![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/f/fury.jpg)
The Fury
If one ever needed an indication that Hollywood is a slave to its own success, then let Brian DePalma's The Fury serve as Exhibit A. This 1978 thriller is such a thin rewrite of DePalma's break-through hit, Carrie, that one wonders just who the director thought he was fooling. Telekinesis is once again the name of the game; after the vacationing Peter (Kirk Douglas) sees his telekenetic son Robin (Andrew Stevens) whisked away to a secret research facility by (yawn) evil government agents, he vows to locate him. Along the way he receives help from Gillian (Amy Irving, one of DePalma's Carrie hold-outs), a kind teenager who also shares Robin's prodigious mental gifts. Yes, the plot and story are about as mundane as the above description might lead you to believe, and not even DePalma's admittedly stylistic camera work and steady hand can hide the fact that this film is little more than a rewrite of a much better story. But there are moments of excitement and intrigue sprinkled throughout, and some fun performances by an impressive cast (Charles Durning, Kirk Douglas, Amy Irving, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgrass). Even if the resulting film doesn't exactly set the world on fire, the viewer could surely do worse at the video store. Don't be fooled by the DVD box's claim that this is a horror flick, however: The Fury boasts few of Carrie's visceral thrills, and even though there's a little blood, the film is much closer to the suspense/thriller genres. The Fury is thin on special features and doesn't really deserve much better, but it does contain a fairly attractive anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) with nice colors and very little in the way of pixilation, while audio is available in Dolby Digital 4.0 or Dolby 2.0 Surround. Also on board are the film's theatrical trailer and a gallery of behind-the-scenes photographs. Keep-case.
—Mark Bourne
