Love Kills is another one from the Virginia Madsen golden age of made for TV movies. It premiered on USA Network in 1991 and would also reunite her with Electric Dreams co-star, Lenny Von Dohlen.
But this is a very different movie than Electric Dreams.
Virginia Madsen plays Rebecca Bishop, a fashion photographer who after finding out about yet another affair by her husband, Drew Bishop (Jim Metzler) decides to even the playing field and get a little action for herself. On a photo shoot she meets Jonathan Brinkman (Lenny Von Dohlen) who suits her nicely. After a little wining and dining she hooks up with him for a night of rumpy pumpy, but all is not as it seems.
It turns out that Jonathan is actually a hitman, hired by Rebecca’s husband to kill her. But not to panic, now that he’s got to know Rebecca, he’s actually fallen for her and wants to protect her instead. Or, so he says.
Rebecca confronts Drew but he says that it’s all lies and that Jonathan is actually an ex-patient of his and that he’s got some sick and twisted agenda of his own. Or, so he says…
And – Yeah, it’s that roundabout. Rebecca doesn’t know who to believe, her husband has his reasons for lying, but equally plausible is Jonathan’s claims so it really does keep you guessing until the end just what the truth is.
Love Kills was actually one of the ones I was looking forward to rewatching the most. I hadn’t seen it in a long, long time and I didn’t really remember much other than the basics. My copy is on VHS and so it’s not that easy a decision to just sit down and give it a go one night. Fortunately, there are other ways to watch it in this day and age. Was I happy? Well. Yes, and no. The film is definitely different than I remember it through my rose coloured glasses. I’d totally missed the first time round that it was Lenny in the role of Virginia’s lover, so that was a nice surprise. The film itself though, I mean. It was never great, but now it’s just aged. It’s not a bad thing, there is a time and place for this kind of movie and I’ll probably watch it again sometime in the future, but my glasses won’t be as rosy.
Virginia basically carries this one on her back though. If it wasn’t for her then I think this one would be lost forever to the annals of time. It was good to see the chemistry with Lenny is still there, it’s weird but satisfying. There are shades of Linda, Victim of Love and Bitter Vengeance in her performance, but that isn’t a surprise given they were all around at the same time and this was pretty much Virginia Madsen’s thing at the time.
Availability:
Not great, never released on DVD but you can find VHS copies if you look hard enough. Also, YouTube can be your friend here.
Victim of Love, or Raw Heat as you might know it is a 1991 erotic(ish) thriller film, or maybe a 2003 film? Originally it was made for TV for CBS but apparently it had its sexier scenes expanded in 2003 and released by LionsGate / Artisan as Raw Heat.
Either way, it’s a love triangle kind of film. Tess Parker (JoBeth Williams) is a therapist who meets a new man, Paul Tomlinson (Pierce Brosnan) on a night out. He charms Tess and she has a hard time not thinking about him.
One of Tess’s patients, Carla Simmons (Virginia) comes to a therapy session where she starts telling Tess about a man who used to be in her life, but now isn’t. It doesn’t take long for Tess to realise that Carla is telling her about Paul. Because, of course.
Carla tells Tess about how she was having an affair with Paul when his wife died. Paul, feeling bad about his wife’s death, didn’t want to continue with Carla and told her he needed some time out. But Carla finds out Paul has moved on with someone else.
Tess confronts Paul about it, he admits to knowing her but denies any romantic involvement. Just as they hug and make up, Carla see’s them and starts to shout at Tess before storming off. Tess tries to make it up with Carla and goes to her apartment to set things right. When she gets there Carla has up and left but left behind a letter written to her by Paul.
Tess goes to confront Paul, and – Yeah – He denies, she believes, more evidence from Carla who claims that Paul’s wife’s death wasn’t an accident, Paul deflects and so on.
I would say it’s not a complicated film, but it’s not without its twists and turns – The overall premise isn’t hard to grasp though.
I’m going to hold my hands up and say I enjoy this film for what it is. I didn’t actually remember it that well when I sat down with it again. It’s by the numbers plot wise but the story keeps you watching till the end. Virginia is excellent in this movie, I always think the films from this time give her the most to do, I wouldn’t like to say it was the peak of her career but she was certainly getting cast in a lot of various types of roles and at her best when you think about all the different roles she was pulling off at the time.
As for Raw Heat being an expanded version of Victim of Love, I can find no evidence of that, I have “Victim of Love” and “Raw Heat”, both have the same running time. Victim of Love DVD says that it’s from 1991 and Raw Heat from 2002, that much at least is true.
Availability:
Not hard to find on DVD under both titles.
So, it’s 1862 and although it’s only just started, the American Civil War is well and truly under way. The South is working on a secret weapon, the aforementioned CSS Virginia. It’s basically a floating tank.
