Use disc as a coaster. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. This is one of the worst films ever made...And not in a good way.
The real mystery - how a great storyline died!
Like so many films these days you sit through the first third or even two thirds and your'e absolutely gripped only to be let down by a banal, predictable ending.
This movie starts off brilliantly and keeps up the pace and tension for up to two thirds of the film. In fact, I have seen so many films lately that lose the plot after half an hour, Consenting Adults, can be recommended on this alone!
Back to the film. Suddenly two thirds of the way through a superb film is butchered. A tense, emotional drama is replaced but a non-sensical murder mystery.
The two questions that kept coming into my head after Kline is framed for Murder. Does the criminal justice system in America really let a man who is about to stand trial for a brutal murder out on bail? Do they then let him wander, unsupervised, wherever he pleases?
My final film summary first two thirds of the movie - excellent last third - don't even bother to play. Stop the tape and return it to the video shop. If you don't you'll just be bitter, let down and very, very dissapointed!
Runs Out of Steam and Logic
This movie started out great the way it established the growing friendship between two very different couples and then moved into a murder mystery. The acting was first-rate (with the exception of Rebecca Miller -- can we say boring?) but then the plot defied logic. For example: Kevin Kline's character doesn't realize that he is not having sex with the neighbor's wife but with a "stand-in"? When Kevin Spacey's character confirms his wife's death in Savannah with the police, the police do not think to ask: "Hey, didn't you already report her death a few months ago?" Further, it is completely unrealistic that a shattered Kevin Kline's wife would have so immediately taken up with Kevin Spacey. By the time the film ended, it felt like a comedy, it was so ridiculous!
Theresa Russell seduces rich men by conforming to their dreams in terms of appearance and behaviour, marries them, and then kills them. She thinks her means are undetectable. But Justice Department investigator Debra Winger has noticed a pattern, and becomes obsessed with tracking Russell down. She follows her to Hawaii (where she is working on her latest target), befriends her, and the stage is set for a psychological chess game.
The idea is promising, but the execution is uninspired. There is too much time spent on pretty pictures of Hawaii, and the narrative lacks drive, eroticism or real suspense. We are told that the two characters are obsessed, but aren't properly shown that they are, or even why they are. Finally, the resolution is particularly unconvincing.
More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Debra Winger - Theresa Russell Director(s): Bob Rafelson DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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So many people knocked this movie, but I really liked it. De Mornay and Johnson gave great performances in it, and the plot was suspenseful. Rebecca and Don are two of the best looking actors around, too. Together, they are terrific. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Rebecca De Mornay - Don Johnson Director(s): Sidney Lumet DVD Release Date: Released the 01 July 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Based on the bestseller by John Grisham, Runaway Jury is a slick thriller that's exciting enough to overcome the gaps in its plot. The ultimate target has been changed: Grisham's legal assault on the tobacco industry was switched to the hot-button issue of gun control (no doubt to avoid comparison to The Insider) in a riveting exposé of jury-tampering. Gene Hackman plays the ultra-cynical, utterly unscrupulous pawn of the gun-makers, using an expert staff and advanced electronics to hand-pick a New Orleans jury that will return a favorable verdict; Dustin Hoffman (making his first screen appearance with real-life former roommate Hackman) defends the grieving widow of a gun-shooting victim with idealistic zeal, while maverick juror John Cusack and accomplice Rachel Weisz... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Cusack - Gene Hackman - Rachel Weisz Director(s): Gary Fleder DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Like Body Heat before it, D.O.A. demonstrates why the noir thriller deserved to be brought back--if done well. This movie, inspired by the 1949 Edmund O'Brien version, begins powerfully. A man stumbles into a police station to report a murder: his own. Writer Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid), an unhappy English professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has been poisoned. He has 24 hours to unveil his killer. It's a complex plot of forgotten dreams, dysfunctional relationships, and primarily bitterness. But it's so effectively directed (by Max Headroom's Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton) and so powerfully acted, it draws its audience into its puzzling and dark, hopeless world. Meg Ryan, who teamed the previous year with her now-husband Quaid in... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Dennis Quaid - Meg Ryan Director(s): Annabel Jankel - Rocky Morton DVD Release Date: Released the 14 October 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Based on Susanna Moore's popular novel, In the Cut centers on Frannie (Meg Ryan), an emotionally stifled English teacher who gets steamy with sultry Malloy (Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count On Me), a cop who's investigating a series of brutal murders--but Frannie soon suspects that Malloy may be the killer. As a psychological thriller, In the Cut is heavier on psychology than thrills; the story is a skeleton that director Jane Campion (The Piano, An Angel at My Table) cloaks in one of the most nightmarish visions of urban life since Taxi Driver or Seven, accompanied by lots of explicit sex. The movie's dark tone will put some viewers off, but Ruffalo's effortless magnetism serves him well; no woman in the audience will question how quickly Ryan... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jennifer Jason Leigh - Meg Ryan - Mark Ruffalo Director(s): Jane Campion DVD Release Date: Released the 10 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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