BEFORE: Tonight Denzel plays a police chief in the Florida Keys, and we move the Denzel Washington Commemmorative Comic-Con Countdown Clock (patent pending) to 6.
THE PLOT: A Florida police chief must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under suspicion.
AFTER: Denzel plays Matthias Whitlock, who ends up in a situation with so many conflicts of interest that I lost count of them all. He's in the middle of getting a divorce from a female police officer, and he's sleeping with another woman, who's married to a hospital security guard. His girlfriend has terminal cancer, and is trying to get money for experimental treatments - but when she can't sell her insurance policy, she makes Whitlock the beneficiary (wouldn't that just raise a lot of questions, after she dies?)
Whitlock makes a really bad decision, giving her evidence money, I suppose he's figuring that by the time it's needed for trial, he'd have the money from her insurance. (This makes no sense, since the exact money would be needed for the trial, serial numbers and such, and he completely destroys the chain of evidence)
Without giving away too much, let's just say that Whitlock ends up needing to find that money, and figure out what exactly happened to his girlfriend - before the other cops in the investigation (led by his ex-wife, of course) realize that he's got means, motive, and opportunity. But when evidence starts pointing to him, Whitlock destroys evidence, removes evidence from a scene, and obstructs justice in other ways - how is all that better than coming clean and admitting that he knew this woman?
This is the second film in a row where Denzel plays a cop being framed - is this a coincidence or the start of a trend?
So many elements here are either predictable, or ridiculous, or both - they're prediculous! Whitlock keeps ending up at the wrong place at the wrong time, and key witnesses keep identifying him. Pointing out that some people think all black men look alike only goes so far - did he ever think of, I don't know, changing his shirt or something? And when a body is found, no one even thinks to check dental records, despite the fact that the deceased worked in a DENTIST'S OFFICE!
Poor Dean Cain (as the wife-beating husband) - after playing Superman on TV for years in the 90's show "Lois & Clark", it seems like he thought he had to play a bunch of scumbags to break out of his squeaky-clean image...
Also starring Eva Mendes (last seen in "The Spirit") as the ex-wife cop, Sanaa Lathan (last seen in "Alien vs. Predator"), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox from "Star Trek: Enterprise"), with a cameo from Nora Dunn.
RATING: 5 out of 10 bungalows
What, so bad it doesn't even get a rating?
ReplyDeleteSorry...fell asleep in front of the computer.
ReplyDelete100% true. I woke up for work one day last week to find the office light on and John completely out cold on his chair....
ReplyDelete