Though it’s based in reality, the events of the film aren’t. Our heroine plays Betty Stuart, an entirely made up character for the purposes of the film. It gives her a good excuse to go full on Southern Belle again if nothing else. Betty isn’t all that she seems, we soon find out she’s actually a spy for the North.The North as it turns out are working on their own floating tank, the USS Monitor.
These boats are the titular Ironclads of the movie. Before these ships were created then they’d be made of wood. Making them out of iron and steel like they started to do here would change the face of naval warfare forever.
Betty is engaged to Lt Catesby Jones, a Confederate Officer, who is actually a real life person. Although Betty is conflicted between her love for Catesby she still stays true to her beliefs and feed secrets about the CSS Virginia back to the North to help them with their battle. Even if it does land her in jail at one point. A nice jail though, because you know – Appearances. Despite this made up love story, the film is actually praised for its historical accuracy when it comes to the technology and the battle.
I’ll be honest, this isn’t my kind of film at all – I only saw the movie recently for the first time and it didn’t exactly hold my attention. That’s purely down to me, I’m not really one for war movies, even less so when it comes to things I care little about. It is actually held in high regard by those that enjoy these kinds of movies and that’s fair enough.
Virginia for the most part does her job as well as she ever does. Smouldering around the screen in the type of role I personally think she was born to play. I have to say, I found her character a bit odd when I watched the film. I didn’t realise until afterwards that she was made up for the film which I guess some ways to explain it and some of the peculiarities.
It’s the early 90’s and she’s well established as an actress at this point. We’ve seen her do the Southern Belle thing before a few times and she’s totally got that thing down which allows her to take on the role of the (overly?) complicated character with obvious relish.
As I said, it’s not my kind of film but I can tell that it’s well made – If you’ve any interest in this kind of thing then I’d say it would be worth a watch. Just bear in mind the clash between reality and fiction as you do.
Availability:
Another of Virginia Madsen films that isn’t available on DVD, and given it’s TV Movie status it’s unlikely it ever will. It is available on VHS and copies do turn up from time to time on eBay (where I got mine) but you have to be patient waiting for it.
Trailer:
Unfortunately not, another one where it’s easier to find the movie on YouTube than the trailer…
Pseudo DVD Cover:
If you took advantage of the tools to preserve a copy of the film digitally and you want to slot it into your collection and have it look natural, then you might want to make a DVD cover for it, this is the one I bodged together for such a purpose from the original VHS artwork.
Oieee. Highlander 2. To abuse the original tag line for the film, “There can only be, several”.
This is an entry I wasn’t looking forward to writing, In fact, I don’t have to do – There has been plenty written and discussed about this film for years. It’s a shame Virginia Madsen put her name to this film, but I’ve never read her talk trash about it.
The TL:DR version is – This film is and was a mess from start to finish. Actors didn’t want to be there. The Producers didn’t want to make the film and the Film Company didn’t want them to make the film. So, a film nobody wanted to be in and nobody wanted to make. Great.
It makes the whole Dune thing look like plain sailing.
I can’t even give you a proper overview of the film as there are at least five different versions of this film that have made it into the Cinema, Home Release and broadcast on TV and they can vary wildly. I own three on DVD myself, the original release, the “Renegade” version which was a Director’s Cut meant to give the film back to the fans, and then the most recent “Highlander 2: The Quickening” (Special Edition) release which went back in to the Renegade version and updated the effects.
I can say this though. I don’t hate this film as much as others seem to do and have seen it several times over the years. I’m a fan of the whole Highlander franchise and although a lot of it is dated badly, now, it’s still worth a watch every so often.
I was a full- fledged fan of Virginia Madsen at the time this film came out. I was at the point where I’d follow her the best I could in the days before the internet. When I first heard she was going to be part of the sequel to one of my favourite films at the time I was pretty excited about it all.
I originally saw the movie in a less than legal way. It was a copy I’d got from god knows where but honestly wish I still had it for various reasons.
I’d later watch the movie again on an official UK release copy and be, confused.
You see, the copy I had seen earlier was very different to the one I watched properly.
And this would begin my education into the many different ways films can make it out of the Hollywood studios. It would be many years before I would see the version I saw originally, or at least parts of it, again as the “Renegade Version”.
The rough idea of the film in whatever guise is that Connor McCloud is now an old man. During his time since the original film he has become the saviour of Earth by helping erect an energy shield around the Earth, replacing the ozone layer which mankind had effectively destroyed (yes, it was made around that time).
Unfortunately, bringing the shield online has plunged the planet into permanent darkness, the temperature and humidity of the planet has gotten to almost unbearable levels with no relief in sight.
But, all is not well with the World and many people blame the shield for the downfall of mankind in general. They resent the shield, and the people who made it, for everything it represents to them.
