Below Utopia (1997) User Reviews

Pointless, but not a bad way to kill a couple of hours

[LoupGarouTFTs · 6/10 · 18 May 2006]

This film wasn't horrible, but it was far from great. As long as you don't expect too much from the story, it is fairly passable, in fact. I knew who the ultimate bad guy was about 30 minutes into the film, but sat around for the remainder of the action just to see it confirmed. I actually like Ice-T as an actor, but he could have phoned this performance in. There was no real background given for the characters or the story--heck, I've seen role-playing game modules with more--but if you're looking for a semi-suspenseful way to waste a couple of mindless hours (and you enjoy this kind of film), you probably won't be too disappointed.

One thing that did disappoint me was the lack of light used in shooting any of the scenes. What we could see of the set suggested that it was quite opulent and I would have liked to see more of it. With all of the flaws in this film it seems like a minor complaint, but I guess that is should be expected based on the film's plot

Suspense? Twists? Where???

[nirvana7-2 · 5/10 · 12 November 1998]

If you haven't seen something resembling the twist in this movie in other movies, you haven't seen enough movies!! The conflict in the family was very exaggerated & doesn't really add to the believability of the story. The best part of the movie was Alyssa Milano & Ice T who both put in respectable performances. The question is, when will Alyssa Milano be given a chance at a good movie role, she's got the talent, but so far the movies she's been in have been sub par.

Tense and Suspenseful

[WritnGuy-2 · 17 April 2000]

What a horror story it was getting a chance to see this movie! The first time I rented it, it got stuck in the VCR and busted the thing up, and I had to dissect the machine to free the tape. Then I rented it again, and found it was another movie called Body Count and had to go back in and get this one, and finally, I held my breath and watched this, and saw that it was worth all the hassles. (Including buying a new VCR!)

Daniel, a young preppy, is coming to his family's enormous mansion in the boonies with his girlfriend Susanne for Thanksgiving dinner. Their are family tensions, and Daniel is excommunicated from the family. In hope for escape, he heads down into the basement with Susanne, and just as they are getting comfortable, three art thieves break in and kill the whole family. The couple listens in terror, and struggles to plan and figure out a way to escape. They soon realize they must kill these three men, and they learn to fight back, all up to the last fifteen minutes, when everything suddenly takes a wild turn, and soon more conflicts than ever before are introduced. And the body count is raised.

This really was a great movie. It was very short, so there is little filler, and just a lot of excitement. The acting is surprisingly good, with Ice-T in a typical role, charming Thoreaux, and show-stealing Milano. She played a great role, and is underrated. Despite some exploits during the two unrevealing sex scenes, she is professional and impressive. During the first half-hour, when things are calm, she is obviously uncomfortable, and trying to fit in with this hostile family. She uses voice tones and facial expressions quite well, and when the horror starts, she isn't gun-ho, she's what you would expect: terrified and forced to fight. I commend her on a great role. As for the twist that comes near the end, yes, I realize it was quite obvious, but still, it's good to anticipate. And it didn't deter from the suspense and the excitement, and I held my breath to the very end. I definitely recommend this movie, even if it does mean going through three video store trips and a broken VCR. : )

This movie sets extraordinary new heights in stupidity.

[Enemy-2 · 3/10 · 6 January 2000]

Insipid plot, exquisitely bad acting, and a climax that drags on long after one loses interest. The only redeeming feature of this movie is that it showcases Alyssa Milano's lovely face. In short, the 2 hours required to view this movie could easily be invested in more gainful and rewarding pursuits.

Worst Movie Of All Time, and Cruel

[ray-280 · 1/10 · 6 June 2005]

I used to think "Sleepaway Camp" was bad, but that was a teen horror movie and they do okay no matter what. This movie, however, puts that one's shame to shame.

The movie deviously draws the viewer in with a very sexy shot of Alyssa Milano making out with her fiancé in a car, and the movie goes downhill (rather, off the cliff) from there. Her fiancé is the "black sheep" of a wealthy family, and there's tension at the holiday gathering, but that becomes secondary when art thieves (led by Ice-T) invade the home and shoot the family (or most of it) dead, except for Milano and her fiancé, who were in the basement having sex during the episode.

The movie is billed as "suspense" but appears more to be the punchline to the old joke "How do you keep an idiot in suspense?" The ending is predictable, as are the plot twists, and Ice-T's character's swipe against racism by reminding the viewers that he has a masters in art history was nothing more than lame grandstanding.

Anyone who has ever wondered if they should try to write movies can watch this one for inspiration and come away with the feeling that no matter how bad they might be if they attempted to write a movie, it's doubtful they will ever sink to a low like this. If I were Milano, I'd buy the rights to this film and burn it.

