Review of Web of Deception

I never thought I'd ever watch a TV movie, let alone write up a glowing review. Admittedly, I didn't watch Web of Deception on TV, but on its excellent Hearst Entertainment DVD. When interspersed with commercials, this 93-minutes feature would undoubtedly become 120 – far too long to maintain suspense for its somewhat unbelievable storyline and its incessant over-use of distractively unflattering close-ups of its aged hero. But on DVD, the plot not only moves fast enough, but the hero played by a jittery Powers Boothe even seems far more sympathetic and we become genuinely involved in his life-and-death predicament. In fact, some of the shots directed by Richard Colla are really inventive. Overall, Colla does an excellent job in arousing our interest and keeping our eyes fastened on the screen. All this, of course, would all be lost in a telecast where the plot was pierced by 101 irrelevant commercials.