Stuck [Blu-ray]
by Stuart Gordon
![Stuck [Blu-ray]](/images/Stuck-Blu-ray-B001CITQZY-L.jpg)
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DVD details
Actor: Mena Suvari, Rukiya Bernard, Russell Hornsby, Stephen ReaDirector: Stuart Gordon
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-10-14
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
DVD Reviews of Stuck [Blu-ray]
DVD Review: Stranger than Fiction!
Summary: 4 Stars
STUCK is one of those films that creeps up on you, teases you into thinking a comedy is in the making, then slowly reveals itself as what seems to be an exposé of our current manner of getting through life, of competing in the workplace, and of self absorption to the point of endangering those around us. The fact that the film is based on a true story as adapted by director Stuart Gordon and transformed into a bitingly satirical screenplay by John Strysik increases the impact of this well-crafted little low budget film. Watch it once for the gritty content of the story, then watch it again to appreciate all of the very dark (and very pointed!) humor in what at first appears to be a grisly tale.
Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari) works as a Nurse's Aid in a nursing home of senile elderly patients, giving some of the finest care for those entrusted to her talents. Brandi's compassionate work is noted by the supervisor Peterson (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) who manages to trick Brandi into an even heavier work schedule by suggesting a raise in position. Excited about her possible promotion Brandi and her working partner Tanya (Rukiya Bernard) celebrate that evening with Brandi's boyfriend/drug supplier Rashid (Russell Hornsby) who gives Brandi a pill of Ecstasy and the mixture of the drug with the alcohol creates a mess of Brandi's mind.
The parallel story involves one jobless Thomas Bardo (Stephen Rea) who lives in a tenement, is evicted because of past due rent, and becomes a street person, treated with cold (but satirical) mechanical responses at the Department of Unemployment. Left to sleep in the park he is befriended by another homeless person, given a shopping cart, and makes his way toward a midnight mission.
Brandi cum altered thought processes drives home, hits Thomas who comes sailing through her windshield badly injured, and out of fear and distress Brandi merely takes the 'stuck' Thomas home to park him in her garage, knowing that her boyfriend Rashid will help her. Thomas is conscious, unable to climb out of the glass of the crushed windshield and begs for help. How the stranded and injured Thomas is treated by the desperate but self-centered Brandi, by the frightened but macho Rashid, and by neighbors who fear intervention because of reporting an incident that would encourage police intervention and threaten their deportation as illegal immigrants results in an ending that shows how 'justice' can prevail!
The cast is first rate - especially Rea, Suvari, Hornsby and Bernard. The direction is tight and maintains credible characters in incredible situations and holds the audience attention every moment. This is a fine example of how a low budget film, in the hands of pros, can be more successful that the big budget, less thoughtful movies that crowd our marquis. Grady Harp, November 08
DVD Review: Pleasantly Surprised!
Summary: 4 Stars
After a fun evening out on the town, my date and I stopped to rent a movie. She picked "Stuck." I first thought "oh, God, I am going to be 'stuck' in B movie hell for the rest of the evening. I suggested that I first log onto Amazon.com to check the reviews on the movie before we committed to it (I know, I am a movie review geek!). She insisted that we just try it out without reading reviews. This made me cringe because I almost never gamble like this with my beloved movies. We watched the movie and I actually enjoyed the film much more than my date! It was really entertaining!
I thought the acting was fairly decent, Mena Suvari did a good job as well as the other main characters, and the movie was quite suspenseful and held my attention throughout. I even was satisfied with the ending. I think this movie at least deserves a rental.
DVD Review: Garage days
Summary: 3 Stars
Stuck, starring Mena Suvari, is a dark, urban drama of sorts that centers on a true event. Although in real life the outcome was different, the makers of this film seemed to create quite a few different scenarios that all keep one on the edge of their seats. Suvari does an excellent job in her part, as the nurses assistant whose balance between an up and coming career and a big, partying lifestyle are disrupted one night when she is involved in a hit and run accident that takes the victim home with her.
I was expecting much less in terms of a good script and memorable characters, and overall was surprised at the careful detail that was laid out for this film. Sure, it isn't anything to write home about, but still smooth, as well as gritty enough, to keep your attention. The final scene has a few surprises in it and even adds a few slight touches of humor as well.
DVD Review: Self-absorption taken to the extreme
Summary: 4 Stars
When I saw this movie at the local DVD store, I couldn't believe they actually made a movie based the real-life incident where a driver hit a man, then drove home with the guy still stuck in the windshield, left him badly hurt [but still treatable]in the garage [still stuck], and waited for two days till he died, before disposing of his body [with the help of two others]. That is basically what happened in real-life, and the driver is now serving a 50 year sentence in prison.
Anyway, in this movie, Mena Suvari plays Brandi, a nursing home aide who gets along with her co-workers and patients and appears to be a well-balanced, happy person, and eager to please. When Brandi is informed by her superior that she might get promoted, she is ecstatic and goes out with her friends to celebrate. High on alcohol and drugs, Brandi drives home that night only to get into an accident - she hits an unemployed, down-on-his luck pedestrian Tom [Stephen Rea]. The poor guy goes through her windshield with half his body dangling out of it, and what does the horrified Brandi do? She drives to a hospital, but changes her mind and then drives home, parks her car in the garage with the hapless Tom still stuck and proceeds to engage in sexual antics with her boyfriend, drug dealer Rashid [Russell Hornsby] who is clueless about what happened.
