The Ex (1996) User Reviews

Surprising for the most part, yet somewhat disappointing in the end

[stamper · 6/10 · 20 November 2004]

"I must say that this film somewhat surprised me and that after a short while I found myself still attached to the tube (at 12:30) a.m. in the morning (something which I didn't expect when the film began). The main reason for me staying up late to see this through, was the sometimes great acting by Yancy Butler (Deirdre). I mean she makes for one hell of a psycho in the end, although I must admit that her 'act' was a bit overdone at one or two times and didn't come off believable anymore. Since the story and the other characters were OK to good as well, I enjoyed the movie up until the end, when finally the bummer came. What a simple and lame ending this film has. It ruined it all for me and I felt as if I was in 'Child's Play 4'or something. Too bad, but because of the ending (ONLY)...

5 out of 10

Hot and Crazy

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 9 November 2013]

"David Kenyon" (Nick Mancuso) is a successful architect who has remarried after divorcing his first wife "Deidre Kenyon" (Yancy Butler) seven years earlier. His second wife "Molly" (Suzy Amis) is not aware that he had been married previously. Neither does she know that Deidre had been committed to a mental institution and has recently arrived back in New York with the desire to get her husband back--regardless of what it takes. Now, while other films like "Fatal Attraction" have already covered the "psychotic girlfriend/wife scenario" what makes this particular movie interesting is the performance of Yancy Butler. She was both hot and crazy. On the flip side though, there were a couple of scenes that simply went beyond the boundaries of realism and had me shaking my head in disbelief a couple of times. Only in Hollywood. That being the case I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

seven thumbs up

[96_jacks · 5/10 · 28 May 2006]

This film works on so many levels.. For example, when that guy takes a drag of his cigarette whenever he forgets his lines... & when that chick gets her nor ks out.. & when someone got drowned.. & when that guy goes "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHY!?!" when his girlfriend dies.. & when that other thing happened.. & when that black guy calls the main dude a "Bastard".. & when the little kid sets the girl on fire.. & old ladies getting killed by a handbag.. Brilliant!!!! It changed my life. Also, it was good. Much better than X men. Thats another film with X as the first word, therefore it's the only film that can be compared. Nine thumbs up!

Yancy Butler is delicious

[vchimpanzee · 30 June 2008]

David is an architect who is married to Molly. They have a 6-year-old son Michael who can't find a psychiatrist he likes. Molly doesn't know David was married before, but Deidre shows up at a skyscraper he helped design, where poor-quality materials will have to replaced.

Deidre wants to get back together with David, but he wants to put his past behind him. She starts her process of getting revenge in a restaurant by telling a man she is David's wife Molly and their marriage is in trouble, and then having a fling. I'm not sure just what purpose this serves, but the specifics of this incident do demonstrate the woman has problems.

Deidre's psychiatrist Dr. Jonas contacts her and tells her she should continue treatment, which Deidre won't do. What she does is go to Molly's gym and become friends with her. She has one of Dr. Jonas' business cards, and when she learns about Michael's inability to find a psychiatrist he likes, Deidre introduces herself as Dr. Jonas and says she is a child psychiatrist. She is moving her practice and has no business cards.

Deidre and Michael become good friends, though she never actually treats him. From here the movie starts getting weird. I mean REALLY weird. And don't get in Deidre's way, or else.

Yancy Butler does an amazing job. At first I didn't think her acting was all that great, but Deidre is so incredibly convincing when she poses as others. And when she is merely scheming, delicious would be a good word to describe her personality. Stalker doesn't even begin to describe this woman. She's really something to watch.

Children should most definitely not see this movie. In one scene I think Michael gets the wrong idea about acceptable behavior. There is some violence and the language appeared to have been cleaned up, but Deidre is into S & M and she has taped herself (and David) in the past. I mean her sex life is really, really sick.

If you want a stalker movie, it doesn't get much better.

