“I don’t want to become one of the living dead in Beverly Hills,” says plastic surgeon-turned-mortician Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) in Robert Zemeckis’ black comedy Death Becomes Her.
Using elements of the zombie movie and camp melodrama – the rivalry between two ambitious women – the movie is an attempt to satirise the West Coast craze for youth and beauty.
The rivals are Ernest’s ex-wife, novelist Helen (Goldie Hawn), and his current wife, superbitch actress Madeline (Meryl Streep), who each take a magic rejuvenation potion supplied to them by eccentric witch Lisle Von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini) with bizarre results.
The special effects win the day, but Streep and Hawn are deliciously bitchy as they try to outwit and out-bitch each other, while Willis is a pleasant surprise as the put-upon hubby in this quirky but enjoyable oddity.
Madeline Ashton
Meryl Streep Ernest Menville
Bruce Willis Helen Sharp
Goldie Hawn Lisle Von Rhuman
Isabella Rossellini Chagall
Ian Ogilvy Dakota
Adam Storke Rose
Nancy Fish Psychologist
Alaina Reed Hall Anna
Michelle Johnson Vivian Adams
Mary Ellen Trainor Mr Franklin
William Frankfather Eulogist
John Ingle
Director Robert Zemeckis
Video
Related Posts
Death Watch (1980) A dystopian science fiction picture shot in cinemascope, Bertrand Tavernier’s Death Watch is based on David G. Compton’s The Continuous…
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) Director Renny Harlin can be a terrible hack but he's in his element when he's not bothering about characters, just…
Death Wish (1974) This sleazy and highly controversial crime thriller finally made Charles Bronson a star in America and set a regrettable trend…
Down On Us (Beyond The Doors) (1984) A film about how government assassin Alex Stanley (Sandy Kenyon) killed Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison from conspiracy…
Sister Act (1992) Ghost (1990) may have won Whoopi Goldberg an Oscar, but it was this comedy (directed by Emile Ardolino of Dirty Dancing…
Dead and Buried (1981) "Welcome to Potters Bluff" Tourists and visitors to the sleepy coastal town of Potters Bluff, Maine, are being brutally murdered…
Player, The (1992) This is the most irreverent, polished, cynical, tongue-in-jaw dossier on the insanity of the motion picture industry since Vincente Minnelli's The…
Disciple of Death (1972) They're at it again in old Cornwall. This time a drop of blood falling on the grave of a recent…
Madeline Ashton
