Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: At First Sight (1999) - Kilmer goes blind in Winkler's awful turkey

6/17/2021

At First Sight (1999) - Kilmer goes blind in Winkler's awful turkey

♥

+ Worst Movie of the Year

The two stars walk around in an out-of-focus New York looking snug on this poster for Irwin Winkler's At First Sight

A blind masseuse massages a woman so deeply that she cries (...), and the two fall in love. She locates the doctor who can operate his sight back, - but it is more important to see with the heart.

- In other words, back to being blind. At First Sight is written by Steve Levitt, based on the essay To See and Not See from An Anthropologist on Mars (1995) by Oliver Sacks (Migraine (1970)), in turn based on the true story of Shirl Jennings, and directed by Irwin Winkler (Guilty by Suspicion (1991)).

Nothing works in this lame, intolerable melodrama flunk, which unintentionally inspires roaring laughter a couple of times. The plot nearly feels like the film is a spoof on itself. Canadian jazz singer Diane Krall plays in a scene, and her music is used effectively to make some of the hairy meatball of a film go down a little more smoothly.

Val Kilmer (Gun (2010)) is ridiculous as the blind masseuse; Mira Sorvino (WiseGirls (2002)) is tiring. At First Sight manages to make Nathan Lane (Find Out Why (2000, TV-series)) dull. This is an epic turkey.

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 22.3 mil. $ (North America only)

= Mega-flop (returned 0.37 times its cost in North America)

[At First Sight premiered 12 January (USA) and runs 128 minutes. Kilmer was paid 9 mil. $ for his performance; Sorvino 3 mil. $. Shooting took place from January - April 1998 in New York. The wildly over-budgeted film opened #5, behind Varsity Blues, Patch Adams, A Civil Action and The Thin Red Line, to an 8.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 22.3 mil. $. The international gross numbers are regrettably unreported but almost certainly were unimpressive. If the final gross landed on a likely 30 mil. $, the return would be 0.5 times the cost, and the rank on the cusp of 'merely' huge flop. More than 24.4 mil. $ was reportedly spent additionally to market the film. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Winkler returned with Life As a House (2001). Kilmer returned in Joe the King (1999); Sorvino in Summer of Sam (1999). At First Sight is rotten at 32 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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6/17/2021

At First Sight (1999) - Kilmer goes blind in Winkler's awful turkey

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