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I've seen this average by the numbers film a couple of time. I don't think it could really be anymore predictable. You know what's gonna happen each scene after the next. Starting with a thrilling and bloody drop, what follows is a sort of melodrama packed into a movie with music themes, familiar to those used in The Silence Of The Lambs. With his mother pushing him to be a success in life, after attending college, a young budding career minded guy, Jonathan (Matt Dillon) resorts to killing his ex fiancée as becoming pregnant, as rich Daddy (a fine Max Von Sydow) will cut her out of the will, and money hungry Dillon, can't have that. Now we see he's masquerading as a lover with the sister of the deceased, who's really the only one who believes her sister's suicide was a murder instead, where she can't let go, hence creating problems for Dillon, forced to get bloody again, and you thriller fans know how it goes. Entertainment wise, I still very much enjoy AKBD, sadly the most exciting part, the start with a blood splashing drop, and some of Dillon's expressions, will send chills up your spine. What's awfully familiar here, if not surprising, is the novel was written by the same woman, who wrote the novel, Sliver, from which a bad movie spawned, with a much similar, less blood splattering opening. Dillon has always been a good actor and never lacks, and nor has he done so here. It's Young, who just lazily utilizes character acting, where here was a chance as an actress, to show how versatile she could be, and it seems, she doesn't really care here. Take a leaf out of Van Dammne's book in Double Impact, honey. As playing the two sisters, and I won't even wrack my brain, trying to remember the names. Both characters, are annoying, especially the first one, where I didn't really care much for her acting and her character in the second, prime one, I was glad to see the first go. It's Diane Ladd who stole the acting gold here as Dillon's mother. I liked the fact, James Russo was in this, and did enjoy his scenes, where too, I got the feeling as an actor, he didn't really wanna be there, though did us solid. Here's still a drama thriller to kill time, but after seeing it, may'be even you feel like dropping Young from a towering zenith.
merklekranz
Totally predictable, totally unlikely, is the only way to describe this convoluted mess of a movie. Matt Dillon gets away with murder and no police are bright enough to figure out his game. I mean how exactly did he manage to hang somebody from the rafters in five minutes? How does he happen to conveniently manage to be in just the right place at just the right time?None of the characters are likable, and the whole film becomes nothing more than a "so what". This is truly a movie to avoid, because it is so insulting to the viewer. I hated everything about "A Kiss Before Dying", and do not understand how this rates a 5.3. To me it is a zero. - MERK
David Stafford
I won't dwell on the badness of this film. That was evident. But as an indictment of 90s fashion I don't think this film has a peer. In fact, to those who haven't seen the film and are interested in fashion, rent it, watch it with the sound off and just enjoy the pure platonic horribleness of the clothes Sean Young wears. From the kitschy Santa Fe style jackets to the high waisted pants to the lumberjack shirts it's a non-stop parade of unflattering fashion don'ts that upstages every scene and that, obviously, is a good thing. A friend blames Ralph Lauren for the "western" look that achieved a gender-reversed funhouse mirror image of clothes men wore in the 1950s. (Not actual men of course. Just the ones you see in old shirt ads). Who knows? But clearly the costume director picked clothes they thought a wealthy young woman might find appealing at the time. What's amazing is that a relatively recent film could induce so many head-scratching, what-in-the-world were they thinking fashion moments. Afterthought: maybe it was a director's ploy to divert attention from everything else in this lame movie. Afterthought two: maybe it was the costume director's revenge on Sean Young's bad behavior during the film. And don't get me started on the hairstyles...
uroskin
The large part of the fun of watching A Kiss Before Dying is looking out for the number of Hitchcock movie moments the film is paying tribute to: from Psycho's shower shots and the lonesome mother's house our Norman Bates has escaped from, to the bleaching of the heroine and taking the Kim Novak role a la Vertigo with possibly lethal consequences. I was hugely amused and never mind the creaking plot. On a technical level, I loved the Technicolor hue of the film, very Hitchcock period too. I'm not sure why the lead actress, Sean Young, got a double Razzie award for her dual role. It seems undeserved. I'm sure there must have been far worse performances in 1991 to choose from.
