After all, you really don't expect that in a John Travolta / Brian DePalma movie, especially as mentioned by Nancy Allen. this is a decent, sometimes slow moving psychological thriller, a film noir in the same year of "Body Heat" and the remake of "The Postman Always Rings Twice".
Travolta is really good as a sound editor for a cheap horror movie company in Philadelphia (not quite the horror film capital of the world), an expert on looping, so he's busy working on trying to fix a really laughable scream in the newest film which results in some very funny scenes.
While out recording sound effects, he witnesses a car cleaning over a bridge, and rescues the girl inside, only to find that the man with her was the governor, a possible presidential candidate. Nancy Allen is the girl he rescues, a dingbat lady of the evening, and the governor's associates (one of them John McMartin) don't want that revealed.
But Travolta's certain that there's a cover-up and suspects by discovering the sound of a gunshot that the tire on the car was blown out. He's determined to uncover this conspiracy which leads to him dealing with law enforcement, the scheming press and a murderous John Lithgow.
While at first Allen got on my nerves, I came to actually care for her because she's a baby doll spirit in a grown woman's body, so her lack of acting ability worked for this part. There's still questions to be answered long after the film is over, and the twist in the finale is really macabre, but in certain ways, the film is also ahead of its time. The excellent photography which makes good use of Philadelphia location footage during the centennial of the Liberty Bell is a plus.
Travolta is really good as a sound editor for a cheap horror movie company in Philadelphia (not quite the horror film capital of the world), an expert on looping, so he's busy working on trying to fix a really laughable scream in the newest film which results in some very funny scenes.
While out recording sound effects, he witnesses a car cleaning over a bridge, and rescues the girl inside, only to find that the man with her was the governor, a possible presidential candidate. Nancy Allen is the girl he rescues, a dingbat lady of the evening, and the governor's associates (one of them John McMartin) don't want that revealed.
But Travolta's certain that there's a cover-up and suspects by discovering the sound of a gunshot that the tire on the car was blown out. He's determined to uncover this conspiracy which leads to him dealing with law enforcement, the scheming press and a murderous John Lithgow.
While at first Allen got on my nerves, I came to actually care for her because she's a baby doll spirit in a grown woman's body, so her lack of acting ability worked for this part. There's still questions to be answered long after the film is over, and the twist in the finale is really macabre, but in certain ways, the film is also ahead of its time. The excellent photography which makes good use of Philadelphia location footage during the centennial of the Liberty Bell is a plus.