The music by Ice-T over the closing credits was the best part, but I'm not sure if I liked the music, or simply liked that the movie was over.

It doesn't get much worse than this.

No suspense.

[Susie-7 · 3/10 · 4 December 1999]

I did not find the supposed plot twist in this movie a twist at all. I figured out who the bad guys were very early on in the movie. The only thing I was uncertain about was whether the character was actually the culprit or whether the acting was just inappropriate and made him/her look like the bad guy; it turns out the acting was quite appropriate. Anyway, I found this movie very obvious and unthrilling, and Susanne's (I was very impressed to see they spelled her name the same way as mine, as it is a rare spelling- bonus points) reluctance to use violence even when her own life was on the line was kind of frustrating. Still, most of the acting was decent, especially considering some of the stupid things people had to say or do. Uncle Whoever's confession was extremely melodramatic and did not seem to have much relevance to the story, unless I missed something. Basically this movie was an unsuspenseful suspense and I do not recommend it to anyone except to the many Alyssa Milano fans out there.

justin, you deserve better!!

[DorsiaRes · 2/10 · 6 June 2002]

this movie was supposed to be suspenseful? it was more like a comedy to me!! ice-t's performance was laughable, and so was the director's/editor's. there were tons of problems with scenes: when daniel and susanne are in his car and she's topless, the next second we see her with her top again and him trying to get it off (even though he already did it!); after they've had sex in the basement and daniel is putting his shirt on, the next shot it's off again and directly after that it's back on. how could they miss that?! also, almost every angle when cutting from character to character is off. it doesn't match at all and it's really obvious.

whoever wrote this script is really awful too. what was the deal with ice-t's lines? "shut up stupi'! you foo!" the only good part of this movie was justin theroux (daniel), who didn't even make it on the cover box yet he has more of a major role than ice-t. he really deserves better movies than this, he's a wonderful actor and it's sad that he had to stoop this low. check out american psycho if you want to see him in a really GOOD movie!

Not for smart audience!

[kenandraf · 1/10 · 26 August 2001]

Most smart people will wince at the terrible screenplay and directing.The only thing going for this movie is the beauty of Alyssa Milano and she also delivers a good performance.Ice-T does his usual reliable routine but it is sad to see him desperately taking worse and worse B movie offers lately.He should try to learn more from Ice Cube who seems to be getting great movies.Ice-T is just as talented,maybe even more versatile than Cube!Watch this movie only if you are a big fan of Milano and do not expect too much.Some Ice-T fans may be disappointed......

I didnt know the girl in Commando would bloom so well.

[franco-28 · 10/10 · 13 October 1999]

I like this flick it had suspence elements that were well thought out & executed, but had I know that the little girl in Commando would bloom into such a ripe woman, I would have followed her career, closely. I like the camera work, the acting, the actors, the plot, but Alyssa takes the cake in my sight.

If you are a fan of Alyssa Milano then you'll love this one.

[Mitch-80 · 17 August 1999]

Alyssa gets lots of screen time in this one as the wife to be. She and her fiance go to dinner at the country home of his much "well to do" and I might add disfunctional family only to find that someone has planned to do away with the whole bunch. Only a few of you will figure out who the bad guys really are in advance of the ending. Nice writing and acting however I thought that the direction needed a little attention due to the fact that when hiding in the basement one would think to be a little quieter.

But not below my expectations.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 28 December 2020]

This movie is voluntarily bad but fun, unusual and exciting, it has no other purpose to entertain warned audiences. So please don't try to compare it with huge productions. This is a sort of domestic DH rip-off, because it doesn't take place in a huge building, nor aboard a plane or a ship, nor a submarine or a security complex facility, nor in a hospital or a train, nor in a factory or a garbage recycling center, BUT in a simple home - a kind of home invasion if you wish - by a bunch of lousy bad guys, and the development of the story is rather surprising too, with an Ice T as convincing as he was in Wally Hill's TRESSPASS, where he also co starred Tiny Lister as one of his accomplices. This story, I repeat, uses some lines of DIE HARD, and not only the basic scheme, but something else, and not in the same way as DH showed us. The main lead is definitely not the copycat, even the lousiest one, of John McLane. But I would say McLane and Hans Gruber in the same time !!! The perfect example of a grade B feature can bring us, because the tiny budget permits, allows the producers and writers, and also directors to take all the risks. After all, they have nothing to lose, only to win. Unlike huge productions that need gross at the end. and everyone knows that gross means to entertain the bulk of sheep idiotic audiences always asking for foreseeable things. I don't belong to this herd.