Ex-tremely funny

[clarewashbrook · 3/10 · 28 May 2006]

My husband wanted to watch this film because the review in the paper said that it was better than Fatal Attraction. Well, not liking either Michael Douglas or Glenn Close, I would have to agree. Not for conventional reasons though.

This is one of those films that needs to be watched late at night when you don't want to watch something that really requires thought but don't want to go to bed yet.

Yancy Butler is a really enjoyable bad-guy. She is not the best of actresses, in fact she isn't even good but she is perfect for this role in this film. Everyone else in it varies from pine to oak, including the slightly disturbing boy who comes across as a warped Pinocchio.

SPOILER: The ending goes a step or two too far, complete with the cliché not quite dead, up with a roar, still gonna get you moment and then there's a shot of Pinocchio with his frozen wooden smirk which makes you wonder if they were going for chilling or just forgot there was botox in the make-up.

Regardless, it's a hilarious eighty odd minutes and despite being a bad film, you would have to be lacking the humour gene to not enjoy it somewhat. Don't pay for it but if you're in that kind of apathetic telly mood then this is just right.

yawn

[Merely · 2/10 · 20 February 1999]

Totally forgettable and almost unwatchable. If you enjoy bad acting, thin plots and predictably weak outcomes, pull up a chair. Of passing interest to see Bridget Fonda look-a-like Suzy Amis.

This is really really really bad

[LoveGoodFlicks · 4/10 · 1 June 2004]

The material is poor....the script's dreadful....the acting mediocre at best and the music telegraphs what the scene is supposed to be communicating like a kick in the head.

Give this one a miss....even Yancy Butlers not hot enough even in the semi nude scenes to save this tripe.

I'm amazed people rave about Yancy Butler.....given what I've seen here and in the couple of other things I've seen her in she hasn't got the depth or presence to be a star...and her off screen behaviour would tend to indicate she knows that as well.

Last thing is where was this shot? I don't recognise the externals.

The devil is a woman

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 18 February 2007]

The architect David Kenyon (Nick Mancuso) is married with Molly (Suzy Amis), they have an almost 6 year old son named Michael. Unexpectedly, Kenyon's ex-wife Deirdre (Yancy Butler) returns and stalks the family, becoming Molly's friend under a false name. We learn that Deirdre has been treated in a lunatic asylum and committed at least 2 murders. She must be planning something really evil...

Worth watching for the excellent performances of the two female leads. Suzy Amis ("Twister", "Firestorm") plays the wife who has to ask herself after 6 years of a perfectly happy marriage: does she really trust her husband or will she believe the lies Deirdre spreads? After all, he didn't even tell her he was married before! Yancy Butler ("Witchblade", "Drop Zone") is truly terrifying as the mad woman, full of hate, who kills without regret - and asks others to kill her because she lives in such a distorted world. Yancy has got the devilish grin and the evil eyebrows for the role, perfect choice! The movie may have a couple of weak points. Better explanations and more information could have filled a few gaps on the way, but in the end the thriller succeeds at its raison d'etre: to thrill!

Everyone in this movie is crazy

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 15 July 2020]

John Lutz created the story that Single White Female was based on. The Ex is similar territory - a woman over the edge killing everyone to get what she wants. Here, that woman is Yancy Butler, who you may remember from the Witchblade TV series.

One of the people she's menacing is Suzy Amis, who is now Suzy Amis Cameron. Yes, that Cameron.

Her husband is played by Nick Mancuso of TV's Stingray, an actor who was once almost Indiana Jones. Here, he's just as bonkers as the villain of the piece. Actually, everyone outside of the kid is uniformly a pretty bad person in this movie, which makes it that much more enjoyable.

The best part of this movie - and Mark Lester always finds a way, no matter what - is that the music sounds like it's straight out of a Disney film, even when people are having rough sex or killing one another. It's really disconcerting and I mean that in absolutely the best of ways. Outside of Mexican VHS horror, I've never heard music that less fits a film.

