Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

bombersflyup An Occasional Hell was a watchable film that never really went anywhere.I thought Tom Berenger was going to be the killer, teaching a class on the subject, victim's wife asking Berenger to solve it having seen his name on a document in the victim's possessions, her thinking he is the killer. It was a given that they were going to get sexual, but as for the killer just being the guys on the land shooting them, that was completely bland but also surprising to me that this is all the writers had come up with. They were really digging a hole for the body out the front of the house, really. My prediction would of made for a hell of a lot better film. The acting was fine, just nothing much to work with. Kari Wuhrer doesn't really get to play a character here, she is briefly in the start then only in Berenger's imagination. The fact that it is his imagination, you would think her appearances wouldn't be so dull. Why the hell is he imagining her up a tree? It is also odd since he had never met her in the first place.

dcnilsen film is aptly named because once in a while you come across a film which provides an occasional hell to have to watch...actually this one would be highly recommended for viewing by an arborist- wooden plot, wooden script, wooden acting, etc, etc, etc....I like tom berenger, but this is the equivalent of painting by numbers on steroids...and not even the nude scenes can help this turkey, but I can highly recommend it if you want to have a nice nap mid-movie, then wake up not feeling as though you missed anything...berenger's imaginary visits by the female missing from the crime scene are particularly annoying and ridiculous and add absolutely nothing to the plot...all in all such drivel that I was compelled to stop watching a little over halfway through, which after reading the reviews, turned out to be a wise move...the people advocating this disaster as a triumph are in need of god knows what, but taste comes forefront to my mind

NateWatchesCoolMovies An Occasional Hell is one of countless cable TV crime melodramas that start to blur together if you've seen enough. They don't often have high budgets, and as such usually only contain a few elements: a handful of actors, a murder mystery, deception, eroticism and very little in the way of fancy special effects. This one has a solid lead in Tom Berenger, who can make anything watchable, and great supporting players who pitch in as well. The story, or lack thereof, is where the problem arises. Berenger plays an ex cop and forensics wizard turned college professor, who is hired by sultry widow Valeria Golino (remember her from Hot Shots? Lol) to solve the murder of her husband and his hot young mistress (Kari Wuhrer), who has vanished. It turns out the mistress may have been involved with drug runners (random) the state troopers get involved and it's all one big mess that neither Berenger nor the plot can seem to figure out. There's a cynical lead Trooper played by a snarky, laid back Robert Davi, and other assorted people including Richard Edson, Ellen Greene, Geoffrey Lewis and a kooky Stephen Lang, who shows up in flashbacks as Golino's eccentric civil war enthusiast husband. None of it makes all that much sense or seems to flow in a way that's believable, but Berenger makes it somewhat worthwhile, as do that other players. Just below average stuff.

bribabylk ... and that's about the main thing going for it, and even he has a flat butt. Seriously, the whole thing about the murder weapon being a Civil War era musket has been done to death on the mediocre detective shows filling space on the TV schedules today; and it's pretty obvious who the killer is within the first 20 minutes. The performances aren't bad; in fact they're too good for the B-grade material. Hope everyone was well paid. You should really only see the movie if you have to watch EVERYTHING with Tom Berenger, or Steven Lang, or Kari Wurher, or Valerie Golina, etc. Ellen Green from "Little Shop of Horrors" makes a very brief appearance, and it was nice to see her again - she doesn't really get the film / TV work she deserves; kind of like Celeste Holme's career, which should have been bigger than it was. I saw this on cable; maybe the DVD has some extra features that make it more worth the while.