Don’t Mess With My Sister
Picture: C+
Sound: C Extras: D Film: C-
Meir Zarchi is best known for his film I Spit On Your
Grave, a film that remains highly controversial and is (along with Can’t
Stop The Music and Caligula) films that were the apex of their
cinematic sub-movements. More poignant
than the Disco cycle or peak of theatrical XXX sex films, that was the film
that ended the old B-movie slasher era by having as much brutal (if badly
filmed) sex and more brutal violence that such films (that began with the
original Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was over as the major studios took
over with the “slice & dice” cycle in the 1980s. Without going into that mess, his much later Don’t Mess With
My Sister (1988) seven years later.
This film shows everything Zarchi does NOT have in the way
of cinematic talent, and that is plenty.
The casting of ethnic characters makes Saturday Night Fever look
like a documentary, the dialogue is idiotic, the acting pedestrian and even a
combination of all these bad elements are tired instead of unintentionally
funny. The problem is also that Zarchi
has no sense of real humor and no one in any of his films seem human until they
are beaten, raped or humiliated, which is pretty bad. That it takes that is a real problem because if you are taking
any of his works as a joke, you can only land up desensitized beyond belief, no
matter how smart. This lands up being
trash that even trash-meisters and schlock fans can only find so much in. By the end of the film, who cares if the
lead cheated on their sister? If only a
meteor landed, killing them all, as it would likely give a better performance
and maybe seem more human.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image actually looks
fairly good with good color, but that cannot save the script or this film,
while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is more dated in the cheap way it was
recorded. The only extras are the
trailer and some deleted scenes that make you realize Zarchi is a hack who got
lucky.
- Nicholas Sheffo
