Stolen Hearts on VHS

• Cert: 15
• Running time: 92 minutes
• Year: 1996
• Cat.no: SO14399
• Released: 3rd February 1997
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Presented in fullscreen
• Price: £10.99
• Extras : None
  

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  Director:

  Bill Bennett

  Producer:

  James G. Robinson

  Screenplay:

  Denis Leary and Mike Armstrong

  Cast:

  Roz : Sandra Bullock (Demolition Man, Speed, While You Were Sleeping)
  Frank O’Brien : Denis Leary (Demolition Man, Hostile Hostages)
  Evan Marsh : Stephen Dillane (The Rector’s Wife)
  O’Malley : Yaphet Kotto (Alien, “Homicide : Life on the Streets)
  Fitzie : Mike Starr (Dumb and Dumber, Night Trap)

Stolen Heartsreunites two of the stars from the 1993 Hollywood action smash-hit,Demolition Man, Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary, in a romantic comedyabout a woman whose relationship reaches a crossroads at exactly the wrong time.Roz is fed up with her long-standing partner, part-time plaster and sometimespetty thief, Frank.

Reluctantly, she agrees to accompany him to a luxury coastal resort where he isto pull off one last heist – the sale of a famous painting worth $4 million.There, the couple try to fit in among the yacht-and-caviar crowd. Suddenly Rozexperiences how the other half lives…and worse still discovers she ratherlikes it.

Although Bullock and Leary didn’t share a great deal of screen time togetherin Demolition Man, they make a good pairing in this film and spark offwell against one another. Both are also very watchable in their own right.

Bullock has easily made her name as one of Hollywood’s leading ladies, andLeary is a charasmatic stand-up comedian, probably best known for his liveperformance, No Cure For Cancer, and his on-going run of commercials onUK television for Holsten Pils. Leary also appeared in his own scene inNatural Born Killers reciting a ranting poem about Mickey and MalloryKnox, but which was later cut from the final film and exists only as part ofthe extras on the unrated Director’s Cut NTSC Laserdisc.

Yaphet Kotto also turns in a good comic role as an embittered and sarcasticpolice chief, with the main bits of comic timing from him coming as a resultof having no respect for the cops below him who have no respect in return.

Picture quality is good, and occasional use of surround sound is made mainlyfor spot effects or car chases, particularly in the opening scene.

In the US, this film didn’t do so well under the title, Two If By Sea,but in the opinion of this reviewer, all in all, this sort of film would makea pleasant afternoon or evening’s viewing for anyone not bothered by a fewf-words here and there.

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.