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Resurrection (1999) Christopher Lambert .................... John Prudhomme Leland Orser ............................. Andrew Hollinsworth Robert Joy .................................... Demus David Croenenberg ...................... Father Russell Barbara Tyson ............................. Sara Prudhomme Synopsis Christopher Lambert stars in this thriller about a psychotic serial killer whose M.O. is unusual even by the standards of his deadly trade. Beginning shortly before Easter, he begins accumulating body parts for a bizarre, grisly religious ritual -- he intends to reassemble the body of Christ in time for his resurrection on Easter Sunday. Directed by Russell Mulcahy, who previously worked with Lambert on the original Highlander. From Amazon.ca Availability Video and DVD; may be a little hard to find except online. The Leland Factor He's the second lead. It's such a lovely thing. Allison's Review Though I will admit to fast-forwarding through a few of the scenes that didn't have Leland in them, I loved what I did see, and it's all Leland's fault. I got rather attached to his character, Andrew Hollinsworth, a detective who is the only person willing to partner with Christopher Lambert's John Prudhomme. Andy's penchant for telling bad jokes reminded me of my fiance, who is the Uberlord of Very Bad Jokes, so that was an instant brownie point right there. (Said penchant leads to a great foot-in-mouth moment on John's part about halfway through the movie.) Leland played Andy as smart, with a good sense of humor, and all too human, as evidenced in his minor freakout scene when the headless body is discovered. Much more real than the guy yelling "You guys need to come see this!" when they discover the reassembled Christ in all its grisly glory. (I view that as akin to saying "Wow, this tastes horrible. Here, try some.") At least Lambert and the other cop were choking on bile. Speaking of which, this movie is not for the faint of heart. It shows everything. Full-frontal dead bodies, decomposed dead bodies, mutilated bodies, closeups of grisly wounds, blood-gushing wounds, gunshot wounds, the reassembled Christ surrounded by bug zappers, a kid being run over by a car--it's all there. I found I didn't mind it much, though. Hollinsworth gets taken out of the proceedings in spectacular fashion a little over halfway through the movie, and I must comment on it in regards to character development. While chasing the killer, Andy gets ambushed and has the tar tazered out of him, after which the killer dresses him up in his own costume (which includes a mask), duct tapes his gun to his hand, and pushes him off in the direction of the police. Andy said later that he was just following the sound of John's voice and never imagined it was him he was yelling at to "drop the gun". Anyway, John realizes who the stumbling figure in the rain is too late, just as another cop shots him in the leg with what looks like a rifle. Andy goes down like a ton of bricks, and John has a freak show. On the way to the hospital, John tries his own hand at a joke to make Andy feel better, and I practically cried. Andy ends up having to have his leg amputated, and I thought Leland did a spectacular job in the scene where Lambert visits him before the operation. He kept begging John not to let the doctors take his leg, and cried that he was scared. He was so pitiful with his bruises and his cuts, I just wanted to hug him. He was also awesome in conveying despair when John came to see him after the operation, wondering what he was going to do about being a cop now that his leg was gone. There was a closeup of the side of his face and I couldn't help but think that he has really beautiful eyes. Both Leland and Christopher Lambert did a good job of showing the rapport that had built up between them. I absolutely could not believe that the killer stole Andy's leg. They'd interrupted him in the process of obtaining one, so the dude simply went to the hospital and appropriated Andy's amputated one. When the reassembled Christ was discovered and John noticed that one of the legs had a gunshot wound, he came thisclose to losing it. Plus when they initially had the guy in custody and he made a crack at Andy not being able to walk anymore, I thought Lambert was going to jump over the interrogation table and lay the smackdown on him. Way to defend your partner! Woot! I was really happy that the film ended with John visiting Andy in rehab. Andy had obviously overcome his initial despair and was bound and determined to learn to walk with his prosthetic leg so he could come back to the police force. (Leland in a do rag!) He told John that he was definitely coming back, and not to a desk job, though John would have to do most of the "legwork", and begged him to give him a chance. John laughed, said "Whatever you say, partner," and put his arm around Andy to help him walk. I just about cried again. I thought it was very moving--Andy had taken a chance when he partnered with John in the first place, and now John was going to return the favor by sticking by him. Basically, I adore Andrew Hollinsworth--he's probably my favorite Leland character next to Purvis and Dr. Dubenko. He makes me want to write fanfic. Verdict Every Leland fan should see this, provided they can stomach the gore. /back |