Too much of everything

Pretty Good

I wanted to but couldn't!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Don't Mess with My Sister! (1985) * (out of 4)Steven (Joe Perce) is stuck working at a junk yard for his wife's two brothers who are always picking on him and not paying him what he's worth. One night at a party being thrown for him, Steven strikes up a conversation with dancer Annika (Laura Lanfranchi) and soon after they are involved in an affair. When the wife finds out she informs her brothers who aren't happy with Steven.Writer-director Meir Zarchi crashed onto the scene with his notorious I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE but it took him several more years before he came back with his second feature. With a title ilke DON'T MESS WITH MY SISTER! fans were expecting soem sort of exploitation trash but that's not what they got and this film has pretty much been forgotten. To be honest with you, I'm really not sure what Zarchi was trying with this picture but it certainly doesn't work.Once you get past the fact that you're not getting anything like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, this film lets you down even more because there's really no point to anything you're watching. There must have been at least thirty times during the film where I wondered to myself what I was watching and what the point was. This is basically a drama about a man who gets tired of his wife and her brothers so he cheats on her with a questionable person. I won't ruin what happens but it's certainly not evough to warrant a feature length film.The film clocks in at just 84-minutes and there's really not a bit of energy throughout. Zarchi really doesn't click as a director here as everything just comes across very flat and without much energy. It certainly doesn't help that some of the performances are really bad and get unintended laughs at times. Through in the fact that there's really not any violence, gore or nudity and you're left with a film that just isn't going to have much appeal.DON'T MESS WITH MY SISTER! is a pretty poor film no matter how you look at it. I'm really not sure what the director was trying to do or why he thought this material would be something worth making.

Steven (Joe Perce) works for his sister's brothers at a junkyard as a bookkeeper and seems to be disappointed in his life. He has a nice wife, a kid and is getting ready to graduate as a CPA. But what he really wants is a partnership and, when he doesn't get it, he decides to sleep with the belly-dancer his wife hired for his birthday party. Yeah, he sleeps with her, but not before they both accidentally kill an aggressive client of hers. Oh, the drama. Sporting a fantastic exploitation title and a DVD cover promising sleaze, this NYC lensed flick ends up being a huge disappointment. I was hoping for a Bronson-style vigilante revenge flick and instead got a Lifetime movie about infidelity for New Yawkers. I expected something sleazy, especially coming from Meir Zarchi, the guy who made I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Damn. Nothing will prepare you for the riveting scene where the arguing couple both arrive at the bank to close their joint account down AT THE SAME TIME!!! Ugh.

Don't Mess With My Sister was a pleasant surprise. Those expecting the vicarious, somewhat questionable thrills of the director's I Spit On Your Grave will surely be disappointed, but those that appreciate a true auteur style will be amply rewarded. It's a shame that mostly brain-dead gorehound fans of Grave are the only ones that see this film. It's got style and mood, and the acting is great considering the low budget. To me it had the same feel of early Scorcese. I think the marketing of the film as some violent revenge drama is to blame. Don't let that put you off from seeing this film. Basically it's a wonderful character study and simple story of working class Italians in 70's New York. A couple of days in the life of an average Joe that go horribly wrong. Think After Hours or Mean Streets on a much smaller scale. I really liked the ambiguity of this film. It's no epic, but rather a nice little existential fragment of a movie.

Meir Zahari's first film, I Spit On Your Grave was originally entitled The Day of the Woman. In Don't Mess With My Sister, it's time for Man to make a comeback. The main character has a problem with his wife and her two brothers and is lucky enough to make it with an erotic blonde exotic dancer. After the pair kill one of her clients and his wife begins to suspect her husband isn't just studying accounting at night school, she gets her brothers to take revenge. Any more would destroy the plot. Needless to say this film was made with Zahari's unique stylistic approach. Don't miss it. I didn't, I bought the rights!