me a chance to start over." And she later gets the tattoo for real and he charged her $40??? I wish my tattoos were that cheap!) They quickly become best friends, and Ivy tries to fit into her friend's family pretty much by seducing the father and killing the mother. Some friend huh?
This should have been one of those movies that is all nude scene after nude scene after nude scene. ... Read More
Rating: - Barrymore's comeback begins here!
This erotic thriller from the late '90s can be attributed to staging Drew Barrymore's comeback from hellraising tabloid staple to a formidable actress that captivates audiences. Barrymore plays Ivy, a girl from the wrong side of that tracks who has Lolita-esque ways of getting what she wants. Sara Gilbert ("Roseanne") plays an awkward teen from a rich family who makes the mistake of befriending Ivy and falls victim to her machinations. Tom Skerritt and Cheryl Ladd play the rich parents who also get drawn into Ivy's web of deceit. The film is predictable, you know what's going to happen when Ivy displays her limber body in front of the rich dad, but Barrymore's performance provides the film's heat and demonstrates a turning point in Barrymore's career of her talent actually carrying some weight.
Rating: - Isn't It Sad To See Perfectly Good Blank Film Abused This Way?
This is a bad movie.
A really bad movie.
No, I mean it, a really, really bad movie. It's so horrendous you could punish your kids by making them sit through it.
All I can figure is someone went to Sara Gilbert and said, "Hey, how'd you like to make the leap from sit-com to film?" Then that same someone went and promised Tom Skerritt a lot of money to appear as a TMJ suffering sexually sicko father. And of course aging '70's starlet Cheryl Ladd did the film because she'd been out of the limelight a while, and then that leaves Drew Barrymore, who more or less played herself in those wilderness years of her career.
Poison Ivy stinks. If there's ever a choice between seeing it or scrubbing the bathroom tiles, take the more enjoyable option and scrub those tiles till they shine!
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- The movie as a whole is poison; but Barrymore is utter perfection...
- Would you like to be Ivy?
- Barrymore's comeback begins here!
- Isn't It Sad To See Perfectly Good Blank Film Abused This Way?
