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Kiss The Girls

Kiss The Girls

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Edge of your seat thriller!
Review: Morgan Freeman plays detective Alex Cross, who is on the hunt for a serial killer who calls himself Casanova. His only hope in catching the killer and rescuing his neice, Naomi, is the young woman who got away. This movie's filled with thrills, action, mystery, and great suspense. Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman deliver great performances. This movie is highly recommened to action, suspense and mystery movie fans. I guarntee it'll be a blast!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Movie
Review: Kiss the Girls is one of my all time favorite movies and I was thrilled to finally acquire the DVD.

The direction and plot of the film place it in a category with others such as Seven and Silence of the Lambs. If you're not into thrillers, this is definantly not a flick for you.

But if you are, then this one comes highly, highly recommended.

The story is set in the famous researh triangle of the Carolina's where beautiful, brilliant, and talented college women are being abducted from their homes. James Patterson's (see Along Came a Spider) famous detective Alex Cross takes on the case after his niece becomes one of the missing.

A fabulous thiller, just chilling enough to make you need a blanket while you watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I would give this a 12 on a scale of 1-10
Review: Morgan Freeman plays a Crime Scene Physcologist who leaves his jurisdiction to head to the college town in North Carolina, where his neice has been abducted by a serial killer/abductor. The intense criminal mind of the abductor feels he must capture smart, beautiful women and hold them captive until they fall inlove with him. If they disobey he ties them to trees for the wild animals. Ashley Judd plays an extremely smart doctor who gets abducted and then ultimately escapes. She then helps Morgan Freeman head up the investigation into the world of one sick mind. It's a very intensive thriller that will have you hanging on the edge of your seat and you won't know the true identity of the killer until the end. Ashely Judd gives her usual outstanding performance, as does Morgan Freeman. I'm not usually a thriller movie buff, but this one might just make me change my mind.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad considering...
Review: I add the considering because this is a serial killer movie and we've seen much better ones than this in recent years, including the absolutely brilliant Se7en, which launched the career of David Fincher. But overall, thanks to great acting, this one keeps afloat. Freeman is as good as you can expect from him every time and Ashley Judd is very good in the roll that basically MADE her. However, the two serial killer thing worked out so much better in the novel than it did in the movie because so many elements were left out. The killers in the book were both very dangerous and repulsive, but in the film, only Cassanova resonates anything and the other turns into a wannabe and it kind of ruins the mood.

Something that greatly surprised me was the excellent pacing throughout the entire picture. Even through the ending, which tries to be shocking but is really nothing new, the pacing is incredible and the movie feels so short for its two hour running time. That helps keep this movie entertaining since it could've easily gotten dull without keeping the excitement pumping. A lot of Gary Fleder's camera-work is pretty nifty and some of the action scenes are quite great. But unlike most killer genre movies that understand that the bad guys must, MUST be the most interesting aspect of the story, Kiss the Girls loses this when it tries to unsuccessfully juggle two killers. It worked out so much better in the book, but that's okay, because if they had put anything else into the story, it would've become overlong and possibly boring. All in all this deserves a look.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: an altogether nasty piece of work
Review: i watched this movie a few nights ago. i was looking for some mindless entertainment and for the most part this movie provided that. the plot is formulaic but the film is well-made nonetheless.

i have to say though that the eroticization of abduction and rape that happens in this movie--especially in the voice-over narration during the opening credits, as well as in the way in which the camera dwells on the bodies and faces of the abducted women--really disturbed me. the camera seemed to be unconsciously taking the killers' view-point.

this didn't seem to me to be in the service of any particularly interesting argument--unlike a genre classic like "the silence of the lambs" this movie is not trying to make its protgaonist or audience identify with a psychopath to some degree in order to learn something about themselves--but instead in the service of pure titillation.

this put me off enough that i would recommend not watching it. if you're looking for suspense thrillers there are enough out there that are as formulaic and provide the conventional jumps and thrills without participating in the very uncritical, unselfconscious narrative of violence against women that the protagonists in the movie are trying to end.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Taut Thriller with Great Characters, Thrills and Twists.
Review: What "Kiss the Girls" Lacks in Originality, It makes up for in Action, Thrills, Pacing, Performances; it makes up for it in Every way Possible. Morgan Freeman takes his performance in "Seven" and makes it Younger, Tougher and Less Cynical.

Morgan plays Alex Cross, a Forensic Psychiatrist who's Niece has been Abducted. Alex joins the Investigation into the Serial Killer believed responsible, He is known as "Casanova". He Abducts Strong Willed Women and keeps them in an Underground Cave. Ashley Judd co-stars as Kate Mctiernan, the next girl to be Abducted. This time, Casanova has Bitten off more than he can Chew, as Kate is a little Too strong willed. She escapes and teams up with Alex to catch Casanova.

Cary Elwes, Jeremy Piven and Brian Cox give Great Performances in Underwritten, Underused supporting roles. Freeman and Judd are the only Actors in the film who are given the Screen time to Shine, and Shine they do.

The Camerawork in the film is a real Standout..., Director Gary Fleder knows where the camera should be at all times, when to cut away, when to stay with the shot. He is the perfect mix between a Seasoned, Patient director and a Fast-Paced Music Video Director.

"Kiss the Girls" is a More than worthy entry into the Serial Killer Genre. Alex Cross is a Character that I hope to see more and more of, and I hope to see how "Along Came a Spider" turns out. (in which Morgan again plays Alex Cross)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Intense and gripping!
Review: A highly intensifying and intelligent suspense thriller, "Kiss the Girls" sets a precedent for the genre into which it is born. It has all the classical elements of a first rate thriller film: an involving story, a dark and unsettling tone, smart characters and a stellar cast. But what sets this movie apart from others of its kind is its superb intelligence, which contributes to the way the story moves, and a terrific cast that plays out their characters with unmatched superiority when it comes to dialogue and brain power.

