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• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005NGAQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,173 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4 1/2 Stars actually - This DVD is a bargain!, October 18, 2004

By 

Mark J. Fowler "Let's Play Two!" (Jacksonville, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Along Came a Spider (DVD)

At the time that I am writing this review I see 140 of these DVDs listed used starting at $2.98. I would consider it a bargain for 3 times that!

To the movie:
I have not read the Alex Cross novels, so I am not able to comment on the movies based on them being faithful or not to the book. I HAVE seen both "Along Came A Spider" and "Kiss the Girls" and I enjoyed "Spider" much more, even though KTG was a good stab at the thriller genre.

Morgan Freeman inhabits Alex Cross more completely, and I suspect that my appreciation of his performance was a combination of his wonderfully intelligent acting and Lee Tamahori's direction. This version of Cross is intelligent, compassionate, brave, and scarcely takes a wrong step. He'd be a good teacher and a good person to go get a beer with. And if some psychotic killer were on your trail - he's the guy you'd want tracking the killer.

*WARNING! Silence of the Lambs Spoiler in this paragraph!*
The writers of thrillers have begun doing cartwheels trying to out "surprise" all that came before. I can't pinpoint when this began.... but do you remember the surprise in "Silence of the Lambs" when Hannibal Lector suddenly appears from beneath the sheets in the ambulance? The story here throws in several twists, and although in the lesser thriller you can often sense the "twists" a country mile before it occurs, I found myself genuinely surprised several times.

It is worth mentioning both the character and performance given by young Mika Boorem as Megan Rose, the kidnapped daughter of a U.S. Senator. In many thrillers adults often behave as if they've been lobotomized, with victims giving killers ample opportunity to have their way and with killers who give the hero a boring explanation of their motives as they also give the hero plenty of time to get the drop on them. Megan Rose is no such character. She is smart, resourceful, and after being kidnapped she plainly has no plans other than escaping. A handful of times she thwarts the villains in ways that would not be thought of by any of the adults you see on "Jerry Springer".

Monica Potter stands up adequately next to Morgan Freeman's powerful performance as Jezzie, the Secret Service Agent who was supposed to be guarding Megan when she is kidnapped suddenly by one of her teachers at her upscale prep school. It seemed a little odd to me that Alex Cross would be initially reluctant to form an alliance with a Secret Service Agent when in "Kiss The Girls" he doesn't have any problem with becoming investigative partners with an amateur - a medical intern.

There are several sequences which I found clever and suspenseful, such as the one in which a ransom of a thermos full of diamonds is transferred to the kidnapper - I always wonder how kidnappers think they're going to get away with it when they're trying to ransom - for you to get your loot you HAVE to go to where the loot is, right? And if the ransom is several million, won't the cops be waiting for you? The way THIS kidnapper overcomes this dillemma is ingenious.... and I read on the IMDB that this sequence was based on a similar sequence from "High and Low" by Kurosawa.

At one point Alex Cross finds himself in the kidnapper's house, looking at two years of work that went into developing the kidnapping plan and he plainly has some admiration.

"Imagine the patience...the dedication..." he murmurs.
Jezzie responds "You sound like an admirer."
"Well, he's like a spider. I happen to like spiders."

I happen to like movies with clever villains, clever resourceful victims, sequences that pay homage to Kurosawa, and smart characters and actors like Morgan Freeman.

Plus you can buy it for less than a rental at Blockbuster....

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "I am living proof, that a mind is a terrible thing", July 22, 2005

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Along Came a Spider (DVD)

I have to admit that I never quite understand why a director would decide to make a movie of a perfectly good suspense/mystery story (a best seller no less) and proceed to make wholesale modifications to the plot. It almost guarantees that a good piece of the audience will dislike the film simply because it diverges from the book and never even notice that it is a good film all on its own.

And it is a good film. Morgan Freeman does a superb job of portraying Detective Alex Cross as he tries to peel away the layers of a kidnapping that gets away from everyone - kidnapper and police alike. Gary Soneji(Michael Wincott), a teacher at a posh school for the children of the powerful, decides to improve his social standing by kidnapping Megan Rose (Mika Boorem), a senator's daughter. He has everything worked out in detail, including getting Cross out of of semi-retirement, in order to demonstrate Soneji's brilliance.