One faction led by “terrorist” Louise Marcus (Virginia Madsen) believes that the Ozone layer has repaired itself and that the shield remains to make money for those that operate it. She leads a “terrorist” group hell bent on bringing down the Shield Corporation and bringing happiness and joy back to the world by letting them see the sky again.At around the same time Louise is executing one of her terrorist plots a familiar face from Connors past comes back into his life, General Katana (a superbly hammy Micahel Ironside) – A man that Connor helped overthrow in a previous life. Katana has rebuilt and redoubled his efforts but is worried Connor will return to upset his plans once again.
This is where it gets a little sketchy. Katana, and Connor, are either from another planet, Zeist, or ancient Humans that time has forgot (Egyptians?)… So Katana is either transported (along with two of his, men) through space, or time, to get to Connor to stop Connor coming back to their home planet, or back in time to try and stop him for good.
With Katana back on the scene the whole “Game” from the first film is reset till “There is only one”.
Louise’s plan is a success and the terrorists scatter while they make their escape. Louise decides the best way she can escape is to confront Connor so she sets about tracking him down.
Which she does. Just in time for her to see Connor fight two of Katana’s, men, in the street, defeat them and revert back to his younger self.
This is enough for them to be driven into each other’s arms and set about saving the Earth from the Shield Corporation. Rameirez (Sean Connery) returns for some magical reason to help them in their quest. Evil is done, and defeated. The world is happy again. The end. It’s weird, for as much hate and ridicule as the film has gotten over the years it really does seem to have something that makes people want to like it, or at least make it the best version of itself that it can be. Why else would they keep going back to it and tinkering with it. I mean it’s not in “Star Wars” territory for amendments made after release but it’s mad more than its fair go.
For VIrginia’s part, yeah – She does OK – It’s not the meatiest role for her to get her acting chops into, but once again there is very little to complain about in her doing her bit. Her character is likeable enough, a little chintzy in parts perhaps but I’ve no doubt that’s more down to the script than her ability.
She at least managed to have kind of fun on the set with her co-stars, when asked about the movie in a 2013 interview with AV Club as part of their (now defunct) “Random Roles” series she’d have this to say;
“Oh, my God, that was such a ridiculous movie. But I’ll tell you why I did that film. It’s funny because it was between me and Sharon Stone. Me and Sharon were up against each other for at least five movies. I would get one, she wouldn’t, and then she would get one and I wouldn’t. So, of course, she ended up winning the lottery, and I got Highlander II. [Laughs.] But I’ll tell you why I did that movie: I got to go to Argentina for three months and work with Sean Connery. That was my entire reasoning for doing that movie.
Oh, it was heaven. It was a great adventure. And I loved Christopher. He was such a sweet guy. He was a real bad boy in those days, but he wasn’t with me. He was very sweet, and it was wonderful to watch him work because the material was so silly, but he had so much action he had to do. I saw him work a 23-hour day one time, and he never complained.” The film’s story or events are never, ever mentioned again in any of the subsequent Highlander follow ups and spin offs, not even Highlander 3 which positions itself as a sequel to the first film alone. I did wonder if they’d do *something* in Highlander: The Source to retcon it, but, no – Even that left the whole Zeist thing well alone.
I call this another great shame in Virginia’s career, the film could have and should have been so much more on the back of the success of the first HIghlander.
Availability:
Easy to find this one if you’re just after the Theatrical, Renegade of Quickening (Special Edition) version of the film. They are pretty much freely available on eBay and Amazon, especially if you have a region free DVD player so don’t have to worry about where your copy comes from.
The “Special Edition” re-release is basically the Renegade version with the effects retouched. It does have some interesting extras included on the second disc, including the ridiculous “Fairy Tale” ending that was shown in the UK Cinemas.
It’s probably the one you want to look out for the most, it’s the best version of the film we’re likely to get.
Streaming, not so much – At the time of writing no streaming service I could find is carrying a copy.
Obviously there are versions you’ve got little to no chance in getting hold of unless you manage to find a dodgy VHS somewhere of an illicit leaked recording, or one recorded off TV.
(And GOD DAMN do I wish I’d kept mine from all of those years ago!)
Other Links:
I mentioned above that a LOT has been written about this film, here are some of the – i want to say better, but not really – things and explorations into the whole Highlander 2 debacle.
On a photo shoot she meets Jonathan Brinkman (Lenny Von Dohlen) who suits her nicely. After a little wining and dining she hooks up with him for a night of rumpy pumpy, but all is not as it seems.
Was I happy? Well. Yes, and no. The film is definitely different than I remember it through my rose coloured glasses. I’d totally missed the first time round that it was Lenny in the role of Virginia’s lover, so that was a nice surprise. The film itself though, I mean. It was never great, but now it’s just aged. It’s not a bad thing, there is a time and place for this kind of movie and I’ll probably watch it again sometime in the future, but my glasses won’t be as rosy.
