Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

bkoganbing Richard Jordan who has played a number of really psychotic villains is the main reason to see The Mean Season. He quite steals the film from Kurt Russell a crime reporter and Mariel Hemingway who is Russell's girlfriend and the last woman Jordan stalks.Russell has truly grown to dislike his job on a big city paper in this case Miami where he's gotten a specialty in crime reporting, the more lurid the better. He's considering an offer from a small town Colorado paper to take over as editor.That's when things get interesting. Jordan is a serial killer who Russell has been writing about and in his twisted way considers Kurt to be some kind of personal publicist for him and his peers. Now he starts calling to give him heads up exclusives knowing that this will lead to Mariel's own abduction.That's the one thing about criminals of the psychotic mind. They don't reason like the rest of us. It sounds wild and improbable the notion that Jordan has, but that's the hard part for FBI and local profiler's jobs, getting in those sick minds to see how they work.Jordan is one sick and twisted puppy. The rest of the cast is fine, but he really stands out in The Mean Season.

SnoopyStyle Malcolm Anderson (Kurt Russell) is a burned-out newspaper reporter for the Miami Journal looking to quit. His boss Bill Nolan (Richard Masur) has him cover the murder of a young woman. Andy Porter (Joe Pantoliano) is his friend and fellow reporter. Ray Martinez (Andy Garcia) is the friendly cop investigating the case but his partner Phil Wilson (Richard Bradford) distrusts him. His grade school teacher girlfriend Christine Connelly (Mariel Hemingway) is planning to move back home to Colorado. Then Malcolm gets a call from the killer claiming to want to help him. He claims that there will be 3 female and 2 male victims. Malcolm becomes part of the story as his relationship falls apart. Then he is contacted by Mike Hilson (Richard Jordan) with information.It's a nice performance from Kurt Russell. This is a simple serial killer movie. There isn't any great style but has a good sense of impending doom. That probably has more to do with Richard Jordan's voice. The stormy weather motif also adds to the dark tones. It builds to a good storm-filled climax. There isn't much of a plot or an investigation. I do like the hard-boiled sensibilities a lot even if the movie is filled with those clichés. There are a couple of twists that is a bit too obvious. Overall, Russell is good, the plot is unremarkable and the brooding tone is compelling.

Spikeopath Malcolm Anderson is an intrepid reporter for a Miami newspaper, growing frustrated with the job he is thinking of moving away. As it turns out, the latest story he is on is going to involve him far more than he could ever have imagined.The Mean Season has a good cast working well, the direction is solid and safe, and the location work is very pleasing. Sadly the technical aspects of the piece far outweigh its substance, for The Mean Season brings nothing new to a constantly tired genre, even allowing for it being a mid eighties piece, the turns in the plot had been done to death long before this Kurt Russell effort hit the screens. Highlight in the picture is a fine bad guy turn from Richard Jordan, genuine menace portrayed from his voice work to his actual psychical acting, but sadly the script fails to let his character get fully into evil territory. There is a reason that something like Se7en nine years later became such a popular movie, because it's bringing new stuff to the table, a serial killer film to get under your skin, all The Mean Season does is scratch the surface, and after it's more than great first quarter, that is a major let down. 5/10

Jonathon Dabell Kurt Russell has spent most of his career playing a big, dumb oaf (Overboard, Big Trouble In Little China, Tango & Cash, etc.), so it's refreshing to see him in a more serious role. The Mean Season is taken from a novel entitled In The Heat Of The Summer by John Katzenbach (whose other books include Just Cause, later filmed with Sean Connery). The film is a fairly engrossing, if familiar, serial killer story, set in Florida just as the summer ends and the stormy season begins.Miami Journal reporter Malcolm Anderson (Russell) writes a piece about the murder of a woman. Malcolm is getting bored of his job at the Journal and plans to move to pastures new with his girlfriend, teacher Christine Connelly (Mariel Hemingway). However, he receives a mysterious phone call from the murderer, congratulating him on his report and informing him of several more murders that he intends to carry out. Seems the killer wants to use Malcolm as his "conduit to the public". More murders follow, as promised, and each time Malcolm is given exclusive information from the killer. Soon, Malcolm is the toast of the journalistic world - every reporter wants his story, every TV station wants to interview him, and there's even talk of him being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. But the psycho at the centre of the whole business is enraged that his acts are being overlooked in favour of Malcolm's new-found celebrity status. And so he plans to teach Malcolm a lesson.....There's a little suspense in the story, especially when the unseen killer is on the phone to Malcolm. Also the gradual disintegration of Malcolm and Christine's relationship (he's seduced by the media spotlight; she wants him to end his liaisons with the murderer) adds a further layer to the story. The main problem with The Mean Season is that its second-half drifts into the kind of silliness that the first half is so careful to avoid. After setting up an exciting and intriguing premise, this comes as a disappointment. The killer, who has been ruthlessly efficient to this point, suddenly becomes sloppy and tries to make his murders ludicrously elaborate (even though the story has already made it obvious that he's supposed to be unswervingly cold-blooded). Also, the film can't resist one of those clichéd endings - a final frisson, if you like, which has been an overused device since Carrie (1976) - in which the killer "returns from the dead" to terrorise his victims one final time. The Mean Season is an OK thriller, but frustratingly it never quite becomes the first-rate movie that it might have been.