Joined by Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter). who was the secret service agent on duty when Soneji makes his move, Cross begins to sift through the details to try to understand Soneji enough to win Megan's Freedom. With each fact comes more confusion and the plot will zigzag all over the event horizon before the final confrontation. In many ways, this is a compelling combination of police procedural and suspense/psychotic film as the film switches back and forth between Cross and Soneji. A lot of people get shot, but the film doesn't dwell on the gory parts.

Mika Boorem does a fantastic job as the kidnapped girl, by the way. She manages to find an unusual balance between fearful weakness and a surprising inner strength. The film is well directed in a nicely understated way. If it wasn't for the arbitrary changes to an already good plot Along Came A Spider would have been a real winner. But even so, the basic surprises are carried over from the book to the film, the work is good, and the popcorn is warm. If you like tricky detection tales, you'll find this film entirely satisfactory.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This spider's web is too sticky., September 26, 2001

By 

D. Litton (Wilmington, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Along Came a Spider (DVD)

If you happen to be a fan of "Kiss the Girls," the 1997 surprise hit thriller, then you may be a bit disappointed in its prequel, "Along Came a Spider," which pits Dr. Alex Cross against yet another kidnapper who has an agenda to be dealt with. As Dr. Cross, Morgan Freeman makes the film watchable at best, but the ominous presence of loopholes, twisted logic, and the overall way in which the movie toys with the audience, results in slight disappointment.

The movie opens with a chase sequence that serves little purpose other than to set up a time of emotional turmoil in Cross's life, after the death of his partner as a result of this pursuit. His personal war against himself is put on hold when he discovers that a young girl, the daughter of a Senator, has been kidnapped, and the kidnapper wants Cross on the case.

Teaming up with Secret Service Agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), who was the child's guardian at the private school she attended, the two of them begin sorting through the clues and details involving the kidnapping, trying to get a lock down on the whereabouts of the teacher they believe responsible. To say that the movie makes a mistake by revealing the kidnapper's identity is a misfire, but the fact that we know who he is doesn't enhance the plot, either.

The movie is a sea of loopholes, from the solving of clues to the realization that the kidnapper may not be working alone. Consider a scene in which Cross goes through computer video in order to find a clue to the villain's whereabouts. He goes from searching through a classroom to a live computer camera that is based in the kidnapper's apartment, without any logical explanation for this transition other than a mere piece of dialogue from an extra to explain that what he is looking at is no longer recorded video.

In another scene, Cross has a conversation with the kidnapper about a ransom exchange that took place in an earlier sequence on a subway train. The amount of the money was a mere ten million dollars, but Cross congratulates him for his retrieval of twelve million. This is one of the movie's more admirable twists, letting us in on the fact that since our villain seems to know nothing of this ransom, then there must be someone else involved.

There are plot points that work, and those that don't, and in the end, the movie has toyed with us a little too much. "Kiss the Girls" toyed with our expectations, too, but allowed us time to build our own conclusion before throwing it back at us, all the while keeping our interest peaked. "Spider" toys with us in ways that leave little time to draw any sort of conclusion about what is going on, leading up to a particularly effective surprise twist ending that doesn't cheat according to the rules the plot has set up, though is somewhat hindered by the heightened disinterest in the lead-up.

It's good to see Morgan Freeman back in such fine form; as Dr. Alex Cross, this is the Freeman we all know and love. His ability to instill calm in the most tense of situations is remarkable, and his solving of the crimes is shown in an intelligent, capable light. I will refrain from commenting on the acting of Monica Potter, so as not to reveal what happens, but I gather that the audience will make their own decision about her acting in the beginning and the end once the ending arrives. Michael Wincott is an ideal villain, and however little of him we get to see, his performance is remarkably chilling.

In the end, "Along Came a Spider" is worth it for Morgan Freeman's acting, and some key plot points, but the overall effect the movie has is disappointing. The plot twists of the movie feel more like obstacles than advancements, while the central mystery never reaches a fully interesting fever pitch until the end. There are things that work and things that don't in this film; unfortunately, they never reach a healthy medium.