Hexed MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

A Walter Mitty kind of guy, Mathew Welsh (Arye Gross) fantasizes his life away. As a desk clerk in the Holiday Palace Hotel, he dreams of intrigue, romance and passion. On New Year's Eve he joins the hotel's party guests, posing as a British dignitary. When his co-worker exposes Mathew's deception, Mathew's already low self-esteem sinks even lower. He becomes obsessed with improving his image. Suddenly he is thrown into the middle of his wildest dreams. Hexina (Claudia Christian), a famous international perfume model, chooses the Holiday Palace to rendezvous with a mysterious man. Mathew overhears a conversation that indicates the model does not know the stranger. Masquerading as the date, Mathew innocently steps into the center of the model's murderous plans. In way over his head, Mathew witnesses murder, becomes the target for Hexina's revenge, and ultimately the object of a massive police hunt. Guests and staff of Holiday Palace are subjected to every kind of slapstick violence as Mathew desperately tries to untangle the hopeless web he seems to be caught in. What could have been a clever comedy becomes mired in tasteless jokes, sexual frenzy and over-acting.

The most offensive scene shows Hexina and Mathew engaging in sexual intercourse. She is completely nude and the scene continues far too long. Sex is implied in two other scenes, though very briefly. Fondling and heavy petting occur a few times as well. Many scenes of moderate violence include knife brandishing, gunshot killing, hitting, a group of policemen beating an innocent man, pushing down stairs, falling off a roof, pushed off roof and many gunshots. Many f-words and s-words, plus many regular profanities foul the dialogue. A Catholic priest watches adult movies in his room while drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. Mathew's character, portrayed as passive and harmless, thinks nothing of "borrowing" hotel guests' cars, clothes or even their hotel rooms should he need them. HEXED will vex discerning moviegoers.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Columbia Pictures, 711 5th Ave., NY, NY 10022