What a waste of 87 minutes

[Sean_Maclean_40_45 · 1/10 · 2 June 2004]

This film is by far the worst film I have ever seen in my life. A woman "The EX" pretends to be a number of people in order to gain access to her ex-husband. Killing people for no- reason in baths to achieve her goal. The women I don't think ever went to acting college. She just spends the whole film making stupid expressions, and she looks like she is trying her absolute hardest to avoid looking into the camera. Failing on most occasions. She makes friends with her Ex Husband's wife and son, she does this to use them against her husband. At first when you watch this film, you think that the "Ex" wants to kill her ex-husband, maybe because he has treated her in a bad way. But in fact the women is obsessed with the man and wants him back. The two of them used to enjoy rough entertainment (using whips of course). My advice to the general public is do not buy this film, do not rent this film and do not watch it like I did (at 1.15am on FOX)

Yancy Butler is Fierce!

[MorgaineS · 8/10 · 25 June 2002]

Ok, it's not a big budget film and the cast isn't exactly up to par, but there's one awesome reason to love this movie - Yancy Butler. Her performance is fierce, and so is the character she plays. If you love bad guys, they don't get any badder than this.

She want's me to kill her! That's the whole point! The woman is completely deranged!

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 6 September 2006]

(There are Spoilers) Revenge insanity and murder is the menu in the movie "The Ex" that has successful architect David Kenyon played by a John Cassavetes looking Nick Mancuso who's being stalked together with his wife Molly, Suzy Amis, and five year-old son Michael, Hamish Tildesley, by his deranged ex-wife Deldre, Yancy Butler.

Deldre just released from a mental institution is now back in town to make her Ex-husband David's life as miserable as possible. Working out for hours at a time at the local gym Deldre had developed a hard as rock body and uses it not only to attract men but, after taking them up to her hotel room, to beat their heads into the bathtub wall and then drown them.

David seeing that Deldre is making his life a living hell tries to talk her out of harassing him and his family David also wants Deldre to get help before she ends up killing herself together with those she feels are a threat to her, but to no avail. Deldre is hell-bent to destroy Daivd's marriage and career even if it kill her.

The movie has Deldre impersonate her psychiatrist Dr. Lillian Jonas, Babs Chula, to get to Molly and her rambunctious son Michael without David knowing about it. Finding out the truth about Deldre's plan David kicks her out of his home. Later Deldre traps David in a number of very sticky situations with her attempting to jump out of her hotel window that David saves her from doing. Deldres action left her body black and blue which has her going to Molly, and the police, telling her that David attacked beat and raped her.

Having a video tape of her and David involved in an S&M session while they were married Deldre uses it to prove that he's a pervert and sexual degenerate. All this has David's attorney Mr. Endicott drop the case defending him against the charges that Deldra has filed against David. Dr. Jonas realizing that her patient Deldre is completely out of control confronts her at her apartment threatening to heave Deldre sent back to the institution, that she was just released from, if she doesn't go back their voluntarily herself. This has the crazed Deldre do Dr. Jonas in by shoving her head into a water filled bathtub drowning her.

Obvious and predictable ending with Deldre in her insane attempt to destroy everything that means anything to David, Molly & Michael. Later things begin to turn sour on her with Deldre and her grand master plan of destruction, that took seven year to dream up formulate and put into motion,going down in flames as the movie comes to an end.

Not at all that convincing the movie "The Ex" is a bit to heavy-handed in it's theme about a woman out to get her ex-husband with him not at all that sympathetic. David was, until he met and married Molly, on the same path of self-destruction as Deldre was in his wild lifestyle of drugs sex and all night partying and drinking binges. It was that David's Ex-wife Deldre was so much worse then he was that he didn't come across so unlikable and sleazy.

Yancy is Awesome!

