The acting was static, the pace was slow and I had it figured out a quarter of the way through the movie. It was tortures enough on the small screen, I can't image having to pay to watch this on the big screen. The key players could have mailed in their part....in fact I got the impression they would have preferred to do that. The dialogue was bland, some of the procedures a little incredulous and more than a couple of plot points that were left hanging, i.e. who did the pathologist call after Jessica gave a sample of her blood (suspect it was Samuel L, but that is never clear)and why did it take longer than 24 hours to process Jessica's blood sample. This is strictly a paint-by-numbers whodunit, unfortunately it's not a very good paint-by-numbers whodunit.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Murder by Numbers
(2002)
Screen Play by the Numbers
4 February 2003
An over the top remake of the Leopold/Loeb murder, but Compulsion did it better, Rope is far superior and Swoon has it head-and-shoulders over this formula movie. Sandra Bullock's acting and the sub-plot of her personal problems are distracting. Had the story line concentrated on the murderers and the murder and the director strove to be a storyteller instead of some pseudo-psychologist, maybe he could have created some empathy for the characters, but instead he only created indifference for the people and what happens to them.
Space Cowboys
(2000)
The pleasure of watching four old pro's entertain you
20 January 2003
The storyline is secondary when you have four seasoned veterans like Eastwood, Garner, Sutherland and Jones entertaining you. They have the ability to raise the level of any writing with their professionalism. At no time could you detect any scene stealing. All four are comfortable in their own abilities and don't need to resort to gimmicks or scene stealing. Eastwood is at his economic story-telling best behind the camera.
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