Hey folks, Harry here... and here is a warning for you folks... The review of this film is a bit mixed... feeling there was a lot of good and a little bad. The problem is, Evelyn... to address the bad had to go into intensive spoiler territory... as a result, I can not recommend that you good folks read this... Instead, this is a review more for the filmmakers... feedback from one viewer that wanted the movie to be better. Now if reading spoilers to MYSTERIES is your thing... please, by all means keep the knowledge you gain here to yourself and quiet... Don't be an ass... Don't go posting it without MAJOR SPOILER WARNINGS! Don't be that ass that we all hate. From the sound of the review... at the very least we have another wonderful performance from Morgan Freeman... and Michael Wincott... who just doesn't get near the amount of work that he should... He's wonderful. Anyway... if you like spoilers... continue... if not, return to the main page and avoid these talk backs... Here's Evelyn...
Hey Harry,
I just came back from a test screening of the follow up to KISS THE GIRLS, ALONG CAME A SPIDER. I call it a follow up because it just wouldn't fit to call it a sequel, as it has nothing to do with KISS THE GIRLS, but that Morgan Freeman plays the same character. The basic premise is that Gary Soneji, played by Michael Wincott, a teacher at a very posh private school has kidnapped the daughter of a Senator. He gets Freeman's Alex Cross into the mix basically so he can appreciate how brilliant he is. Monica Potter (CON AIR) plays Jezzie, the Secret Service agent assigned to the little girl and Cross keeps her around because she's an excellent material witness. (I'll save any further plot for the spoiler filled section to come)
The good stuff - Michael Wincott has finally gotten a really meaty role here. After a great performance in THE CROW, I've only seen him since in ALIEN: RESURRECTION, which would have been a much better film had he been kept around for longer then 10 minutes. Here, he gets an intelligently written bad guy. He has lots of fun with the role and the audience seemed to just eat up that wonderful four pack a day voice and those laughing, creepy eyes. His profile should go way up after this one.
Morgan Freeman is good, as well, but it's nothing less then we expect and nothing new. ANother thing I liked about the film was the somewhat intelligent use of computer technology (unlike certain recent atrocities cough *Hollow Man* cough). There are some really clever scenes, with Soneji setting up a trail and Cross following and figuring it out. This is when the film is at it's strongest. The writers really seem to be attempting to overcome many of the cliches of the detective thriller genre, which I think is great. Example - the kidnapped girl is really smart and devises an great escape, but the kidnapper is even smarter, which he should be. Another example is with the Dylan Baker character (another great and underused actor). He plays the FBI agent who, of course, is at odds with Cross from their first meeting. But they have him turn around on their second meeting and apologize - very original.
Now for the bad stuff - and this is going to hurt. First the minor points. Penelope Ann Miller as the girl's mother, I'm sorry to say, is pretty awful. I've always actually kinda liked her, but here the performance is completely muddled. Almost every line she said got a laugh, and I don't think they were supposed to. I honestly could not tell you if she was supposed to be an over-the-top comedic character or a serious one. This really needs to be fixed, and my best advice would be to cut most of her scenes. They're totally unnecessary to the plot. If they were meant to get laughs, they're not played up enough and it's confusing to the tone of the picture. Speaking of the tone of the picture, was it really supposed to get this many laughs at emotional moments? Some of the scenes are so cliche ridden and stiffly acted that the audience was chuckling all over. And I'm really confused by the director's choice to have 95% of the scenes take place during the day and very well lit. It takes away so much of the suspense and makes it kind of bland to always be able to see everything that's going on. Maybe that was another cliche they were trying to bust.
Okay, now up until this point I have not discussed the performance of Monica Potter. This is because, in order to do this, and to talk about my MAJOR problem with the film I have to talk about the end. Normally I would never do this, but since it really needs to be discussed and there is a book out already, I'm going to do it. Harry, feel free to put SPOILER warnings up the ass if you choose to post this.
Now, I'll now tell you the rest of the plot. Cross figures out that Soneji is just using the girl to get to her friend, Dimitri, the son of the President of Russia. See, Soneji, is just a copycat killer who wants Dimitri to be his Lindburgh baby so he can be famous. This is an interesting premise, which never gets fully developed, because of what happens next. Soneji's attempt to kidnap Dimitri is unsuccessful because Cross and Jezzie intercept, so instead, he decides to ask for $10 million in diamonds. Cross is confused because he knows Soneji isn't in it for the money. Later, after Soneji is taken care of, we find out that it was Jezzie who did the diamond ransom thing and she has taken the girl from Soneji's boat.
Okay, now why is this necessary? Why does this need to happen?! The answer is IT DOESN'T! It has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the plot! It doesn't change anything about the previous 90 minutes of film and it enhances none of the characters. The twist barely got a reaction out of the audience - but it was mostly snickers. Up to that point, I thought Monica Potter did a decent job playing a more intelligent version of the insecure, inexperienced cop, but she just can't handle the switch. She can't hold the screen in these scenes and they totally fall flat as a result. Everyone was left sitting there thinking "why, in God's name?!" and "how?" If this Jezzie chick never cared about the girl in the first place and was a bad person all along, would she really just sit there for years waiting to see if a Soneji would happen to come along and happen to kidnap the insignificant girl she is watching. It's so silly I can't even comprehend. But I could be wrong, I mean, DOUBLE JEOPARDY made like $80 million and NOTHING in that made sense.
So, basically, they've got some good elements, but they REALLY need to do some reshoots or this won't make anybody happy. My personal opinions is more Michael Wincott, less Penelope Ann Miller and RESHOOT THE ENDING. Okay, that's it for now. >{? Your Truly,
Evelyn
