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Special Effects

Play trailer Special Effects 1996 40m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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43% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 29% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Filmmaker Ben Burtt shows how special effects are used in movies like "King Kong," "Independence Day," "Jumanji." John Lithgow narrates.

Critics Reviews

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Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness 02/06/2006
B
A significant (if ultimately chaotic) entry in the director's canon of ramshackle tributes to the dark, dangerous, voyeuristic allure of the cinema. Go to Full Review
Walter Goodman New York Times 05/21/2003
Coherence is not the strong point here. Go to Full Review
David Nusair Reel Film Reviews 11/25/2020
1/4
An often excruciatingly interminable thriller... Go to Full Review
Adrian Martin Film Critic: Adrian Martin 06/26/2020
Every sequence is like a rough sketch for a film Larry Cohen would do properly if he had the time and the money. But what great ideas he has! Go to Full Review
James Kendrick Q Network Film Desk 10/24/2016
2/4
It is as if Cohen had a list of ideas he wanted to incorporate, but no real sense of how to articulate them, so they all wind up in a big, messy stew. Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 06/06/2010
B
An uneven homage spoof on auteurs like Hitchcock, Powell and Ferrara. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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05/31/2017 For m this was an interesting look at mid-'80s NYC, following around a director who kills a woman in his own apartment, then eventually contrives to get her husband (under suspicion for the murder!) to reenact the murder on camera for the film that he's working on. It's an interesting watch, with Eric Bogosian playing things pretty fast and loose just to see what he can get away with, and I absolutely loved his apartment. Worth a look if you have the chance. See more 12/27/2016 Interesting, but sleazy picture. The lead actress is so horrible and almost completely torpedoes the whole movie, but listening to Cohen's ideas on the picture, gives me a different appreciation for the whole thing. See more walter m @Harlequin68 05/21/2015 Have you ever noticed that there is always one guy who ruins the topless photo shoot for everyone else? In this case, it is Keefe(Brad Rijn) who tries dragging his wife Andrea(Zoe Tamerlis) back home to Oklahoma from New York. She will have none of it, escaping out the bathroom window before seeking out disgraced film director Chris Neville(Eric Bogosian). However, she realizes too late what he intends his next project to be... Wearing its low budget proudly on its sleeve(so much so, that some of the dialogue seemed to be fading out at times), "Special Effects" is a movie that wants to have its exploitation and complain about it, too. That it works as well as it does is down to Eric Bogosian's natural intensity. In this case, he puts it to good use playing a director who cannot tell reality from make-believe anymore. With a backdrop of a gloriously sleazy and tawdry 1980's New York City and a loft that is alternately tacky and awesome, this movie could also be seen as a warning against the glamour of filmmaking. See more 02/06/2014 (**): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] See more 10/27/2012 An aspiring actress is killed by a director who films the act so he can use the footage to make his new film look authentic after his last one bombed and ran way over budget on f/x. Decent but Larry Cohen has done better. See more 07/16/2012 86% The ending was a bit of a let down, other then that, I really enjoyed this dark film. See more Read all reviews
Special Effects

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Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Ben Burtt shows how special effects are used in movies like "King Kong," "Independence Day," "Jumanji." John Lithgow narrates.
Director
Ben Burtt
Producer
Susanne Simpson
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Runtime
40m