Customer Reviews

Jane Doe

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jane Doe originally aired on the USA Network in 2001, and finally it's made its way to DVD. I like this film, it has action, and an underlying story about a mother and son. Teri Hatcher does a great job, her first major role in sometime. There are some great one-liners, and to be honest, a few corny ones, but this is just entertainment, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. It makes for a darn good 90 minutes viewing - watch it and see what you think...

"Jane Doe", for a made-for-television film, actually does have rather decent production values and the direction is overall pretty solid. Predictably, the film falters with uninteresting characters and a derivative plotline. Further, though Teri Hatcher is impressively attractive, she is unquestionably out of her element here. I found myself laughing at her repeated wails of "Sick freak!" mere moments into the film. High drama isn't her strong suit and she's better relegated to pedestrian fare like "Desperate Housewives" (where hammy performances are par for the course).

Ridiculously, her character's name is actually Jane Doe and not an alias, as mentioned in the film. I'm not entirely certain what the scriptwriter felt this added to the story, and yes, Rob Lowe plays her ex-husband "David Doe". Their son, Michael, is unbearably obnoxious and his incessant whining is heard throughout the film. As irritating at the character is, things only get worse after it's revealed that this puerile brat is an "operative for the DIA" along with his father. After the first fifteen minutes I was left hoping he had died at the beginning.

Sometimes the film brings to mind the old "Batman" series, in which the villans would contrive bizarre contraptions to kill the protagonists rather than a more direct, effective manner. At one point in "Jane Doe", Hatcher and her son are riding in the back of a cargo van. After the vehicle very obviously pulls to the side of the road, the son helpfully offers "We're stopping!". Within a moment the van takes off again, but the driver has bailed, leaving behind a strange rope system across the steering wheel. The kid looks through the glass window into the cab and - you guessed it - they're able to avoid certain disaster.

Oh, don't worry about me spoiling the plot, you've heard it all before in better films like "Eagle Eye" and "Enemy of the State". Who knows, in another time "Jane Doe" may have ended up in theatres. It's not much of a stretch considering soulless, like-minded films like "Cellular" and "Paparazzi" actually did inhabit theatres at one point.

The bottom line: only watch "Jane Doe" if you consistently ask very little from your entertainment time. There are a multitude of superior films that provide a similar action plot with much more imagination. This is only of interest to devoted Hatcher or Lowe fans. I give "Jane Doe" a generous two stars only because I've seen far worse films than this before.

The film is hard to beat. From the first shot you are forced to experience the suspense taste: Terri Hachter due a phone call is forced to follow strictly every little indication for her son's life. A voice in off in the other side of the line orders her , the kinetic and frenetic rhythm will lead us finally to a brief climax though we suspect is not but the peak of the iceberg. There is much more; since she has been fired from her previous job, certain dark forces will work out on her and suddenly she will be blamed of a murder she didn't commit. The rest of the story will involve to her ex -husband, who is seriously implied in all that huge enigma.

Despite there are some lagoons in the script such that obvious sequence in which Terri enters to her previous job without any kind of problem - and since we know she is chased for FBI, police and the Security Personal which you and me assume slept or perhaps in Holidays, but I guess it was July Fourth or The First Day of the Year- or the extremely expected and more than obvious sequence of the ambush near the helicopter, the film keeps to maintain the interest through the way and entertains, without extreme intellectual effort from the spectator.

I just spotted the name of Teri Hatcher (recently memorable in "Spy Kids") on the cover of this actioner. That sounds all the more interesting when you hear that one of the producer is Joel Silver, famous Hollywood player behind "Matrix." But the result is just exactly what reminded me of its made-for-TV origin -- no imagination, no originality -- despite the decent acting from Ms. Hatcher.

It starts very promising. Teri Hatcher's character Jane Doe is desperately trying to follow the orders given over phone, to retrieve her kidnapped boy Michael. The film plunges into thriller ala the third "Die Hard" flick, and Jane is ready to break the law if she had to. And she does, but it's too late to know that the kidnapping story is just the beginning of a long day.

It sounds good at first, but very soon the whole thing stops being interesting, with too many plot twists which you might find in "Swordfish" (yes, another Joel Silver production). But "Jane Doe" is clearly meant to outdo the labyrinthine plotting of John Travolta's villan, for there is some DIA (not DEA), there is Rob Lowe appearing and vanishing, there is conspiracy theory (and more than one) and so on and on. Frankly, I stopped to care in the middle of the story, being too confused.

As to its actions, don't expect much. As I said before, it's made for TV flick, and you know that soon enough, watching not-so-exciting car-crash or gun-shooting. At least, actioners like "Fair Game" had much explosions; here almost none. And about its corny dialogues, I have nothing to say except that the director is the writer of "Iron Eagle" series made in the 90s.

It is good to see Rob Lowe and Teri Hatcher still handsome and beautiful. That makes me feel inevitably that they deserve much better than this average action flick.

This is an amazingly bad movie. No plot, bad acting, poor production. Warner Bros says it's 16X9 enchanced widescreen on the box, but they lied, probably to hype sales of this dog. It's 4:3, either P&S or full frame, I can't tell which. It's definately non-anamorphic. Shame on you WB.