RKO Pictures, Foresight Unlimited
Jesse Metcalfe, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Douglas
This film is available on “Watch Instantly” on Netflix. This is one of my favorite genres, the courtroom drama. A young reporter just knows that the DA is falsifying evidence so that he NEVER loses a murder case. So to try to prove it, this nut decides to frame himself in a murder case to prove that he’s falsifying evidence. Gee, how could that go wrong?
People either love this or hate it. I find myself somewhere in between. I guess it’s because I love courtroom dramas, and the fact that there are some really big holes in the story are not really that important. If you ride it out and ignore the stupid things that nit-pickers like to fuss about, the story is kind of fun.
It’s low budget, and I’m not sure how they got Michael Douglas to do it. He must be friends with the director, and he didn’t really have much to do. But they are a few twists and turns. Oh, and I guess I should mention this is a remake of at 1956 film by the same name. I haven’t seen that one, but I hear it shows up on Turner Classic Movies once in a while. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.
So the point of the movie isn’t as some think, the value of direct versus circumstancial evidence. The point is more about false evidence. But it’s not really about that. Twists and turns happen and for a while you’re not sure what’s up anymore. I rated this movie in the middle, as I enjoyed the plot twists and the courtroom antics, and the car chase wasn’t so bad either. But it’s not a great movie either. It could have been paced a bit better. All in all though, I’m glad I slipped this into my “instant” queue. The price was right!