Great B-Movie

[=Sylvano= · 9 September 2001]

Common guys, don't critic B-movies and rate them on the same

scale then the Big Picture, i mean common, they don't have the

same budget, same cast... I think some of you just should take a

handy cam and try to make a little home movie with $500 budget,

then show it to strangers and ask them to put a critic on it, you'll

see how it feel! That was a pretty good B-Movie, the cast was not

that bad, Alyssa was pretty good, sexy as always, Ice-T was a

mean guy like in most of the movies... but it was something

interesting, I don't feel like I wasted my money to watch it! If you do

think that, never rent B-Movies anymore then my friends... they are

pretty much always like this! End of the line I give a 6 for that nice

movie!

Better than I expected, would recommend it

[bighead · 30 October 1998]

I was pleasantly surprised by this suspense-action-thriller. The movie is about a young, upper-class couple who, during a visit to the in-laws, become victims of cold-blooded art thieves who slaughter most of the family. Don't worry, you look forward to seeing the annoying, upper-crust family members get butchered. And just overlook the fact that these rich folk never bothered to shell out the money for a decent home-security system. As implausible as it may seem, young preppie-boy fights back to single-handedly deal with the bad guys. Surprise ending, too.

Body Count, Body Count, Body Body Body Count

[NiceMrJohn · 27 March 2001]

If you rented this movie thinking there would be some reference to Ice T's metal experimentation Body Count, then you're an idiot. Actually you're cool for liking the group, but you're still an idiot for renting this. I saw it on cable and for some reason sat through the whole thing.

Alyssa Milano plays the girlfriend to a rich kid, whom she accompanies to his rich a-hole parents' mansion out in the boondocks. Quickly we learn that her boyfriend is free from all the influences he grew up with. We know this because she keeps nagging him to go back to being a teacher. She keeps doing this because well, he makes cute artsy references to things that famous writers like Shaw said. See, all people that carry around cool quotes in their noggins to impress girls with are all smart and should definitely be guiding our youth today. Cuz its so much more damn fulfilling than making money and stuff.

Anyway, we don't get to know the family for very long, cause Tommy "Tiny" Lister and Ice T and their token white boy break in and blow everyone away. Its too bad too, the chief from the show "Chips" was playing the Dad or the Uncle and was drinking scotch and getting hammered. I figured since he'd been working at McD's the past 20 years he would be glad to just be in a movie, even this one. But noooo, he's just in there for Ice T to bust a cap in his highway patrollin' ass.

It seems T and his cross-eyed buddy Tiny are interested in the lame collection of art in the boyfriend's house. That's right, not only is T a cold blooded killa, he also appreciates good art! We also know he's more intellectual than your average killa because he wears glasses.

So Alyssa and her horny-ass boyfriend, (they have sex twice but you don't see jack because Alyssa was beyond that sorta crazy stuff at that point - besides who cares, the hottest place to see her nude is in Bikini magazine before she got her implants, and she still kinda looked like the 16 yr. old Sam from Who's the Boss?) they decide to play John McClane and sneak and hide around the house avoiding Mr. Original Gangsta and Mr. Glazed Eyed Fatty. Alyssa even hides in the AC shaft, I kept expecting her to go "Now I know what a TV dinner feels like!"

Eventually we find out a family member is involved in the whole scheme, and then there is an even lamer twist at the end that I don't want to give away. Mostly because then imdb might not post this, not because its thrilling or anything. If there is anything positive about this flick, I would say the film quality is good, it doesn't have that grainy look of cheap movies. But I guess all they really needed to do was rent that one big house since the whole movie takes place there. And of course Ms. Milano is a damn fine pleasure to watch. Those have to be the sexiest lips I've seen. And we do get to watch her wriggle into that AC shaft - from behind. At least the director had some sense. And of course, Ice T is always fun to watch as long as he's just playing himself, not a stupid art thief. Oh wait never mind.

Surprisingly good!

[morpoise · 29 August 1999]

I would not blame you if you did not want to see this movie based on its cast and its plot. Most of the elements just seem likely to add up to a bad movie. I was forced to see it because my boyfriend has an obsession with Alyssa. Should I be embarrassed to be involved with a 25 year old man who works for Congress who owns Alyssa's workout videos entitled "Teen Steam"?? Probably.

At any rate, this movie, unlike Teen Steam, is surprisingly good. It seemed well thought out and equally well executed, with strong and believable performances by Alyssa, Ice T, and Justin Theroux. The film was successful in keeping up suspense, and you definitely wanted to watch until the end when you were most likely surprised by the unveiling of the true criminal.

This film seems to be replayed late nights on cable with some frequency, so be sure to check it out there.