[carrowsboy · 10/10 · 19 March 2000]

The Ex is such a great addition to the legacy of THE-movies (i.e. The Nurse, The Fiancee, The Landlady). Yancy Butler is incredible as a no nonsense nut case who will do anything to get her ex-hubby back. Best part of the movie are the great oneliners she delivers after murdering each victm.

That face, that voice... our little Yancy

[vandino1 · 21 April 2006]

She may not be a great actress, but Yancy Butler has an unmistakable name, face and voice. Her striking eyes and brows make me think she'd be perfect as the lead in a remake of 'The Wasp Woman.' And that throaty gurgle of a voice is positively un-natural. It's unfortunate that she's had alcohol issues that threw her out of the acting game for a while. But that does make me think how she's appeared so uncomfortable on-camera in most of her roles over the years... even this one. Perhaps it's just this film's sledgehammer of a script making her uneasy here, even as a villain. It's obvious that this thing is riding the same track trodded down previously by 'Fatal Attraction' (although 'Attraction' itself is a variation on an even older film: Clint Eastwood's 'Play Misty For Me'). Yancy gets the juicy role of the crazed ex-wife who terrorizes ex-hubby Mancuso and his second wife Amis. It all leads to an achingly predictable conclusion. Sure, you don't know what will do ol' Yance in, but you know it's coming (and you can figure it won't involve a tub since that would be way too close to 'Fatal Attraction'-- although this film does rely on tubs for Yancy's killing spree). I agree with a fellow commentator who was annoyed with the child actor: indeed, the young boy is truly terrible. They could have used a dog in place of the kid and gotten a better performance. The only interesting facet was having Mancuso be into rough sex. From that, I think a more startling conclusion would have been having Mancuso and Yancy re-uniting---because they're obsessed with each other and play this sick game of rough love that extends to even killing Yancy's sister and Mancuso's new wife. As it is, this is just a b-grade thriller/time-killer.

YANCY BUTLER IS A SUPERSTAR, AND HAS PROVED IT!!!

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 7 July 2003]

Enjoyed watching Yancy Butler in "Brooklyn South "TV Series '97" and I just knew she would become a very exciting and great actress. In this film Yancy plays a very sick woman (Deidre Kenyon) who has a long history of mental illness. She was married to David Kenyon (Nick Mancuso) and at the time had very unusual sex and even put it on VHS tape. Poor David Kenyon divorced her and she just could not stop loving him or just leaving him and his wife ALONE!! Her mental illness took over and turned her into a living TIME BOMB! Yancy Butler showed her great talents in making this film a real HORROR story with her sweet, sexy and deceptive actions, she even had a great flaming exit! Yancy Butler is now enjoying a great TV Series: " Witchblade" which is a big HIT!! You can critize this picture, but Yancy Butler is a fantastic talent who is becoming a SUPER STAR of the future!!

Good late night thriller.

[lao4950000 · 8/10 · 12 May 2007]

This is one of those good late night TV movies that you happen to come across and then decide to watch all the way through. It stars Yancy Butler as the murderous psychotic sociopath and an already badly aged Nick Mancuso. Deidre(Butler's character) has a history of violence and mental instability, and later on in the film its revealed that she even drowned her own sister back when they were teenagers because Deidre liked the same guy that her sister liked. David(Mancuso's character) once also led the same kind of life that Deidre led and still leads, one of alcohol and kinky S and M types of sexual pleasure. They were married for three years, but even David couldn't handle Deidre's chaotic personality. David eventually divorced Deidre and moved on with his life. David is currently re-married to Molly and has a young son named Michael. The problem is, Deidre hasn't moved on. In fact, she is even more obsessed with David than ever. She does everything including impersonate her psychiatrist, murdering that psychiatrist when she is caught, murdering a few other choice people, moving into the apartment across from David and Molly's to let them see her from the window, frame David for beating her to discredit him from the police and his own lawyer, to showing a kinky sex tape to David's lawyer of David and Deidre that was made when they were still married. This is more or less the poor man's version of Fatal Attraction. And the ending, well I won't give it away completely, but I will tell you that you won't underestimate little children anymore after you see it. All in all, its a great little movie that will keep you up late at night if you happen to catch it on some cable channel or you somehow happen to find in on DVD or (gasp!) VHS if they still exist.

