Tied for the best movie I have ever seen
Great Film overall
Don't Believe the Hype
A Brilliant Conflict
Steven is a scrap-yard bookkeeper who's working for his wife's brothers and attending night school to get his accounting degree. His life takes a turn for the worst when he falls for and finally hooks up for the night with the belly dancer that was hired for his birthday, which just happens to go the same school. This leads to trouble for Steven, as his wife and her brothers find out about it and trouble suddenly occurs.Well, I was expecting way worse. I just don't know. Maybe because I knew what I was getting myself into, but I didn't think it was all that bad of a low-budget flick, as its made out to be. I guess people were expecting another ultra-relentless exploitation foray in the shape of "I Spit On Your Grave". But this follow up is far from it and on a totally different level. You could probably blame all of this on poor and ill-conceived advertising that treats it like one.Instead "Don't Mess with My Sister" is playing for an oddball, if raw drama that deals with family values, infidelity and a working class trying to make ends meat. After the controversy of the begin all and end all "I Spit..", Zarchi was probably trying to gain some respectability here. I expect that killed it for most viewers, but still it's quite a competent display by director / writer Meir Zarchi who keeps it on cruise control and strings along many different spontaneous developments amongst his own vogue. The impulsively junky plot could have gone towards a sleazy and brutal revenge angle, but Zarchi skewed away from this and the results weren't awful, but modest. The sultry music score by Todd Rice was simply oozing and controlled photography by Phil Gries got down amongst the grit. Acting from the no-name cast was more than suitable and Joe Perce's performance as the straight-mannered Steven was adequate and believable. Sure, it's far from great, but was I kept interested and entertained for it short running time. It does lull about in spots and the (lack of an) ending isn't much, but it delivers on those fronts that count if you're not looking for too much.Simply it's not all that bad, if you know what you're getting. Which is a kooky drama.
View MoreY'know, I'm probably wasting my time typing this review, coz it's such an obscure film with such a dire plot...The only reason why I *have* taken the time to type this is coz I just *gotta* vent my spleen SOMEwhere...Simply put, I was searching for a tape to record "Wasabi" (Jean Reno) on and came across this (my wife either bought this or it was a gift waaaaaaay before I met her). Just to make sure I wasn't gonna record over a classic, I did an on-screen fast-forward on it... no dialogue necessary, I picked up the gist of it just like that.How sad... "Wasabi" is a much better investment...
View MoreI enjoy the old classic horrors. Low budgets, questionable acting, cheesey effects etc. I spit on your grave, or Day of the Woman as the US print is known is a classic of the genre. Imagine my exitement when I stumbled upon a copy of "Family and Honor" (UK title) in a bargain bucket at the local video shop.The initial exitement of the find was the only pleasure this film gave me. I viewed it once, with much use of fast-forward ; and in the words of Mr Gump, "that's about all I want to say about that..."An abomination of a film. No gore. No story. No point.
View MoreUgh. A real disappointment from the man that brought us "I Spit On Your Grave". There's not one revolting or intense moment in this film. Did they run out of film or something? What kind of an ending is that?
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