As the movie opens to its beginning credits, a man is telling an unknown person about his past voyeurism over two teenage girls, both of which he kidnapped and one of which he killed because she rejected him. This is all done in a series of floating images, intermixed with a frightening score and the deep voice of the killer, whose voice never breaks in its seriousness. As the movie progresses, detective Alex Cross learns that his niece has been kidnapped, only a day after a woman's body has been discovered tied to a tree in a string of killings following abductions of numerous women. Since all of the women have not been found, Cross is able to hypothesize that the killer does not kill on a whim, but "collects" women and keeps them hidden from the rest of the world. This character really gives Morgan Freeman a chance to play the detective we all know he can be, and he does it with the same bravura that made his acting in "Seven" such a success.

Enter Kate McTiernan, a young medical intern who becomes the latest addition to "Casanova's" collection. She is kidnapped from her home and wakes up later to a dark room, where she is bound to a bed. After she learns that there are other women in other rooms close to her, she becomes more and more determined to escape, and succeeds in her task. After being in a coma, she makes acquaintance with Cross, who begins examining her mind and thoughts to find out what exactly happened to her as well as any clue as to the location where she was taken. As she begins remembering more clues, they begin an undercover hunt for the killer, making their way between Los Angeles and North Carolina in order to capture who they think is the killer. What they will ultimately discover is that they are dealing with more than what they originally think, and the results of their trophy may end up causing more harm than good.

The movie is based on the novel of the same name by James Patterson, who is one of the better modern suspense writers of our time. It is clear that the movie has captured the true core of the novel, because in watching it, I was able to see many of the different Patterson techniques. The movie is a true innovation in that it takes all of the basic elements of a thriller and bends them to its own satisfaction and liking. What we think is going to happen really turns out to be something else waiting in the wings, and once the secrets are revealed, all the stops are pulled out and the showdown is underway.

However original it may be, the film does derive a certain amount of inspiration from the film "Seven," which is a novice for it usage of heavily dark images and intensely damp and moldy settings that give the movie a dirty, unclean feel. "Girls" uses this similar technique as well, mostly during scenes of heightened suspense as well as sequences that involve the seduction of the kidnapped women by the elusive, mask-wearing "Casanova." Whenever he appears onscreen, there is always a shadow that falls on him, whether it be half of his form, or the lower half of his masked face. This adds so much more to the suspense and the unknown in this film, also allowing the viewer to use their imagination when it comes to putting the whole image together in their mind.

The film is superbly adapted from the novel, with a greatly intelligent script and a story that never stops moving until the highly climactic ending. Throughout the movie, Cross and McTiernan have a terrific lingo of intellectual connection going, and the film is great in allowing them to help each other out in finding clues instead of pitting them against one another. They do share the same motive, which is to capture the killer, but while Kate has more incentive to find the suspect, Cross is the one who really ends up going overboard in his pursuit, pushing the envelope when it comes to finding clues. The killer's motive is also a welcome aspect, giving us something much higher and deeper than just dead bodies and wanton revenge.

The acting is probably the most intrical part of the film, with two leads that pack a power punch of credibility and painstaking recreation of the characters from the novel. Morgan Freeman is able to embody everything that Alex Cross is, an ambitious detective whose extreme knowledge of crime and diverse criminal minds sometimes take him too far is his hunt. This is Freeman at his best here, giving us a high-caliber performance that keeps the suspense aspect of the film going. Ashley Judd breathes irrepresible life into the character of Kate McTiernan, who adds to the suspense as well as giving the story an emotional outlet. She comes off as strong and smart, using her brain as well as her high-order thinking skills in maintaining her character's personality and traits.

"Kiss the Girls" is not like your everyday thriller, which is what makes it so refreshing. Unlike the many others before it, we are able to identify with the characters on a highly personal level, and we are right there with them as they go through the story's twists and turns. The movie comes out in the end as a successfully-adapted thriller!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great until the end / the books endings better
Review: I thought that this was a very good movie and it deserves 3.5 stars but i always round up. This could have easily been a 4.5 to 5 star movie if the ending was better. The bad guy is realy scary throughout the movie right from the beginning. The movie brings you in to it right away and doesn't let you down till the end. The ending still wasn't that bad it was just that bad compared to the rest of the movie. It's still a movie worth seeing in my opinion.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not too bad, but why?
Review: Why did the movie have to end this way? That type of ending has been done so many times before that it actually was anticlimatical. It also felt tacked on, as if the directory believed his movie had not quite gone on long enough.

Still Morgan Freeman does an excellent job, and if you can ignore a couple of the more blatant inconsistancies, you can enjoy this movie.

Now on to the DVD side of things. Once again we have a DVD with basically nothing but the movie. For movies made during the Golden era of the Motion picture business I could live with that, but for a movie that is so recent you would expect to see a bit more.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Silly premise
Review: Sure, it's a fun movie, but it's best not to look too closely at the absurdity of it. We have here a serial killer who despite his 40 hour week still finds time to keep a dozen or so women inside his underground slave-brothel. Think about it. This chap doesn't even have a concierge on his staff let alone a maid or a chef. Thik of all the groceries he'd have to buy, the meals he'd have to prepare, the clothes he'd have to wash and the toilets he'd have to keep running. He may be a ruthless sex-villain but it's hard not to feel just a little sory for him. And speaking of toilets, there weren't any in the girls' cells. Nor was there any sign of baths or showers. The killer was supposed to be an admirer of Casanova but there was never any suggestion that Casanova liked his women filthy. No, this is a typical hollywood film that may stir the blood for a short while, but which is so poorly thought out that the viewer never really suspends disbelief and never forgets that it's only a movie.


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