The Hidden | | Cast : | Kyle MacLachlan | | Director : | Jack Sholder | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Full Screen, Dolby | | Released Date : | October 20, 1987 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 30, 2005 | | Summary | "Are we talking spacemen?" | Content
 | Absolutely awesome sci-fi film! The acting by Kyle MacLachlan is right on point. Michael Nouri who plays detective Beck does it with believability(its real hards to believe this is the same guy from Flashdance)thats rarely seen in this type of movie.The movie is mostly fast paced but at the right times it has extremley poignant moments. This movie has an in-your-face assault on the senses that keeps you riveted. Next to Invasion of the Body Snatchers this has to be the best 'alien using and abusing human bodies' movie to come along. Everyone who was taken over by the alien really played it like the real thing(even the dog).Most sci-fi buffs know of this film, but I'm surprised how many dont know of it. The chase scenes alone rival or surpass some "mainstream" movies. All the elements come together creating an interesting and action filled picture. Also, a great pondering ending. Love that unintended eighties feel this has. The dvd sound is good, but the aspect ratio of the film was played around with. That doesn't hurt it too much, but a corrected extra special edition is well needed. Don't waste your time on "The Hidden part 2". Its a mess. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 21, 2005 | | Summary | Great Ride! | Content
| Good story, great acting, great special effects, and lots of action! I wanted this in my collection. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 20, 2005 | | Summary | A past favorite confirmed! | Content
| I had seen this movie about 15 years ago as a teenager and it had left a special impression on me. I confess that I was not and am not much of a fan of bloody, shoot-and-kill movies, so I don't remember why I, a young girl, had rented "The Hidden" back then (probably because I liked Kyle MacLachlan at the time, teenage thing), but I was not disappointed. And now, seeing that I could get it on dvd, I risked ordering it, knowing that my memory could be playing tricks on me and my taste may have changed since then. End verdict: I love it even more!
How can I describe this movie without spoiling it for anyone?... I'd say watch it without knowing much of the plot. Just the basics, that it's a cop thriller with a sci-fi twist. It's fast paced, well scripted and, most of all, very well acted. MacLachlan is particularly good as the mysterious, sorrowful Lloyd Gallagher. The special features are a few but okay, with the Director's Commentary a real flood of behind-the-scenes information and plot explainations (it even explains the called-by-some strange connection between Lloyd and Beck's little girl).
A few warnings: The film is rated R for a reason, it shoots up a lot of people and it's not at all shy at showing exactly how a bullet hits and creates a bloody mess. It also has some bad language that childern should better not hear. It's not a big budget movie, it doesn't have the super duper special effects, but it makes the best of what it has with realism and style.
May I add a correction to the DVD description? Unfortunately, from the Special Features, the
"Scenes from the original screenplay, including the original ending // Photos, production sketches, storyboards" that Amazon lists are NOT included in this version, or at least in the dvd I got from Amazon.com this past week. I admit that I'm a little disappointed by that, but luckily the Director's Commentary sheds enough light on the original versus final script.
Bottom line: As a fellow reviewer put it, "The Hidden" is indeed a hidden little gem. It has guns, expensive cars and shoot-outs, it has aliens and cops, but it also has performances, nice dialogs, humor and, believe it, emotion. I think that every movie fan, male or female, that can judge a good cult movie when they see it, will smile when the end credits fall. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 08, 2005 | | Summary | A good deal of fun, but it's not letterboxed! | Content
| As many people have noted, the concepts and and general plot elements in The Hidden are all familiar. To say, as Roger Ebert has, that it is like a cross between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Terminator is not very wise, since The Terminator's ideas were culled from Harlan Ellison's Outer Limits and Star Trek teleplays, and the possessed-by-aliens motif wasn't even new when Jack Finney wrote The Body Snatchers. One could add that The Hidden is even reminiscent of Philip K. Dick in novels like The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (as was some elements of A Nightmare on Elm Street, curiously enough produced by New Line as well; and even more curiously, the first sequel to which was directed by Jack Sholder!).
The point is The Hidden's concepts are familiar genre tropes that don't necessarily originate from specific sources. What makes the film special are three things: the skillful way it synthesizes its ideas; the intelligent manner in which it tells its narrative, instead of spoonfeeding the audience; and the fact that it takes some time amidst all of the action to create interesting lead characters, giving the film a human side, that, even if it is underdeveloped, outweighs any thing in B.S. such as the same year's Lethal Weapon. Plus, how can anyone turn away from a film in which Claudia Christian appears as a stripper? Not a great genre film, but an entertaining and special one nonetheless.
One important note: the DVD case claims that the 1.85:1 widescreen version of the film is "letterboxed," but this is not true. It is actually a matted widescreen, which means that you get less picture on the top and bottom, rather than more picture on the sides. Personally, I think this particular film looks better in its full-frame version (especially during Claudia's scenes, since you get to see more of her!), so I would recommend choosing that option, although the menu refers to it as "full-screen." Why oh why can't these DVD companies get their terminology straight? |
| Rating | | | Date | December 06, 2004 | | Summary | Is democracy the best protection? | Content
| A strange film that comes from the past and yet seems to be archetypical in the cinema. It is based on the simple form of an extraterrestrial, or an alien, that takes over a human body, or any living organism, as a shield and armour to protect itself while it is rampaging in the world for its own delightful entertainment. This invading extraterrestrial is chased by another that has the mission to destroy it. This other « ET supercop » has also taken human form. Nothing new under the sun. The theme has been exploited to the most threadbare end, could we think. What more does this film bring ? First, the obvious and pregnant question that saying « I want » leads to terroristic and dominating attitudes. This is valid for us. All the I-want-people are bullies and dictators because they do not take into account the existence of others, except as obstacles that have to be pushed aside and eliminated. Second, possessing entertaining goods or capturing power is a game that leads to many colateral victims and much incidential damage. Power is not supposed to be captured, but it is supposed to be shared by everyone. Material goods are not supposed to be possessed and used for plain immediate pleasure but for some creative and productive goal that promotes the individual in a society that is enriched by this promotion. The case of a Senator who suddenly « wants » to become President is a perfect example of the abuse of democracy to impose one's will to the community. In other words democracy is not a total protection against dictatorship. We can even imagine, and observe here and there, absolute dictatorship installed and instated through a democratic process. Who can be the judge and beacon of such a danger ? In this film cops and an extraterrestrial justice-maker. This is too short. We have to think it all over to make sure it is always the collective interest of society and humanity that is taken into account at government level. We are far from this ideal that has been experimented for quite many centuries, from Athens' democratic slavery system to our western power-delegating parliamentaryu republics or monarchies. This film could be a warning to our present evolution in western countries, an evolution that is based both on the rejection of the greater part of the world that does not behave and think like us, at best, and on the attempt to impose our own way of thinking and behaving to the rest of the world, at worst. I will regret that the humane and humanistic, hence sentimental and emotional, side of this film has been slightly neglected into some side story that does not take the full dimension it should take, because our real future is in the cultivation of humane emotions, sentiments and feelings, or a deeply spiritual inspiration.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
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