Murder on Spec

2006
5.2| 1h35m| en
Details

Kate Graham believed to have a perfect marriage, but after not touching her for months her husband Duke Fairbanks, who had an affair with her friend Diana Coles, demands a divorce. She waves the prenuptial-fixed sum of nearly a million dollars, so he lets her have the house temporarily while he lives on the yacht; his corpse is found there shortly after. An unknown man who claims he killed Duke 'for her' demands 10% of his vast inheritance. When her gay friend is arrested, without bail, she asks her lawyer to defend him. The killer orders her to have dinner, shakes the Seattle PD detective Paul Tannon, proves he knows her preferences, explains how he set Jim up and doubles his tariff to 20% now she has two lives to pay off. The unknown killer is actually a tax official called Mathis...

Director

Producted By

Front Street Pictures

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting
Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
doycesub I think that the negative reviews are very accurate and the others are watching a different movie than I am. I'm 38 minutes into it and can't believe the lack of investigation abilities that the "police" in this one have. I don't think they could catch a cold much less a criminal. Why is the person that admitted to the murder able to move about like a ghost and nobody seems to notice him? Why is the Kate Graham character doing her own investigation while the DA (dumb a**) police can follow her but no one else. I hope I make it to the end.the review does not contain enough lines so: I think that the negative reviews are very accurate and the others are watching a different movie than I am. I'm 38 minutes into it and can't believe the lack of investigation abilities that the "police" in this one have. I don't think they could catch a cold much less a criminal. Why is the person that admitted to the murder able to move about like a ghost and nobody seems to notice him? Why is the Kate Graham character doing her own investigation while the DA (dumb a**) police can follow her but no one else. I hope I make it to the end.
canuckteach We watched it - it was a passable time-waster built around a very charming leading lady, Brooke Burns (film a.k.a. 'Trophy Wife').She won't challenge Meryl Streep for acting honors, but this was a low-budget vehicle built around the familiar device of a pretty, but determined, main character under attack by a sinister guy (a hacker, an extortionist, a serial killer, a combo - you choose). She will have to resolve to defeat him herself - there's no 'buddy' waiting to bail her out. In this case, the bad guy extorts money from women who have lost rich, but unpleasant, husbands in 'untimely deaths' - deaths he caused, 'on spec' - that is, on 'speculation' that the women will gladly pay a commission to be rid of the villainous 'ex'. It's not an entirely new idea - Alfred Hitchcock used a similar twist in his old TV mystery show.The difference here is that the villain claims to be able to implicate poor Brooke in the murder-for-hire. That part is stretchy. Nonetheless, the camera work is nifty (reminding me of a Director using tribute-type camera angles to echo the genre), and the gadgetry makes for interesting - if implausible - entertainment.It took me a while to realize that the 'killer' had his victims 'over a barrel' - they paid, instead of going to the Police. No wonder they don't want to talk to Brooke when she starts investigating these cases herself: these 'victims' are complicit in a crime. It's an intriguing kind of 'con' - you can't go to the Police with your story, after you pay. hmmmmmmmmmmmm.While the computer and technical abilities of the perpetrator are strictly sci-fi, we saw a similar device used in a big-budget British mini-series with John Hannah entitled 'Amnesia'. The bad guy's ability to produce phony tech data was essential to moving the plot forward, and building the suspense to a surprising climax. The device isn't as well orchestrated in 'Trophy Wife', but it serves the same purpose: it keeps our hero fighting to get her story believed.Finally: life has a way of imitating art.. as silly as the plot might seem, there are fraud, and murder-for-profit cases in the true-life crime annals that seem stranger than anything we've read in fiction.So, I gave the film a 7 - for the 'heroine-battles-super-bad-guy-B-movie-suspense' genre.
JaneDoe6147 I thought this was a good film for the LMN channel. It had me guessing throughout.Like HOW did this guy get to listen to all the transmissions? How did he get to hook into all the surveillance cameras? How was he able to leave work at free will while being on the payroll? Was his motivation merely money? I loved the ending when there was retribution, and really wanted to smack his face when he broke into the prison's computer system to make phone calls. (And WHY was he able to merely roam about the prison like that?) I gave it a "9" because it did have me wanting to see more. And I really liked it.
fiore2 I'm sorry, this movie is very bad.I just watched this on Lifetime so I should have known better. As much as I love looking at Brooke Burns, this movie is terrible.Let's start with the screenplay. Horrible. Completely not believable. The whole premise of the story is ridiculous. Could something like this go on? Maybe. But the way the screenplay is written, there's just no way. It's just so outrageous. Actually, it's comical when you watch it. The acting is pretty funny as well.If you want to laugh at bad writing, bad filming, bad screenplay, watch this movie. It should be shown in all filming 101 classes about what NOT to do in film-making.

Similar Movies to Murder on Spec