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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 20054
Released: August 1, 2000 |
| Our Price: $3.60 |
| Used Price: $1.45 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A precocious and obsessive teenager develops a crush on a naive writer with harrowing consequences. Alicia Silverstone and Cary Elwes star in "a top-notch thriller.
The Crush Reviews:
A formula thriller that didn't really work 
2008-10-06 - Characters were stereotypes, situations were contrived unrealistically to serve the plot. There was enough mystery to pull me all of the way through the story, but in the end it really did rang flat.
one of the very few movies I'm choosing to keep my vhs copy of 
2008-09-15 - This DVD is a huge disappointment. It may seem nit-picky to some people, but the fact that the lead female character's name was changed from Darian on the VHS version of the movie to Adrian on the DVD really really bugged me. I saw absolutely no point in this change, and it made me decide that I would just keep this particular movie on VHS so that I could watch it as I remember it. 1 star for the DVD and 4 stars for the actual movie.
"I LOVE you Nick and you love me!!!" 
2007-08-01 - This was a favorite movie of mine when I was in middle/high school. I saw it in a bargain bin last Christmas season, and picked it up. It wasn't as thrilling as I remembered, but it was still pretty good. Beautiful, brillant, rich, charming, and a psychopath sets her eyes on the renter of her parents guest home. She's one that never hears the world no. Okay, some of the plot, especially at the end is really far fetched, but besides that, it's a movie I can still enjoy.
Your Sides Will Ache From Laughing At This Unintentionally Hilarious FATAL ATTRACTION Wannabe! 
2007-07-29 - Don't tell us they don't make Bad Movies like they used to. The Crush, a 1993 gigglefest about a teen psycho-nymphet who makes life a living hell for the twice-her-age writer who's renting out her parents' guest house, is a Bad Movie gem. Alicia Silverstone plays this Lolita-ish minx--think Poison Ivy in a Wonderbra--who one second is displaying herself nude to renter Cary Elwes and the next is trying to murder his photographer girlfriend, Jennifer Rubin, by shoving swarms of buzzing wasps into a darkroom's ventilation system. We'd guess that Silverstone, who rapidly exhausts her repertoire of three expressions (coy, steamy, wacko), honed her acting licks studying the oeuvre of Cybill Shepherd. When she chirps lines at Rubin like, "Don"t worry, Amy, some guys really like girls with small breasts," we can only hope for Silverstone's sake that some guys like girls with teensy talent. And we'd guess that Elwes, who rapidly exhausts his repertoire of one expression (self-enchanted), honed his acting licks by studying the oeuvre of Ryan O'Neal. Just like O'Neal in What's Up, Doc?--but that movie was intended as a comedy--Elwes hopes to pass himself off as an intellectual by donning specs. Indeed, when Silverstone finds him chomping on a cigar while writing, he explains, preposterously, "Helps me think."
But it's in its crackpot plotting and kamikaze ripoffs of other moviemakers that The Crush attains Bad Movie nirvana. When Elwes can't hack a Pique magazine assignment about a Michael Milkenesque arbitrager, 14-year-old Silverstone secretly rewrites his story so brilliantly that it becomes a career-maker for him. Later, explaining her actions, Silverstone--who sounds to us like she's learned every word of her dialogue phonetically--says, "Your split infinitives put such stress on the adverbs."
For plot reasons, Elwes's character just up and becomes stupid, which the actor does manage to convey. Long after Silverstone has etched a rather nasty word onto the hood of his car, made a room into a candle-lit shrine to him and phoned him to say, "Guess what? Got my period. Definitely not pregnant," you'll be screaming aloud, "Ever think of moving, Cary?" Of course, if he did, we wouldn't get to savor such prize moments as Silverstone cooing, "Ever do a virgin?" Or the scene in which the heroine's rich daddy, wielding a pair of pliers, tells Elwes what he plans to do to the horny guys his little girl will soon attract: "Some friggin' kid'll be standin' there with his hard-on stickin' out of his pants," he says. "Hope I don't go breakin' it off!" By the time Silverstone gets around to the most implausible plot twist of all--she accuses Elwes of raping her and people actually believe her--you'll be breaking in half with hilarity.
With two stars incapable of having a crush on anyone but their mirrors, we're afraid that writer-director Alan Shapiro's crush on Alfred Hitchcock is the only crush on display: Silverstone freaks out in full riding gear, like Tippi Hedren in Marnie; when Rubin fights off those wasps, it's shot like the finale of The Birds; then, falling, she grabs a curtain, like Janet Leigh in the Psycho shower. In the absurd climax, Elwes fights for his life on a twirling carousel straight out of Strangers on a Train, only this one's in an attic (don't ask).
Our favorite moment, though, is an original. Elwes, disturbed from his sleep by chopping noises and angry screams, investigates to find a sweaty, crazily wide-eyed Silverstone hacking away at lemons. He asks what she's doing and she hisses, "Making lemonade. Want some?" When you're ready for a long cool drink of laughter, buy The Crush.
kind of lame and a waste of time
2007-06-05 - I got it for Alicia Silverstone. The actress who plays the male lead's girflriend does some interesting things and is rather charming.
And the main lead? The male lead? The guy's name is Elwes, I believe. I only wish the director could have asked him to wipe that dumb grin from his face. Oh yeah, fake curls (over either eye) do not make actors
(in their 30s) suddenly look to be in their 20s. This sort of thing gets to be annoying--and is witnessed (usually) in turkey flicks like this.
As I said, the only real reason to see this is Alicia Silverstone, although, to be sure, she got better looking as she got older and matured as a woman.
Got the DVD quite cheap--otherwise would have probably passed on it.
