ANATOMY (aka ANATOMIE) PLOT-When her classmates start disappearing, a young Anatomy student begins to wonder where her school is getting its fresh bodies. VIOLENCE-Many people are cut open with surgical instruments (while still conscious), guts are shown frequently, there are many dead bodies, and we see some freaky-looking, partially dissected people. SEX/NUDITY-During the opening credits, a scalpel is being used to gently caress a woman's naked body, and we see brief nudity. Other than that, nothing really. WHY I LIKED IT-One reason and one reason only: Franka Potente. You'll remember her as the star of RUN LOA RUN, an excellent movie from a couple years back. In this, another German-language production, she gives another totally flawless performance. While nowhere near as good as LOLA, this one is still cool because of her. The story is engaging, there are a few twists, and things get pretty scary at times. But this movie's appeal definitley rests with her alone. DOWNSIDE-The opening scene really is awesome, I was expecting a lot more. After all, RE-ANIMATOR was set in a medical school and it rocked. Unfortunately, the movie starts strong and progressively gets weaker, not scoring many originality points. Who's the killer? Will the heroine and her boyfriend escape? Will justice prevail? Yes, things are pretty cut and dry here (no pun intended). I actually was falling asleep by the final reel. MEMORABLE SCENES-Some of the students scare freshmen by hooking up electrodes to a headless corpse on a table, causing it to move around and stuff. NOTES-The DVD says "Special Edition", and there's a decent amount of extras. You get the widescreen movie, choice of subtitles or dubbed English, a director commentary, 2 or 3 unamazing deleted scenes, a music video, and some "making-of" footage. In one interview, Franka Potente professes her love for horror movies. What a gal.
