CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

oOoBarracuda I have never had such a hot and cold cinematic relationship that I have with Brian De Palma. Carrie was great, The Untouchables was great, Carlito's Way was phenomenal. Then there's Raising Cain, Scarface, and now Body Double that I don't simply dislike, but I loathe them. Body Double was the director's 1984 feature film starring Craig Wasson and Melanie Griffith that was maybe supposed to be an homage to Alfred Hitchcock but which actually made his film Vertigo into complete trash. The film chronicles a young actor's obsession with his neighbor that gets him entangled in a series of life-threatening events. Satirizing two of Hitchcock's most well- known features was the result of whatever Body Double was supposed to be, and I doubt that has anything to do with the director's intent or a testament to his skill. I really don't know what happened between the concept and the execution; heck, I still don't even really know what Body Double was supposed to be, but it struck all the wrong chords with me. I guess De Palma is going to continue to be a director whose output I either love or loathe, which will probably force me to see everything he does just to see where I fall.Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) is an actor struggling through his current project when he comes home to find his girlfriend in bed with another man. (He makes this discovery in the most Mulholland Drive kind of way, which is one of the film's few good standout moments, for me). As Jake contemplates his next move and his next acting job, he meets an actor who needs a house sitter which is perfect for the newly homeless Jake. As Jake is being toured through the home learning the place he will be taken care of, the owner of the home is quick to show Jake his favorite neighbor. Across the street, there is a Ms. Torso-like woman who regularly parades in front of her window naked. The homeowner has positioned a telescope aimed directly at the neighbor's home that Jake is more than welcome to use through his stay there. Throughout his nightly viewing, Jake becomes completely obsessed with the neighbor and vows to meet her. The opportunity finally presents itself when Jake decides to act heroically and chase down a man who stole the neighbor's purse. Soon after Jake witnesses a murder, then learns that the police love pinning crimes on peeping toms. Without intervention from the police, Jake decides to hunt down the perpetrators all on his own. I thought Body Double was going to be in the category of De Palma films that I enjoyed. The set up was wonderful, I especially appreciated the attention to detail De Palma paid to the world surrounding Jake. There was such intricate detail filling the small places Jake went or passed that was not lost on the audience. It was so fun to see the realism of the coffee shop Jake sits in and the people he passes. The film really loses it's footing for me when it tries to emulate a Hitchcock film. When Body Double switched from Rear Window to Vertigo I could not have wanted to check out more. I don't even like Vertigo that much yet, but I would have much rather watched that than Body Double. The lead actor, Craig Wasson, was an incredibly bland choice, which I understand was part of the intention but he doesn't pull off vanilla as well as the Jimmy Stewart archetype he was supposed to be. The music was poor, the plot was a mess, and the women in the film were terribly depicted. I have an odd enduring interest in De Palma despite my many failings with his output.

nils_asther Please, stop describing it as "hitchcockian" at all! De Palma is a genius by his own merits. This movie proves again his authorial identity, as well as his prominent attitude to analyze psycho- social issues.Here Hollywood, "The Industry", is totally depicted during the hedonistic-Reagan's era. It was 1984. De Palma's camera takes are undoubtedly referred to the Hitchcock's school but there is MORE, I would personally assert.The criticism De Palma always displayed in every work he made is pretty faraway from the sugarcoated studios' standards agreements. Last BUT VERY NOT LEAST: this flick endures being a total landscape's eye about L.A. Visually from Lautner's Chemosphere House atop Mulholland Dr. to few Westwood and Beverly Hills spots, up till the S.ta Monica surroundings. This is a historical film in my opinion. This Los Angeles too. Ciao belli!

