Rish Outfield's reviews
Angie Dickinson is a housewife who confides in her psychiatrist (Michael Caine) that she yearns for passion and adventure. She seeks a one-night stand with a stranger, and gets it . . . but also finds a bonus surprise in the form of a glistening straight razor. We then follow Caine, Dickinson's son (Keith Gordon, the nerd in Jaws 2), a police detective, and the only witness to the crime as they try and solve the murder. I think.
I don't know what to say about this film. This was one I chose, having seen very few of Brian DePalma's films, and having heard that this one was among his best (if a ripoff of Psycho). Tyranist suffered through it, asking again and again why we even decided to rent it, and maybe he had a point, I don't know. It was a little bizarre and (deliberately?) confusing, but there were a couple of moments I thought worked pretty well. Dennis Franz's character made me laugh. I thought the killer in general and the scenes in the elevator and the subway were quite scary. I sort of like Michael Caine and Nancy Allen and it also featured the guy who played the mayor in Ghostbusters. A couple of moments toward the end worked well too until we realized DePalma was ripping off his own movie's ending (Carrie, in this case). But there were some parts that seemed to drag on forever, and some stylized scenes that were clearly stylized for stylism's sake. A couple of scenes, like the museum scene and the sneaking around in the office scene, instead of creating suspense, only created boredom. A moment or two where a character thought back to something that happened earlier in the film and it was shown through splitscreen seemed to really be underestimating the audience.
I don't know if I can recommend the film or not. One thing I most assuredly will not recommend, though, is the videocassette copy we were watching. It was, hands down, the worst Pan & Scan job I have ever seen, leaving some scenes totally indescipherable, and other scenes completely unwatchable. I'm a Letterbox man myself, and have been since I first learned what it was, but watching this tape would've converted the most die-hard full frame fan about halfway through.

The tyranist's thoughts
I should preface this review by saying that I think the copy we watched wasn't the best for the reasons that Rish argues above. The pan & scan was really, really bad and that may have increased my displeasure with the film beyond normal.
As I've developed as a film fan, one of the traits that I carried over from my love of literature (which has its roots approximately five to ten years earlier than film in my life) is a passion for pacing and understanding how people keep stories moving. This is something that has annoyed Rish on many occasions since I have to know how long the movie's been going and how long it is going to be. In fact, it is usually the mark of a great movie that I never look at the clock. That aside, the biggest problem I had with Dressed to Kill was in its pacing.
There are several scenes (usually of the chase variety) that are so improperly paced that it hurt the movie. In every case the scenes drag on much longer than was necessary and as stylized as they are, the length more than cancels out any attempt at structure that might have existed. In a lot of ways these scenes felt to me like they had just written "long chase scene" in the script and then made the rest up while they were shooting. It just doesn't work. I probably should have taken the time to get something to drink.
Other than the terrible pacing, there wasn't too much to complain about. The parts were well acted and the story at least somewhat intriguing. I'm more and more a fan of Nancy Allen and the fact that she plays a hooker in this one is just gravy. The ending, which doesn't actually happen at the end of the movie, was satisfying and while not completely surprising since there were ample clues, was at least an honest attempt that didn't fall flat.
Of course, that brings me to the other major flaw. If the pacing was all wrong for the chase scenes then the way the movie finished was simply an abominable, tacked on piece of crap that they needed to make a decent running time. The movie was seriously over and yet it kept going and going. No reason for this. The first ending was fine and satisfying.
I don't recommend you see it and if you do find a better copy than we did. While there are a few interesting bits and Nancy Allen is awfully pleasant to look at, it just isn't worth the headache of wading through DePalma's mistakes.