I steered away from this movie, cause I got sick and tired of these Fatal Attraction, Single White Female movies. When finally deciding to watch it, I was glad I did. It was one of those movies, I wanted to bop myself on the head for not watching earlier. It's other attribute was short lived star, Silverstone, as the troubled 14 year old lolita, who falls for new renter, Elwes, a journalist, twice her age, and not good so with words, but impeccable, with facts, as his new boss tells him,in words to that effect. One not innocent lingering kiss between him and Silverstone, starts off a another Fatal Attraction type nightmare. Elwes, should of stopped this, before the kiss, where Silverstone did sucker him into this little romantic drive. But if he had done the proper thing, Silverstone still would of been stalking him. Nick (Elwes) a real good character actor, who does his role justice, wasn't really out of line, with improper conduct before this, though. Darian (Silverstone who's just the acting drive in this) isn't a very well girl, and had fixated on someone else in her earlier, with a not so happy result for her victim. She really only has one girl friend, where at school, as she refers, they look at her like some kind of freak. So we can see what her problems are, and why she is vying for this sort of attention. There are moments where we really feel sorry for her, especially at the end, where she's placed back in psyche ward, the fixation on Nick, undying, and then it's a new one, so we see a pattern. Silverstone's wonderful, if magnetic performance is half the reason to watch the film, utterly believable and scary as this obsessed teen with a crush so bad, it's frightening. Her obsession isn't helped with Elwes's work colleague, Amy (Jennifer Rubin- Bad Dreams) is now going with him, really putting a spanner in her works. Anyone who's comes between the victim's obsessed love, pays, and I don't really feel about wasps. They sting. This little cute nifty thriller, that didn't have a cinema release in Adelaide, really runs nicely, with Silverstone just making Elwes life a nightmare, which we hope he will come out on top. Him punching Alicia off a portable merry go round, stored up in her attic, is an amusing tic of a moment. If anything, these movies have taught us, be careful in the starting of friendships, and don't lead the other person on, who could just happen to be a would be psycho.

This sexy thriller is very much entertaining for the *wrong* reasons. It's absurd, trashy, and utterly laughable. It does have a memorable antagonist in the form of young Alicia Silverstone, who plays Adrian Forrester, a Lolita-ish 14-year-old who develops a serious crush on Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes), the 20-something journalist renting a guest house from her parents (Kurtwood Smith, Gwynyth Walsh). Of course, nobody believes the older man when he protests that the crazed girl is the wrongdoer, and Nick finds his life continuously going awry as she creates one problem after another.Written and directed by Alan Shapiro, this film doesn't exactly have the brightest characters. As a result, you never really root for Nick. Fortunately Silverstone, who'd previously made her name in Aerosmith rock videos, is a total hoot as this deranged gal who does some pretty nasty things to make her crush look bad. And things do indeed look very bad for Nick when she frames him for sexual assault. Elwes does what he can with his obtuse role, while Smith has some choice moments as the dad. Jennifer Rubin looks quite lovely as the photographer whom we know is more appropriate for Nick. And Amber Benson lends some solid support as Adrians' "friend" who tries to warn Nick about what she knows.The movie *is* well paced and climaxes in one of the more priceless confrontation scenes that you're likely to see in this sort of thing. The ending is actually rather effective in its payoff of the Adrian character.Silverstone may well have had a body double for the nude scenes, but it's still quite uncomfortable when remembering that the character being watched is a mere 14 years old.All in all, "The Crush" is entertaining if exploitative trash, and should never ever be taken too seriously.Seven out of 10.

Seems strange to review the first film of Alicia, decades after it was released, and now that Alicia is a senior actress of sorts. This film is perhaps the nth of its kind... fatal attraction for a person and its associated problems. Wonky lips Alicia impresses in her debut movie. But the film, in itself, is full of gaps and plot holes. Deserted rooms full of burning candles.. wow. No doubt that Adrienne lit them.. but what about the fire hazard, in a building with wooden walls and floors? And how did the candles remain lit? Surely they would exhaust after sometime? The girlfriend, Amy, gets stung by a bunch of bees, suffocates and almost dies. Adrienne's mischief once again. But the hero kind of forgets to visit her in the hospital. Amy reappears at the end, looking as fit and fine as she was.. no change in her appearance. Good. Should I reveal more plot holes? OK... Adrienne's friend, Cheyenne, is about to be killed, tied to a carousel. Our hero is hell bent on rescuing her. But when she is finally discovered, our hero is more concerned about the welfare of the troublemaker, Adrienne.. poor Cheyenne remains tied. I am not sure how she was rescued at the end.Hmmm.. now I am bored. So let the next viewer report more plot holes. It is a pity that no movie has ever been made on Daisy Duck. Alicia, without any prosthetic makeup, would have been a dead ringer for the role. With perhaps Chris Sarandon as Donald. But forget all that and enjoy Alicia's pout in this debut film. Its her film all the way.

Seduction (or so) by the assumed lesser: of course, this issue's many aspects deserve as well serious as dramatic picturization. This movie is none of both.Alicia Silverstone appears well-casted. The not really smart but defiant, cunning and tricky character seems to fit her. Perhaps her exterior helps her plausibility, especially those remains of baby fat - on her up-curled upper lip baring rosy gums above those tiny upper teeth, on her unstructured overhands above unshaped child fingers, or on her rounded baby feet. Sure, the physical exterior itself carries no personality traits, but how penetratingly she leverages her frailties for seductive aims is working beyond attractiveness norms and below the boundaries of the subconscious - if only a properly naive target mammal insists on stumbling in front of her cross-hair. For her alleged intention is most lumpishly obvious.The bothersome boring effect this exaggerated performance has on me does not yet mean this can never happen. But it raises the question if our still male dominated society needs such embarrassing poor male chauvinist excusing screen operas showing us how perfidious Lolitas lurk out there in that frightening real life. To be serious, if such a rare constellation really occurs (independent of the gender configuration), than the much more interesting aspects are (a) in which way the younger person, no matter how much in formal control of what's going on, is (even unconsciously) over-strained both mentally and emotionally, and (b) what on earth (except the fluke to receive a seemingly willing, even demandingly self-offering victim) lets the elder person be taken by such an ostensible play.In this sense, Cary Elwes to some extent may be seen as likewise well-casted. His enormous lack of mimic expression fits Nick's naive, or rather excruciatingly stupid character quite well. His eyes tell he sort of expects permanent proof for his self-confidence, yet almost everything he experiences turns out so overwhelmingly unbelievable that he can't even decide if it's frightening, exciting, or just terribly puzzling. Anyway, as this happens frequently, his inner will to survive prevents him from being scared to death by learning to get a kick out of it. The result is visible: even when the exerted brows above his permanently bewildered eyes try to prevent anger, the corners of his mouth undecidedly oscillate between fear and a childishly lustful sort of joy. In fact, what we see rather appears to be how Mr. Elwes on each single day of the shooting again experiences the sensation of really having found his way onto a movie set. It can be seen often in unexperienced supernumeraries' faces: the amazement that at the most allows attempts of ... playing to play.But how come Nick is introduced as skilled investigative journalist? Who only moments later is told by a 14 yo girl how easily informations this Mr. Pulitzer Jr. regards totally out of his reach can be obtained? These two alleged parts of one personality hardly apply - except to the dissonant concept of excusing a human mammal's misbehavior as consequences of allegedly having fallen prey to the wicked skills of one of those myriads of killer Lolita monsters out there. Boo.