lost-in-limbo Peter Derns an executive at Mrs. Appleby's cookie company wants to move up the chain, but his finding it hard and his marketing just isn't working. However when his new temp Kris Bolin arrives, she proves not only she's beautiful but very efficient in her job and helps him successfully with his campaign. But there's something not quite right about her intentions, which Peter starts picking up on and some executives fall to mysterious deaths. Is it all in his head, all is Kris really behind all of this.Director Tom Holland has such films behind him like "Fright Night", "Child's Play" and "Thinner", but this sedate (and tame) psycho-thriller really does pale in comparison to those fun flicks. Holland's competently assured direction makes slick work of this lifeless and mechanically structured premise that never really takes off even with such a deviously twisted idea. Because of Holland's panache and a terrific cast (Faye Dunaway is great!), it stays effectively watchable. It's just too bad that studio interference in the editing side damaged just what could've been. The theme is all about playing on the twisty paranoia and lurking competition for success, but it goes on to lack that real daring and dark edge like a knife in the back. It sets itself in taut confines, and can feel rather calmly. The wordy script goes about things in quite an unbalanced frame, with an almost tongue-in-cheek style getting caught up in the serious moments. The two never really level out. Fredric Talgorn's music score is generically jarring, but suitable and Steve Yaconelli's sharply lensed photography and lighting placement is ably done for the right effect. Timothy Hutton is perfectly cast, and the excellent Lara Flynn Boyle is rapturously sexy and cunning to the bone. There's quite an intriguingly unpredictable pattern to Hutton and Boyle's mind-screwing relationship. This is where most of the pressure filled and sexual tension arises from. Oliver Platt appears, but seems wasted in an insignificant part as a slimy executive.Lukewarm thriller that never finds its way out of its artificial mould and ends rather abruptly.

caa821 If you haven't seen "Can't Stop the Music," starring Bruce Jenner, The Village People, and a host of "B" flick personalities from multiple generations, please take it in at first opportunity. It's my all-time favorite "guilty pleasure" movie, but unlike this one, is truly so bad, so over-the-top and loony it's moved on the dial past "0" and to "10" in its awfulness.This picture, for me (as with others who've commented here) also falls into the "guilty pleasure" classification.Nothing new for Fay Dunaway; she is attractive, but gnaws the scenery like a horde of beavers.And this entire crew in the featured business enterprise, including Hutton and Boyle with their supporting players, would have trouble running a Junior Achievement project, say, where the kids were selling glove compartment emergency kits, or carriers for your television directory and remote control - much less engaging in big-time corporate strategies. Throughout the film, this thought held almost as much fascination for me as the plot and performances.Another fringe benefit of a presentation like this one is that if you're interrupted, or have to leave for a brief chore or errand, there is no problem picking it up when you return.The attractiveness of the cast, and the quality of their talents and resumés, is a few notches above those normally found in this type of t.v. film -- so this is another plus, which makes it perhaps 7*, instead of the 3 to 5 it would otherwise merit.

LarryBrownHouston **** REVIEW INCLUDES "GREAT DIALOG" SPOILERS **** Wow was I surprised to see all the positive reviews of this movie here. I thought I was alone in being entertained by this. External reviews often completely trash this movie without finding anything positive. Well get this chemical makeup: Stunning and popular star Lara Flynn Boyle overtly titillating us and wearing skimpy outfits even including a bikini(!), Timothy Hutton, habitual scene stealer Oliver Platt during younger and thinner days, superstar Faye Dunaway, and Steven Webber from the TV show "Wings." How's that for voltage? Add in a proved plot line with a long pedigree (Hand that rocks the cradle, Single White Female, many more), some great whacky dialog, and top it off with the inspired idea of a corporate thriller set in a cookie company with the climax in an industrial kitchen, and yeah...I'll bank that. How could you possibly lose? Actually I really like this movie, even just watching it straight. The only problem I have is Faye Dunaway's really bad, hammy, mugging acting, and toward the end Boyle picks up some of the same style, but other than that I like it. However, if you make me analyze it, OK, it's riddled with plot holes, dropped threads, unanswered questions, implausibilities, etc, but that really doesn't matter if the movie succeeds in entertaining me. And it does. So with that in mind, you could look at it as one of the "so bad it's good" genre, and it does succeed on that level. I agree with others that the ending seems as tho it was written on the spot when someone lost the rest of the script. It actually has a lot of good stuff in it. For example: One of my favorite literary devices is the "buddy thing," which is an entertainment staple: Laurel and Hardy, Skipper and Gilligan, Kip and friend in Bosom Buddies, Balky and Larry in "Perfect Strangers," etc. This movie features that, but in four directions: Hutton and his boss, Hutton and his buddy (Webber), Hutton and his rival (Platt), Hutton and Boyle. Lots of fun there. The highlight for me is some of the whacky dialog, which I'm still quoting years later. For example: "You're BLOWIN' it man." "YOU'VE GOT THIS PROBLEM." And one of the greatest lines ever: "Good gosh how hard can it be? I'm not asking you to splice DNA you just DO IT!" Wonderful stuff. Finally, it's no surprise that Hutton and Platt both turn in performances that are well worth watching. I would have liked to give this movie a 10, because it's really one of my favorites, but I couldn't do that in good conscience, so I had to go easy on the superlative.

Coventry Tame, unoriginal, forgettable, bloodless and boooooooring 90's thriller, set on the management floor of a cookie-factory. The plot is routine thriller material without surprises and the movie still attempts to cash in on the success formula of "Fatal Attraction", which was made half a decade earlier. Peter Derns is an executive and former mental patient (great combination) who receives a beautiful temporary assistant to bridge a stressful period. She – the gorgeous Lara Flynn Boyle – immediately proves herself useful and she even gives good input for the company's newest project. But of course she becomes a little too obsessed with her boss and career, and pretty soon other rival executives start to die in mysterious circumstances. Very convenient if you want to climb up the company-ladder, but nevertheless suspicious. "The Temp" is one of those countless early 90's thrillers that introduce femme fatales as dangerous psychopaths (other examples being "Single White Female", "The Crush" and "The Secretary") but this premise actually is pretty weak and overly predictable. The screenplay features a series of clichés, typically lame office-humor and really ALL the characters are annoying stereotypes. There's nothing even remotely interesting about this film and the downright lousy ending will make you regret sitting through it even more.