Larry Cohen has made some good films over the course his career. The films are mostly within the realms of the low budget horror sub-genre, but his films tend to be a cut above the norm. The likes of It's Alive and Maniac Cop stand up as the best films he's made to date. As his career moved on, however, it's evident that he didn't find it as easy to get work, hence this film; a made for TV thriller calling itself 'As Good as Dead'. No, it's not a description of the director's career at the time that this was made, but a thriller about a woman who, after loaning her insurance-less friend her medical insurance card, finds herself in trouble when said friend dies on the operating table. This puts our protagonist in a lot of trouble as she is, by all intents and purposes, dead to the world. However, it would seem that there's more to this story than meets the eye, and so she decides to take the identity of her dead friend while she gets to the bottom of the life-ruining riddle put in front of her.
After about twenty minutes of boring character building (boring because the characters are boring), the film really starts and despite it's poor quality - and obvious TV fodder - production values, the film actually isn't that bad. It's rather routine, and although it's categorised as a 'thriller', the film low on shocks and thrills; but the plot moves nicely and engages you enough so that you care what's going to happen (which is more than what can be said for some highly acclaimed films). It's obvious throughout that the film was made for TV, and that's not a good thing as it gives it a very low quality feel. The acting isn't very good, but it's not terrible either. Crystal Bernard is fine at first, but as her character encounters change; she looks out of place. This is good on one hand, as that realistically expresses what her character would be like that situation; but on the other hand, it doesn't make for very good viewing as far as the audience is concerned. It's obvious that Judge Reinhold rates himself higher than he should be rated, and there's an underlying arrogance to his performance that shows that. Traci Lords doesn't get to do much, but as you'd expect for a porn star; she looks good doing it. On the whole, this isn't really worth seeing - but if you do catch it, at least it isn't awful.