Not the best film ,but-

[board-5 · 22 September 2007]

Finally Yancy Butler is very good in this film,and she's ex-husband-played by Nick Mancuso too.There are some good ,and some very used twists in the film.Finally this film is better than I waited.Somewhy the twists looks good in a film,like this,cause this film is not a television-film.Womens could be very dangerous sometimes,and sometimes I can understand them.The best thing in the film is Yancy Butler,she can play the crazy women without too much problems,better than Thomas Jane in Punisher with he's one face,but maybe not perfect.Unfortunately the film has not REALLY new message and never REALLY scary

loved it

[disdressed12 · 9/10 · 29 March 2007]

you know,i really liked this film.the plot concerns a mentally disturbed woman,(Yancey Butler)who attempts to ruin her her architect ex husbands family an life,after realising he doesn't want anything to do with her.he happens to be happily remarried with a 5 year old son.the biggest reason i liked this movie is Yancey Butler.i really like her as an actress.i thought she did a very good job playing a psycho.it seemed she really had fun with the role.i liked the movie itself,as well.it won't get any points for originality,but so what.there are some great moments of tension and suspense and some real nail biting moments.i also liked how explosively violent Deidre(Butler)becomes when killing or injuring her victims.this is one movie i didn't want to end.i enjoyed it that much.i give "The Ex" 9/10

"Your a very unusual person...!" "I'm so glad you noticed!"

[poison-ivy-1 · 10 December 2004]

Any body who doesn't like this movie is lacking a sense of humor! It's one of the best films I've ever seen (& I've seen a lot). For you guys who hate the script, your all slow! It's the most intelligent film script of our time! It's hilariously frightening! And Yancy Butler makes my day every time I see this! It's on the top shelf of my video collection where all the best films are, such as, Poison Ivy, The Crush Dearly Devoted (Devil In The Flesh - to the Americans) Dolls, Goodbye Lover, Poltergeist III, The Guardian, Vamp, etc. etc. This film is a must see, even if it's only to catch Yancy Butler pulling her faces and bringing the excellent script to life! Fantastic film, no matter what others say!

Another stupid woman's movie

[guilfisher-1 · 8 October 2008]

Forget Yancy Butler. She ain't got it in this viewer's eyes. Her big mouth and overly made up face are a turn off. She's also got a big behind. Her acting matches her looks. Bad, bad, bad! The stupidity of the wife played by Suzy Amis is just an example of the silly plot and dialog. Then we have the victim, played by an over aged Nick Mancuso. I remember Mancuso in earlier victim movies, but this one has got to be the clinker. Chain smoking (badly) and being evasive is all he can do in this movie. Boring to watch. You get sick of him and want he and the Butler character to take a hike somewhere.

Now we have the supposedly lesbian psychiatrist to Butler played by Babs Chula who as a doctor doesn't even register that her patient is a nut case. Goes so far as to coming into her home and turning her back on a psychotic witch. Please spare us this. Marke Lester directed this loser and let's hope it never goes any further than late late night TV where it can put you to sleep.

Fatal What?

[drosse67 · 25 November 2001]

The makers of this movie act as if another little movie called Fatal Attraction (made exactly 10 years before this) was never created. I caught this on cable TV and must have been in the mood for something bad, because I watched it all the way through. The twist: The male "hero" is not the Michael Douglas Everyman of Fatal Attraction. He's a sexually deviant S.O.B. He should have been killed in the first hour. But then we wouldn't have had the kinky scenes. Nick Mancuso was once a good actor (see his 80s films Ticket to Heaven or Heartbreakers for proof of this). And the leading woman.....one expression acting is good for the Loreal ads. Other than that....