Here's a real rarity... an early film by Oliver Stone with a B-movie horror plot and Michael Caine.
It all revolves around the character played by Caine, a comicbook author with a troubled marriage who loses his hand in a freak car accident. From then on he tries to adjust to his new life, but he experiences blackouts and is eventually convinced that his former hand has a life on its own.
It makes an anjoyable ride, but little else. It's certainly better than you may imagine from its plot, but Oliver Stone seems to doubt too much between making it a serious character study or surrendering to its B-movie plot. I mean, it could have easily been written by Stephen King. So it's sort of an OK film until the last reel, when Stone finally realises he needs to go over the top and the result is as close to a Sam Raimi film as it can get with Michael Caine in Bruce Campbell's pants.
As for Caine, he really delivers here. The man has taken a lot of flak (and he deserved every bit of it) for appearing in crappy films just for the paycheck, but here he is virtually in every scene and his acting is exemplary: her doesn't shy away from showing what a complete bastard his character is during most of the film, and in the final scenes he's not afraid to ham it up as much as he can.
So I say, it's worth checking it out.
