The Crush: Blu-Ray Review
Arriving on Blu-ray this week is the 1993 thriller, “The Crush”, which was Alicia Silverstone’s feature film debut. I remember when the film was released in theaters, Silverstone’s character name was Darian Forrester. However, when it eventually made its’ way to television, the character’s name was changed to Adrienne. Apparently there the real-life Darian Forrester sued writer/director Alan Shapiro for using her name. Not that any of this is actually important, but if you haven’t seen the film in a long time and could have sworn the character name was different the one on this release, it was.
The 90’s has numerous sexual-teen-thrillers. Some were either good or awesomely bad (“Wild Things”, “Fear”, “Poison Ivy”) and others were just bad. “The Crush” fits somewhere in the middle. Not a terrible film, but just lacks in performances, writing, and direction. The scenes between Cary Elwes and Silverstone are so stiff and neither one of them are believable. Silverstone would go on to impress a few years later with “Clueless”, but she just wasn’t ready for a roll like this.
I know “The Crush” has its’ fans. A whole heap of them actually. I am just not one of them. The audio on “The Crush” has a phasing issue. It can be heard on the previous DVD release as well. This latest release does not fix that issue. Normally when Scream Factory/Shout! Factory has a release like this, I usually recommend the upgrade. However because of the sound issue (which really isn’t bad), I can’t really recommend it, unless the new bonus features interest you.
Bonus Features
- NEW Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Alan Shapiro
- NEW The Doting Father – An Interview With Kurtwood Smith
- NEW Stung By Love – An Interview With Actress Jennifer Rubin
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spot
By: Marc Ferman