Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Predrag This film is a great example of the classic Film Noir plot: Murder and conspiracy to defraud an insurance company. China Moon never ceases to surprise us with plot twists. The difference is that Ed Harris is a murder detective but doesn't know what he's up against. He's put in the position to cover up a murder that he didn't commit but would ultimately implicate him. But the killer isn't telling him everything...What I like in this movie, is the love story between Harris and Stowe. Both actors perform on such high level, that keeps your attention from beginning all the way to the end. Ed Harris is always better than his material. Madeleine Stowe's sexy performance would get a rise out of a stone idol. We want them to be together. And when Stowe get in big troubles, we want Harris to help her. At the same time we have to think, that she is just setting him up, but we want to believe her. The acting was excellent. The pacing just right to hold my interest and the ending was creative although a bit unbelievable.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

LeonLouisRicci A Strong Trio of Actors, Ed Harris, Madeleine Stowe, and Benicio Del Toro are the Force Behind This Fairly Conventional Neo-Noir. What is Lacking is Style. Film Noir and its Modern Evolution Neo-Noir are at Their Best When They Contain an Amount of High-Style to Punch the Plot of Deception, Lust, Etc.In This One , the Story is Pedestrian and the Movie is Virtually Without Much Beyond a Few Night and Rainy Shots that are Certainly Noir's Template. But the Acting is So Strong it Involves from the Beginning and the Audience is Engaged with These Characters. A Twisted Ending is a Bit Heavy Handed and Some of the Important Plot Points Involving Switcheroos are Glossed Over Too Hurriedly and Lose Some Impact. But Overall the Movie is Worth a Watch for the Always Interesting Noir Sensibilities and the Magnetic Actors. It's Mid-Range Neo-Noir, Neither One of the Best Nor One of the Worst.

evening1 Talk about plot twists! Just when you think you've got this movie figured out, it yanks the rug out from under you and it's a whole new storyline.This is an outrageously unlikely but entertaining thriller that pays homage to "Body Heat" in ways that kept me consistently suspicious of the Madeleine Stowe character. How wrong I turned out to be. And she keeps on surprising up to the film's final frame. Ed Harris does a great job of playing the fall guy; a kind of double agent -- criminally tampering police detective probing the murder to which he is an accomplice. Bravo, Ed, and I loved the red hair.Plaudits, too, to Benecio del Toro as a schemer of almost Shakespearean proportions. He's excellent as a Jekyll-Hyde-like wet-behind-the-ears rookie and criminal mastermind.If you like movies that keep you guessing, take a look this one at the next full moon...

bob_meg OK, now I get it. I just checked the credits of China Moon's screenwriter and my fears have been confirmed...prior to this, two credits, both TV. That's about the caliber of this by-the-numbers Neo-noir "thriller" that's both not very thrilling and not very noir.Noir needs to be moody, atmospheric, and contain dialog with a snap and particular rhythm. China Moon's script appears to have been attempted after a cursory browsing of "Noir for Dummies." Yes, there's snappy patter...unfortunately it's all trite done-to-death snappy patter. There's virtually not one line I couldn't predict. When Harris and Stowe first meet, the exchange is wooden and you can sense the actors struggling futilely to make something original out of it.Ed Harris gives everyone his smoldering 500-yard stare but it's nothing he hasn't offered before in much better films. Stowe and he don't seem to connect on virtually any level, but with a script this bad there's nothing to draw sparks from. Benecio DelToro looks bored out of his mind, Pruitt Taylor Vince is completely wasted. This movie could have benefited from a more unknown, fresher cast. Sending these vets into this junior high knock-off production is a little like hiring Larry Olivier to star in your kid's school pageant.Virtually nothing in the plot comes as a surprise. You find yourself thinking "surely it's not this simple" only to be woefully disappointed. The "hook-line" here --- "Sooner or later they all f*** up" --- is so stale and stupid it's cringe-worthy. And the lame attempt at a tragic ending makes it more than mock-worthy....you have to have substantial investment in characters for a tragedy of this scale to really pay off. There's none of that here.Yeah, sooner or later.... In this case, for screenwriter Roy Carlson....MUCH sooner.