Brandi is a character that one cannot feel any empathy for - she is all about self-preservation and despite the dire circumstances she is in, she keeps rationalising her refusal to render Tom any aid with the excuse that Tom is the one that caused the accident and repeatedly asks,"Why are you doing this to me?", holding Tom responsible for jeopardising her promotion chances. In her deluded mind, Brandi is guilt-free, and desperately wishes Tom will just 'go away', i.e. die and enlists the help of her dope dealer BF to get rid of the 'inconvenience'.
What ensues is filmed quite brilliantly - there are plenty of comedic moments, but more of the black "I can't believe this is happening/she's doing this/ they're not doing anything" variety than the LOL ones. There is one really funny scene though that has to do with Brandi discovering Rashid up to some hi-jinks and her reaction to that.
In terms of character development, Brandi's was well-done by Mena Suvari - from an affable, caring nursing aid to someone whose moral compass has done a full about-turn, Suvari does an incredible job of convincing us that this is possible in a person. The other character that I thought was brilliantly portrayed is Stephen Rea's Tom, the hurt, desperate and eventually maddened victim who fights to survive and get back at his tormentors.
Final verdict - this is a movie that might not stick [pun intended] in your imagination for long, but well worth viewing for the excellent character portrayal and dark comedy elements.
DVD Review: Stuck On Stuart Gordon
Summary: 4 Stars
Like David Cronenberg, Stuart Gordon has strayed from the horror genre for his last few films, but he's still got the knack for the gruesome and disturbing. With Stuck he uses the 2001 Chante Mallard case as the basis for this film. Mena Suvari(an actress I could never stand) works at a nursing home and is first choice for a promotion. While driving home from a night of partying and screwing around on her cell phone(Ya See? Ya See? They've been telling us it's dangerous and no one listens!) she hits Stephen Rea. Rea has pretty much just become a bum. He was downsized and his life goes from crappy to very crappy. Soon he's pushing a cart around and looking for somewhere to sleep. So, he ends up stuck in Suvari's windshield, but she has no intentions of helping the man. She's scared, she's got a big promotion on the way, and most importantly, she believes the incident was Rea's fault, not her own. The movie really pushes this point home as Suvari keeps saying, "It wasn't my fault" or yells, "Why are you doing this to me??" to a bloodied and shredded Stephen Rea who's dangling helpless from her windshield. You really grow to despise her quite quickly. I didn't need much help since I don't like her anyway.
With time running out and problems mounting at the workplace, Suvari gets her drug dealing boyfriend in on it, and they devise a plan to kill Rea and dispose of his body. Meanwhile, Rea is going through the agonizing process of trying to free himself from the window glass as well as trying to call attention to himself and fruitlessly begging Suvari.
Needless to say it's pretty off the wall and crazy stuff. But as they say, truth is stranger than fiction. Though this film was based on a true crime, much of it is fictionalized. Some scenes and points made in the film are straight from the news story, but in reality the man died only after a few hours of being stuck in the glass. This film has to make it a bit more exciting than that, so things go in a totally different direction than they actually did in real life.
Though I'll always love and think of Gordon as a horror film director, I've really enjoyed his past three non-horror films. I hope he keeps it up.
Description of Stuck [Blu-ray]
Mena Suvari (American Beauty) unforgettably stars as Brandi, a hard-partying, overworked nursing assistant in this delicious, darkly humorous psychological thriller from director Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond). Brandi accidentally steers her car into a homeless man, movingly played by Stephen Rea (The Crying Game), sending him flying through the windshield. Not wanting to jeopardize a possible job promotion, she chooses not to get him medical help, leaving him clinging to life in her garage. But soon her psyche begins to unravel as captor and captive are pitted against each other in a bloody...even outrageous battle for survival. Director Stuart Gordon delivers what Variety called "ingeniously nasty and often shockingly funny" entertainment.Stuck, a cunning and energetic thriller, takes its premise from the real-life incident of a woman who hit a homeless man, then drove home and parked the car in the garage--with the man wedged halfway through her windshield. The genius of Stuck is that it not only squeezes every possible drop of gruesomeness out of this event, it also portrays everyone involved as a fully-rounded human being. Brandi (Mena Suvari, American Beauty), the driver, is a nurse at a retirement home who genuinely cares about her patients and is struggling for a promotion; for Tom (Stephen Rea, The Crying Game), being hit by a car is only the latest in a long line of misfortunes and indignities. But this is no earnest tragedy--instead, when the movie seems about to become a grim psychological portrait of denial and trauma, it shifts into high gear as a brutally funny black comedy. Director Stuart Gordon, best know for the over-the-top horror of Re-Animator, keeps most of Stuck slyly underplayed, to superb effect. The simple but effectively constructed script zips along, zigging and zagging within a very tightly framed situation. Suvari, Rea, and the rest of the cast (including excellent newcomers Russell Hornsby and Rukiya Bernard) commit to every emotional twist, turning from suspense to satire with adroit skill. This movie was made on a modest budget but has more thrills, laughs, and genuine tingles up and down the spine than all the special effects money can buy. A gem of tight, effective filmmaking. --Bret Fetzer
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