hyped garbage

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Eccentric itinerant rare object collector Aaron Quicksilver (marvelously played with lip-smacking quirky relish by Christopher Lloyd) relates two offbeat tales of terror. First and cutest story, "Chattery Teeth" - Amiable traveling salesman Bill Hogan (a fine and likable portrayal by Raphael Sbarge) picks up psychotic hitchhiker Bryan Adams (a pleasingly grating and intense turn by Silas Weir Mitchell) and a strange wind-up toy during a drive home. This segment makes nifty use of the dusty desert back roads location, generates a good deal of tension, and boasts a hysterically goofy climax with the chattering teeth toy attacking Adams in an upside down van. Veteran character actress Veronica Cartwright has a neat secondary role as crusty diner owner Myra while the fetching Missy Crider does well as cheery newlywed bride Olivia Harmon Parker. Second, funniest, and most delightfully outrageous story, "The Body Politic" - Wealthy and prestigious plastic surgeon Dr. Charles George (a splendidly saturnine performance by Matt Frewer) has his affluent life ripped asunder after his precious hands develop homicidal lives of their own. This deliciously daft vignette deftly mines an uproariously off-the-wall line in inspired black humor and goes for broke with a positively gut-busting premise in which malcontent disembodied hands declare a revolution against their human oppressors (!). Frewer's bravura physical acting keeps this one buzzing; he receives sound support from Cynthia Garris as George's concerned wife Ellen, Bill Nunn as equally worried shrink Len, and Amelia Heinle as upset nurse Darlene. Clive Barker and John Landis pop up in cool cameo roles. Writer/director Mick Garris maintains a snappy pace throughout, creates and sustains an entertaining lighthearted ooga-booga carnival spookhouse atmosphere, and wisely doesn't treat any of this engaging foolishness seriously for a minute. Shelly Johnson's slick cinematography provides an impressive polished look. Mark Mothersbaugh's twangy and spirited score hits the rousing shuddery spot. A hugely fun and amusing omnibus outing.

At the time of this writing I'm a bit confused because the version I saw gave the "hand" story first followed by the "teeth" story, but comments here and on Amazon say the movie presents the two stories the other way around. And it should be noted that I haven't read the original stories; I judge the movie as a stand-alone form of entertainment.So, imagine what would happen if your hands stopped responding to commands from your brain and began doing whatever *they* wanted to do. And what if your hands plotted a revolution requiring an army of hands from other people. If you happened to see the modern "Addams Family" remake then you can extrapolate: picture a bunch of "Thing" hands running around free. I thought the army, and how they got that way, were very funny. OK, there is a rather serious horror story going on in the background, and Matt Frewer does some excellent hand-acting.As for the second story, well, I can't say much without giving too much away. But I was blown away by my favorite character, the wind-up teeth. I have a small collection of similar wind-ups, similar in that they walk or play instruments, but I never saw anything like these teeth. I felt totally torn between the seriousness of a hitchhiker-horror story and the humor of a wind-up character. Enjoy, just for fun.

