Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
pleasantly surprised at more twists than i predicted, July 28, 2007
it is a cop action movie that feels like a open ended mystery (the audience doesn't know who did it and has to figure it out as the main character does).
It has several interesting and, to me, unexpected twists. Worth watching as closely as you would to Columbo or Perry Mason, not shallowly like a strictly action genre.
I appreciated this, these twists and false rabbit holes, it not only kept the movie moving and interesting but were deep enough that i missed several, a real treat.
I hope that the world isn't like the movie, that our cities aren't built by people like this with such greedy motivations, but as i get older, i wonder more and hope less for the good to triumph.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Decent film, draws you in, good original story, July 26, 2007
I missed this one in the theaters, but now got the chance to get it on DVD. Not bad. Ray Liotta plays a District attourny Ford Cole in the middle of a campaign for mayor when crisis hits. His beautiful Assistant DA, Jolene Blalock, gets caught up in a "self defense" killing at her appartment. How is this going to reflect on the DA, will it hurt his Campaingn against crime, particularly organized crime. The film takes off from there, having plenty of twists and turns, but this DA finds himself in a struggle with time and in a confusing game tracking down what actually happened this night at his assistant DA's appartment...and it has connections to what he always wanted, the Kingpin crime lord.
It was entertaining, nice pace and action/drama. Nudity/sex scenes not really needed and overdone, and I caught on to what the ending would be about midway through, but the story was good enough to keep me drawn in just to make sure I was right. Check this one out, another overlooked film with Ray Liotta, who had another good film a couple years back with "controll" that had a short theater life. If you say that film, than this one you'll like as well.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
[3.5]--"All you need is love, sex, pain, and the rain.", August 22, 2007
Filmed in 2003 but kept on the shelf until now, "Slow Burn" is a so-so film noir that includes plenty of bewildering twists. Screenwriter-director Wayne Beach directorial debut keeps things moving at a steady pace while managing to generate a reasonable amount of suspense every now and then. The story focuses on committed District Attorney Ford Cole (Ray Liotta), whose potential mayoral career is on the line after his assistant D.A. and lover Nora Timmer (Jolene Blalock) becomes involved in the murder of Isaac Duperde (Mekhi Phifer), a local CD vendor who she claims attempted to rape her. The case, however, grows more mysterious with the sudden appearance of Luther Pinks (LL Cool J), a close friend of the victim who assures Cole that Isaac and Nora were in fact lovers, and that she persuaded him to reveal the whereabouts of an elusive criminal gang lord. With time running out, it is now up to Cole to uncover the truth if he wants to save his career.
After watching this I personally thought Beach overloads his plot (from a story by himself and Anthony Walton) with successive twists that are too confusing to follow, thus destroying the credibility of his characters. The mystery elements of the story never really gel, and its much more confusing than it has to be. This is especially true considering the fact that the end of the movie is pretty much given away in the middle of the film, and I was sitting there waiting for my guess to pan out... which it did. They did, however, switch it up on me a few times with some red herrings here and there. It's still fun to watch, but some tighter writing would have put the film over the top.
The best parts of the movie are the concepts and philosophies dealing with race that are present in the film. The most intriguing of these is the concept of "passing," a situation where someone can pass as a member of another race, perhaps even two. As far as I know, this concept has only been played with in comedic films that make fun of the idea rather than explore the impact it can have on people's everyday lives where race is such a big factor. The ideas presented in the film are subtle, realistic, and never in your face. Those not interested in racial issues can skip over the ideas without a second thought, but they would never really get the full impact of the movie as much of the cultural aspects of the film are not told explicitly, but are implied, relying on the viewer's own concepts of race and culture.
The popularity of the ensemble cast is probably what kept "Slow Burn" from going straight to video, even though none of the film's big-name actors -- except Ray Liotta -- live up to their reputation. As usual, Liotta imbues his character with the right amount of charisma and strength, but he fails to receive the necessary support from the inadequate LL Cool J and Mekhi Phifer. Also in the cast is the excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor, but his character is too underdeveloped to make any sort of impact. "Slow Burn," is just a plain old crime thriller and may not be a total waste of time or money, but it is in-arguably a slight disappointment -- mostly because of its sub par screenplay. If you view it as a relative cultural issues playing major parts in the events of people's lives, its amazing. Somewhere in the middle, you will find the true nature of Slow Burn.
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