FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Derrick Gibbons
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Nick Duguay
I actually enjoyed this more than i thought i would, this being 90's Lamberto Bava- whom i was never a huge fan of (Delirium aside). Despite an incoherent plot it manages to stay engaging, doubtless aided by the wonderful cinematography of Luigi Kuveiller (A Woman in a Lizard's Skin, Profondo Rosso). The ending is quite charming as well. All around fun , especially for a giallo made in the 90s. Better than most of Argento's output during that decade.
The_Void
Well, the Giallo had it's heyday in the early seventies, and ever since the stream of these great films got thinner and thinner until we reached the nineties and the genre sadly all but petered out. With that in mind, this isn't a particularly bad film; but it pales in comparison to its seventies counterparts, and it has to be said that by the conclusion, you kind of wonder what the point is. Giallo's are renowned for featuring over the top and frankly stupid plot lines; and this one is certainly no different, as Body Puzzle has one of the most ridiculous story lines of all! The film kicks off with two murders; the second of which sees us introduced to the cold and calculating murderer. The murders continue, and the copper on the case sees a connection to Tracy; a window who lost her husband Abe in a motorcycle accident. The cop wastes no time in falling for Tracy, meanwhile; the murder spree continues and all the signs seem to point to the dead husband and his donor card, as all the victims have the fact that they received something from Abe in common...The film was directed by Lamberto Bava who, despite never topping the achievements of his father, has proved himself to be a capable director on a number of occasions. This film is actually the worst Lamberto Bava Giallo that I've seen, as both Macabre and A Blade in the Dark were better. The film does have its plus points, however, as Bava doesn't let the film fall short where death scenes are concerned. The murder sequences aren't overly gory, but they are pretty nasty as we witness things such as a connectionist being stabbed to death, a woman having her hand cut off and a teacher having her eyes cut out in front of a class of blind kids! The plot has its problems, however – as the fact that we know who the murderer is makes the rest of the mystery fit together all too easily. The cast is decent enough, with cult stars Erika Blanc and Giovanni Lombardo Radice standing out amongst a cast of lesser known actors. The music is completely over the top like the rest of the film; although the central classical tune is used far too often for my liking and gives the film something of a farcical feel. Overall, this film is unlikely to top anyone's list of favourite Giallo's - but considering the over the top ridiculousness of the production...it could have been worse.
HumanoidOfFlesh
"Body Puzzle" is a typical Italian thriller,not exactly a masterpiece,but it delivers some surprising twists.The death scenes are pretty vicious and graphic,especially when the woman has her hand chopped off.Director Lamberto Bava creates a reasonable amount of suspense and Luigi Kuvellier("Deep Red","Blood for Dracula")does the slick photography.Polish horror queen Joanna Pacula("Warlock 2","The Kiss" and awful "Haunted Sea")is pretty good as a widow in peril.It's also very nice to see Giovanni Lombardo Radice("House on the Edge of the Park","Gates of Hell","Cannibal Ferox")as the epicene Morangi.Overall this one is worth a look,if you like Italian giallos.
nemkutya
James Blish's definition of the Idiot Plot is familiar to Bad Movie fans: it's the sort of plot that would be dealt with in seconds by normal people, which only works in the movies if everybody in the cast is an idiot. Body Puzzle is a classic example of the device.None of the "professional people" in the movie behave as though they knew anything about their jobs. The policemen do things that would have them booted off the force. There's a female psychiatrist who makes snap judgments on patients she's only seen for a few minutes, and shares these judgments with the police as though there was no such thing as doctor-patient confidentiality. There's a medical examiner who makes pronouncements on the times of death that don't fit even remotely with the timeline of the movie (a lot of this is Bava's and the editor's fault, though). We have a lifeguard (it seems to me he's performing his duties a very short time after a kidney replacement, but I don't know about such things) who gets killed in broad daylight in a swimming pool -- but nobody notices! And there are no traces of blood in the water, even though the victim has been dismembered.Then there's the final twist. It's a twist so jaw-droppingly stupid that I would never dream of giving it away.I will give one bit away, though, to give a further example of how awful the movie is: the hero comes across a freezer chest. Suspense builds as he opens the chest, to find... frozen pasta! Ahh, but underneath the pasta he finds the frozen corpse we've been expecting. Now, at this point, we're expecting the killer to sneak up behind him and surprise him. Everything points to this happening: the camera angles, the music, the rules of bad movie making... so what happens? The killer jumps OUT OF THE FREEZER CHEST! He was hiding UNDER THE BODY, UNDER THE PASTA!! First, how did he get there without assistance, covering himself up with frozen stuff and then closing the lid; second, why didn't he freeze to death, trapped under all that ice; and third, how did he know the hero would stop by and open the freezer?The mind boggles.
