Reviews

I saw this movie when it first came out on television. At the time, and still today, male rape is rarely spoken about. It is under reported even more than crimes against women. I found this little gem at Big Lots in Huntington Beach California for only $1.50...It does not come in the fancy book style DVD package, but in a little cardboard holder. Crenna's picture is on the cover, under the title Deadly Justice. Hearst owns the rights. It is in the video section. Richard Crenna was always one of my favorite actors and he had a lot of guts to take on this subject matter. Meredith Baxter has a small but important part as the rape counselor. At the end Beck becomes a speaker to graduating police cadets about how rape can happen to anyone, even a man, even a cop. Great movie!!!

I wish the filmmakers had spent more time on the life of George Reeves. Including his early years and the beginning of his career. Over half the movie seemed preoccupied with the skinny Detective Simo, played by Brody. His low rent life, and the second case he was investigating with the crazy man who ultimately murders his wife, were unnecessary and distracting. And why would a cute blonde actress hang out with a poor, unattractive, rude detective? Diane Lane did do a fantastic job, and Ben Affleck came across well in showing Reeves as a frustrated shouldabeen major star. In fact, Reeves is as well known, if not better known today, than many of the major stars of his time. I saw this at the Big Newport, a huge theater, and only about 15 other people were in the giant auditorium to watch it with us. Several left before the ending. I think Lane should get a nomination for her part, and that's the best I can say about this film.

Near the middle of the film, Neddy recalls how he met his rich wife, Lucinda. He was in steerage, sneaked up to first class, and there she was... I have seen this film 3 times, and still find it depressing, yet totally intriguing. I think I have finally, possibly figured out some of it, (not where Neddy has been for two years). Near the start, one of the wives he flirts with denigrates Lucinda as "President of the League of Women Voters", which Neddy does not seem to comprehend. He obviously is unaware of the passage of time, although his neighbors consistently refer to how long it has been. When he gets to the third house, an older woman there tells Neddy this is her house now, and that Neddy never visited or called her son in the hospital. Neddy does not seem to know what she is talking about, although this house belonged to his friend, this same woman's son. At another house, the hot dog wagon he painted for his kids has been bought at a white elephant sale. He still thinks it's his...Neddy has a big mind block, but what caused it? Janice Rule tells him, "You were thrown out of your golden playpen!" Which seems like his wife kicked him out of the marriage for philandering, but there is something else even worse... At the recreation pool, Howie and the other "working class" people speak of his daughters in the past tense. Not like they have left town, but possibly have died. I think Neddy lost his daughters, friend and wife after a tragedy, divorce and mental collapse. Not a happy ending. But Burt looked hot all the way "home"...:-)

Barbara Stanwyck was in her late thirties when she played Phyllis, and wore a wig, but she looks every inch the seductive femme fatal. The only flaw I personally see in this film is the fact that Neff starts to fall for the immature stepdaughter, who is so daffy she already has a boyfriend that treats her like dirt. Phyllis's husband is also not the kind of guy that garners your compassion, even when they kill him. Although they don't show how Neff actually kills the husband from the backseat, or talk about it, it seem plausible that Neff broke his neck. After all, a knife wound would rule out the possibility of an accident, and there was no gun shot. I grew up in Glendale, Ca. and several scenes in this film were shot in the the same town in the 40's. Not everything has changed all that much geographically. I love old movies that show LA as it was. The obvious father/son relationship between Neff and Edward G. Robinson makes it so much more exciting. It's amazing that Robinson's character, who is so quick to feel the "little man" in his stomach when anything is wrong, would fail to notice the character flaws in Neff, even before the murder. I guess Phyllis just brought out the underlying dormant evil that was always in Neff. But her evil was never dormant, up until the moment when Neff has a gun at her chest and she tells him she couldn't pull the trigger on her own gun again to finish him off. Too late now, "lady"...

Boy, they sure wanna sell us that Lexus, don't they? I'll bet the car manufacturer was expecting people to be lining up around the block for a copy of Tom's car! I did like the scenes with the vertical freeway systems going up the sides of the buildings, (instead of aircars). I also liked the mall entrance retina scanner, that bombarded Anderton with "personalized advertising", sort of a verbal version of the spam that we all get in our email. But I thought it was stupid that the Gap sold exactly the same styles of clothes that we all wear now. I do think the movie should have ended sooner. *Possible Spoilers* I still can't figure out why Max VonSydow had Anderton set up to meet the fake kidnapper of his son. Why would he want Anderton out of the way? Anderton never knew VonSydow had murdered the mother of Agatha the precog, until after he was set up, near the end of the film. Also, who was the real kidnapper of Anderton's son? I think it was the "surgeon" who told Tom about how he had wanted revenge against him for being sent to prison, while he was under the drug influence just before the eyeball switch. All in all, far too bleak a future for me to live in...

Just goes to show you, if you have an affair with a married person, it's not a good idea to invite their angry spouse in for a drink... I enjoyed seeing Richard Gere and Diane Lane together again. Their last outing was "The Cotton Club" and both of them have matured very nicely, thank you. SPOILER ALERT I didn't find it believable that Lane's character would be so stupid as to leave sexy underwear that she's planning on wearing to her lover's house out in the open for her husband to see. I also keep thinking, that if she'd just given her hubby a good time in the bathtub, he would never have had her followed... The ending made little sense either. The police would never have been able to prove anything without a confession, so why give up their lives (and that irritating kid of theirs)by spilling their guts to the cops? If that is what they did...we never find out, do we?