Asunder (1998)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Eric Lee Bowers
Directed by Tim Reid
Starring Blair Underwood, Debbi Morgan, and Michael Beach

Anamorphic: Yes
My Advice: Skip it

Chance (Underwood) and his wife are expecting their first child any day now, but a freak accident on a carnival ferris wheel takes both of them from him. His friends Michael (Beach) and Michael's wife, Lauren (Morgan), who were also on the ferris wheel at the time of the accident try to help him through his grieving process, but Michael begins to feel that his wife is spending a little too much time with Chance. Michael's jealousy threatens to tear his marriage and all their lives apart.

I'm going to call this one the sleeper hit of 1998, because it's a great movie to sleep through. Every thing about this film is formulaic and predictable. The acting is horrible and the production qualities are worse than that. It seems like the sound engineer picked up every rustle of every piece of clothing on the set and the foley artists went overboard with some of the most asinine trivial things (like chopping carrots). I'm not sure if this is how the film was originally supposed to be or if it was something about the transfer, but it makes the thing almost unwatchable. I felt as though I were reliving part of Clockwork Orange.

The writing is horrible and the actors don't seem to be listening to one another at all. Imagine, if you can, two people having a conversation in which one line doesn't sound like it was spurred on by the line before it. How much rehearsal time did these people have? I've honestly tried to be nice and find something redeeming about this movie, but I just can't find it. It's a cookie cutter somewhat-erotic thriller that simply doesn't thrill.

The DVD is exactly what it needs to be: empty. You have a couple of trailers for films like Undisputed and Tangled, but that's about all. So, just avoid it at all costs. If you see it sitting on the rental shelf somewhere, go get some orange cones and set them up around it to stave off anyone else who might accidentally happen to pick it up and contemplate it.