Quicksilver Highway starts in a desert deep in the the middle of nowhere as a newly married couple Kerry (Raphael Sbarge) & his babe of a wife Olivia Harmon Parker (Missy Crider) have a flat tyre on their car, Kerry says he will have to walk to the nearest town for help & sets off. Olivia sits in the car for hours waiting for her husbands return, eventually a travelling showman in a Rolls-Royce pulls up, he gets out & offers assistance & company while she waits. In his rather spacious looking trailer he introduces himself as Aaron Quicksilver (Christopher Lloyd), a traveller who collects bizarre stories about the dark side of America. He begins to tells Olivia one of these stories...Travelling salesman Bill Hogan (Raphael Sbarge again) is trying to get home for his sons birthday but is finding the going tough as a huge sandstorm makes driving the desert highways hazardous. He stops off at a road-side store run by Myra (Veronica Cartwright) & her husband Scooter (Bill Bolender) whom give him a pair of large metal mechanical novelty teeth as a present for his son. While there Bill gives a lift to a hitchhiker named Bryan Adams (Silas Weir Mitchell) who at first is polite but soon turns nasty as he pulls a knife & tries to rob Bill, during the confrontation they crash & Bill is trapped. Bryan isn't happy & decides to 'hurt' Bill but help comes in a very unexpected form...Back in the desert & Kerry returns, however it's not a happy reunion...Next we're off to an amusement park called 'Pacific Park' where pickpocket Charlie (Matt Frewer) makes a good living stealing wallets. Charlie comes across an attraction named the 'Exposition of Delightful Horror'. Inside he is welcomed by Quicksilver who shows him the 'Hand of Glory' & tells yet another tale...Dr. Charles George (Matt Frewer again) is a rich & very successful plastic surgeon catering for the wealthy, he is regarded as the best in the business. However strange things begin to happen to Charles as he seems to be suffering from hand spasms. It isn't long before it becomes clear that something sinister is going on as his hands strangle his wife Ellen (Cynthia Garris) & one chops the other off with a meat clever which sets a disturbing plan into action...Back at the amusement park Charlie leaves Quciksilver's attraction & is promptly brought to justice...Quicksilver Highway was a made for TV film that was written, co-produced & directed by Mick Garris that is watchable enough but is far from special. The script is based on two short stories, one by Stephen King called 'Chattery Teeth' & another by Clive Barker called 'The Body Politic'. I have not read either story but unfortunately both of them are very thin & don't translate to the screen that well, unless it's just Garris's poor teleplay. Both stories are too long & feature very little in the way of a twist which is an absolute must as far as these anthology stories go as far as I'm concerned. They both just plod along at a fairly pedestrian pace without much in the way of shocks, surprises or horror. Having said that there are a couple of great scenes, in particular the sequence in which Bill is threatened at knife-point by Bryan which is genuinely quite unnerving to watch & the scene when Charles chops his hand off with a meat clever as you see his face reflected in the shiny steel as it comes down & a pretty good severed hand effect. However these bits are few & far between & the rest of Quicksilver Highway really isn't that great. I also think that it would have been a lot better if the filmmakers had made three shorter stories rather than just two long ones. Garris does little to liven things up, I just don't find a pair of walking false teeth scary & in fact I was trying hard not to laugh. The hand segment features some ridiculous disembodied hands running around exactly like Thing from The Adams Family only with worse special effects & even more comical results, this is all taken & presently with deadly seriousness by director Garris which was a bad move as Quicksiler Highway loses a lot of credibility with it's overall play-it-straight humourless tone. There is no real gore or violence, a brief scene with some severed fingers & a really cool shot of Charles cutting his hand off, other than that forget it. The acting is OK with Lloyd always being fun to watch & a special mention goes to Missy Crider who is one fine looking young lady. Clive Barker turns up in a small role as a anaesthesiologist as does director John Landis in the same scene as a surgical assistant. Technically Quciksilver Highway is better than I expected & at times manages to escape it's TV film origins with some nice cinematography & on location shooting, the music is very cheap sounding though. Generally speaking Quicksilver Highway is a reasonable way to pass an hour & a half but there are much better horror anthologies out there. Worth a watch but nothing spectacular.

I'll start this review by saying that I've read neither of the short stories that this movie is based on, neither Stephen King's Chattery Teeth, nor Cliver Barker's The Body Politic, so I can't comment on whether or not they're accurate conversions of the stories. I will say, however, that based on my limited knowledge of King's work(and my even more limited knowledge of Barker's) that I do believe that they did a pretty good job on bringing the stories to life in this movie. The plot for both stories is good(yes, even the King story, I have to admit, though I despise his works), and it's both involving and interesting, for both segments. The acting ranges from made-for-TV standard, and slightly better; all four of the leads did a good job, as far as I'm concerned: Christopher Lloyd, Matt Frewer, Raphael Sbarge and Missy Crider. I especially enjoyed Lloyd, and his character, the storyteller, who is in both the prologue and the epilogue for both segments, and gives a further chill down the spine with his afterthoughts for both stories. The characters are well-written, credible and easy to relate to, which, I guess, can be credited almost as much to the original authors(King and Barker) as the script writer and director(who, incidentally, is the same person). Both segments are about equally chilling and horrifying, though the first has more buildup and the second has more actual action, which shows the difference in the authors' styles. The direction is pretty good, especially for a TV movie. The special effects are about as good as they get for a TV movie budget. The horror in both segments is fairly chilling and disturbing. They also both give you a little something to think about, once the story is over; this is also pushed a little further in the epilogue for both segments, by the storyteller, Lloyd, which obviously proves that the director/scriptwriter Mick Garris certainly understood both stories, as well as their underlying themes. All in all, a pretty good way to spend 90 minutes if it's on TV and you've got nothing spectacular to do, but not something you'll be watching over and over again. Good for one or two viewings, if you're into this type of horror. I recommend it to fans of King, Barker and Lloyd, and possibly also Garris. Good for spending 90 minutes watching if it's on, and you've got nothing better to do. 6/10