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Sick Product of a Sick System

Absolutely Fantastic

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Three college roommates would die to attend grad school at Harvard - but, their grades are wack. "It's either an MBA from Harvard or you're flipping burgers." So, after some partying, two of them decide to kill the third, and make it look like a suicide. The reason being the "standard practice" of giving traumatized roommates of suicide victims an automatic 4.0 grade point average for the semester. The three dudes are: psycho Matthew Lillard (as Tim), impotent Michael Vartan (as Chris), and contemptible Randall Batinkoff (as Rand).Their pretty blonde girlfriends, fickle Keri Russell (as Emma) and possibly pregnant Tamara Craig Thomas (as Natalie), are also roommates. Debuting director Dan Rosen's "Dead Man's Curve" characters definitely need a college shrink; and, this is the job filled by nicotine-addicted Dana Delany (as Dr. Ashley). The story, especially during the last act, needs some doctoring, too. Re-titled "The Curve", it has noting to do with the Jan & Dean's death drag classic played over the closing credits.**** Dead Man's Curve (1/24/98) Dan Rosen ~ Matthew Lillard, Michael Vartan, Randall Batinkoff

The plot is based on the Urban Myth that the roommates of college student that commits suicide automatically get given straight A's to ameliorate the trauma of the incident. So two students get together to murder their roommate and pass it off as a suicide just so that they can claim their top grades.This film was billed on my TV station as a black comedy; and given the basic plot there was a lot of potential for some good dark humor. Sadly the film was lacking in nearly all departments - there's no humor to speak of, the plot is made uninteresting, and the acting is forgettable.The main characters are intensely irritating (esp. Matthew Lillard), and the movie constantly grates. As for the ending, I didn't quite manage get that far so sadly I must have missed the "complex twisting plot". All in all this movie managed to hit nearly all the wrong notes with me; it's too much of a teen movie for my liking, and too much of a psychological thriller, and really not nearly enough of the black comedy.

SPOILERSIn 1998, Hollywood did yet another of it's legendary double releases. In a day when it's been announced that Pink & Renee Zellwenger will both play Janis Joplin in two seperate films (5th April 2004), it feels almost fitting that british television would show one part of another double act of movies.In "The Curve" (or "Dead Man's Curve" as it was known in the United Kingdom) two roommates (Matthew Lillard & Michael Vartan) decide to murder their third roommate (Randall Batinkoff). By setting the murder to look like a suicide, the two believe they'll be given the College's sympathies and given a 4.0 Grade Average for the Semester. Events sadly don't turn out as they seem."The Curve" was released in the same year (although I'm not sure about exact timing) as "Dead Man On Campus", and truthfully I don't think it's as good. Whilst the latter of the two stars Tom Everett-Scott & Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack from "Saved By The Bell") in a laid back simple comedy, the former attempts to take the same topic and create a darker more surreal story. The problem however is I question how well such an obscure topic stands up to a more serious intent. In "Dead Man On Campus" the creators have intended to make us laugh a lot and see the lighter side of things. In "The Curve", with the exception of one or two moments, it is much more of a gruelling, torrid performance. Matthew Lillard appears to come into a lot of praise for this movie off people, but personally I question his ability in it. Forever to be known more for his role in the "Scooby Doo" movies, Lillard doesn't help his cause by demonstrating in this earlier effort just how irritating he can be.To be fair to Lillard, his character isn't helped by such a slow moving plot. For a movie which advertises itself as a dark comedy, "The Curve" appears at times to portray an almost psychological drama element to itself. It feels as if the writer of this piece was unsure what it was he wanted to create. This movie takes a long time to progress, so much so that a friend of mine actually got up half way through and went to hoover her bedroom, a sure sign of boredom.All in all, "The Curve" is a nice idea. It has regular characters, an average twist at the end (which seems to be condemned a lot), a novel soundtrack (personally I don't find The Cure that depressing) and one or two good jokes. Ultimately though, compared with it's comrade "Dead Man On Campus", "The Curve" is inherently dull, and takes itself far too seriously. One to watch on the television perhaps, but only if you are unable to get a copy of it's rival.

This movie was good. Especially that Matthew Lillard was in it. That guy is cool. I just don't understand why they call this movie The Curve, when i always thought it was called Dead Man's Curve. But anyway. I guess it doesn't matter of the title name. Just the movie. I thought it cool. I watched this movie so many times. I could play the part of Tim. The character Matthew Lillard was on the movie. I just wished i had the movie so i could watch it over and over. But if i had to rate this movie from a scale from1 to 10. I would rate it an 8. At the end, it surprised me alot.