Robert McElwaine Arguably the one movie among Director Brian DePalma's back catalogue which owes a great debt to his hero, the late great Alfred Hitchcock. Body Double marks something of an oddity which far from perfect didn't deserve the critical dismissal it received, leading to it being a commercial failure at the box office. It also marked the closest thing that actor Craig Wasson had to a mainstream leading role. The movie revolves around Jake Scully, (Wasson) a struggling actor starring in cheap, tawdry Vampire flick which proves more trouble than it's worth. He suffers from claustrophobia which Isn't exactly helpful when he has to appear in scenes of him sleeping in a coffin. Upon arriving home he finds his girlfriend in bed with another man, forcing him to find a new home. A chance meeting with fellow out of work actor Sam Bouchard at an acting workshop proves fortuitous as he needs a house-sitter while he's away on an acting job. Jake jumps at the chance of taking care of the plush apartment, and to top things off, each night a sexy alluring neighbour who lives in the building across performs a sexy striptease which Jake views via a telescope. This leads to an unhealthy obsession with wanting to meet her which eventually leads to him witnessing her murder. Inevitably finding himself the chief suspect he finds that he must work to clear his name which gradually draws himself in to the seedy world of the porn industry and where he learns that everything he saw that night wasn't quite as it seemed. Glossy, beautifully filmed and with a slightly surreal edge Body Double while largely effective and never boring is marred predominantly by a vacuous plot which tries to hide the silliness behind flashy window dressing. De Palma delights in excess which was very much a hallmark of the eighties, especially in the shamelessly O.T.T. murder scene and when Jake reluctantly appears in a pornographic Horror Movie, marching through a brothel to the strains of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's, Relax, and marks an inspired foray in to opulence and indulgence which De Palma captures beautifully. Ultimately a movie of two halves with the first being one long set-up for the main plot as Jake's obsession with the mystery woman grows unabated. Wasson, a limited actor in some people's view is actually effectively cast here as he makes for a likable screen presence. He has an amiable, good natured quality which makes for it being all the more troubling and cringe-making as he descends in to essentially becoming a stalker. It's these moments which ironically prove more tense and unnerving than the inevitable killing. Unfortunately the combining of plot aspects from of two of Hitchcock's more renowned thrillers don't exactly make for a cohesive plot, which under close scrutiny is rather flimsy. The eventual plot twists are either predictable or when they do arrive although unexpected don't have the jarring effect of shock they were clearly designed to invoke. On the plus side, Melanie Griffith who doesn't make her long awaited appearance until over an hour in to the picture is on top sleazy yet naive and ultimately bemused form as porn star, Holly Body(moniker which was actually taken by a genuine porn star after the movies release. Below the surface there is however some rewarding self referential observations on the pitfalls of the Hollywood film industry, De Palma sublimely delights in bewildering his audience with a neat psychological deception which will have you double guessing yourself. Topped off by a beautiful, haunting score by Pino Dinaggio it's an entertaining foray in to style over substance, deserving of the critical reappraisal it has garnered. Not necessarily to be missed if you can get past it's shortcomings.

Predrag Body Double shows the ugly, moral tawdriness of the bottom rungs of the Los Angeles acting scene. When we first meet Jake he's in danger of being fired from Z-grade horror film. De Palma has crafted a beautifully structured thriller with a mystery that we piece together along with Jake. The story is suspenseful, mysterious, touches on Vampire and porn film-making, and conveniently provides sex as the substitute for drama. Controversial movies like this always result in a lot of contradictory feedbacks.The plot revolves around a failing actor (who could use some serious couch time, if you know what I mean), who becomes obsessed with "the girl next door" - a sexy neighbor whose 'jones' for late-night dancing in the "all-together" and abhorrence for window blinds makes house-sitting worth the lousy pay. And as we've seen in dozens of erotic thrillers, someone dies, someone is accused, and our hero must save the girl and get the bad guy. Nice twists along the way keep this one very intriguing. A spectacularly hot, 28 year old Melanie Griffith, who about steals the movie and registers a "'10' on the peter meter" whenever she's on-screen. Sure, there are elements of real, American "cheese" here; leaps in logic (the plot tenuously hinges on a couple "convenient" things happening at just the right time) and an overall "over-the-top" feel will turn some viewers off and have them scrambling for the remote. But Body Double is truly one of those late night cable classics that many have duplicated, but few have surpassed. It has just enough art, just enough schlock and just enough brains to keep your attention - and did I mention Melanie Griffith? Overall rating: 8 out of 10.