Spellbinder

Around the late 1980s, the ailing MGM studios made or acquired a number of movies that they didn't give much of (if any) a theatrical release. This pickup is one of them, and it's pretty easy to see why for several reasons. It's a pretty flat-looking movie for one thing - while it has elements that got it an "R" rating, aside from those elements the movie feels like it was made for television. The script has a number of problems as well. It does have an ending that is somewhat expected (though is somewhat hard to swallow when you think back of every event that happened before it), but most of the movie is a bunch of boring chat. Worse of all, actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is wasted, given only three or so brief scenes. A movie so unremarkable for the most part, one has to wonder why it was thought to be worth making.