Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1995) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna

This movie, also known as Shameless, is just awful. The two lead actors, the star-crossed young lovers if you will, are Soul Man and Liz Hurley. 
Let's see. A bunch of unappealing characters get together for brief periods and do loathsome things. Certain characters want to do harm to other characters for inexplicable reasons. All the upper class British characters are pointlessly eccentric. There may have been some satire intended, but it fell flat.

NUDITY REPORT
Elizabeth Hurley shows her breasts in a sex scene with Ponyboy

Louise Delamere shows her breasts in front of an open window.
Elizabeth Hurley plays a junkie/heiress. A rugged American biker (C. Thomas Ponyboy) falls for her. She is killed, but then she isn't dead, so she is pulled from the river and doesn't turn in the guy who killed her, so he tries again. She gets framed by a corrupt cop, or a drug-lord, or something. I don't know. I don't know who any of the characters were, or why they were doing what they did. This film is muddled and nearly incomprehensible. The director never directed anything before this film, hasn't directed anything since, and we can only hope for a continuation of that trend.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • no widescreen 

  • no significant features

I do know that Hurley took off her shirt, which provided the only entertainment in the film, and even that was in poor light.

Bad movie. Bad DVD. Hurley looks great, but will not cause any workload reduction for Emma Thompson or Meryl Streep. 

TUNA's THOUGHTS

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1995), according to IMDB, is a Thriller / Drama / Mystery / Romance. Scoop said it might be a satire. I couldn't figure it out either. This UK-made film begins by introducing dozens of characters, without explaining who they are and how the relate to each other, the story, or anything else for that matter.

The following is what I surmised:

Liz Hurley is the daughter of an aristocrat whose mother died of an overdose. She is following in Mums footsteps. An American student (C. Thomas Howell), who earns cash as a messenger, starts dating her, and encourages her to get off the drugs. Meanwhile, a police official, who has looked the other way with an upper class drug ring, decides to put them down when he discovers that they have hooked his daughter, and are screwing her as well.

The entire film is disjointed, there really isn't any character development and Howell plays the only likable character in the film. As far as the film's POV establishes, the only problem with Hurley's addiction is that daddy and boyfriend don't like it. Narrow minded twits! Otherwise - it's just good clean fun. Add to all of this a really bad transfer and you are well advised to avoid this film.

The Critics Vote

  • no reviews online.

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 3.4, and that must be just for Hurley's nudity, because it is way too high.
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a D (Scoop) or D- (Tuna). Really dreary.

Return to the Movie House home page