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Along Came a Spider

Along Came a Spider

List Price: $14.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING THRILLERS I'VE EVER SEEN
Review: I went to see this movie today, and I got amazed of good it was. I didn't want the movie to end at all. I thought that Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter do an excellent job acting together. You won't imagine what happens at the end. It is all like a spiderweb. A psycho teacher, kidnapps the daughter of the senator, and it is Freeman's and Potter job to resucue her. I wouldn't recommend this movie for kids under 12. There is a lot of blood and that is why it is rated R. I would definately buy this movie for DVD. I recommend it to everyone. It is simpley... AWESOME!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Along Came Predictability
Review: Like many other people, I was suckered into seeing this movie because the trailer was slick and all the promotional material acted like it was the twist ending of the year, using the same tactic as The Crying Game. Unfortunately, Along Came a Spider could live up to none of its hype. From the start, this movie is filled with clichés and generic thriller moments. As I watched, I had the impression that I had seen this movie before in about ten different forms. I do give credit to Morgan Freeman. He actually managed to do a good job with the material he was given for this movie. Still, it was a waste of talent on such a mediocre role. The twist ending isn't a twist if you were paying any sort of attention to the movie. I know this because everybody I talked to about the movie said the same thing. People who would normally be left clueless saw the ending coming. In the end, I give this film one star because it had so much promise and ended up producing a relatively generic movie. Let this be a warning: Do not be suckered in by the ad campaign. Spend your time with Se7en if you need a Morgan Freeman fix.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Arachnophobia
Review: Some female spiders eat their mates after getting what they want from them, and apparently Hollywood is inspired by such behavior. Why, oh why, would a producer pay big bucks to a best-selling author for the rights to film his book, only to twist the plot into unintelligibility? James Patterson, author of the eponymous book, is perhaps the most uneven writer working today, but Along Came a Spider (the first book to introduce Detective Alex Cross) was a superb thriller--unquestionably one of his best. Why screenwriter Marc Moss and director Lee Tamahori tried to improve Patterson's story is beyond me. Frankly the plot twists they added simply don't make sense. This is the kind of film you enjoy while you are watching it, then within an hour or less you start questioning why things happened as they did. I'll not spoil the suspense for those interested by enumerating these details, but even the strength of the book's characters get the Hollywood treatment. The brilliant villain Gary Soneji is rather sidelined in the film, while Patterson liked him so much he brought him back in another Alex Cross book.

The cast are the saving grace of the movie. Morgan Freeman does a fine job reprising his role as Alex Cross. Although in Kiss the Girls I thought he was rather too old for Cross (and he's certainly no younger now!) he seemed more convincing to me in Spider--perhaps I'm simply detaching his portrayal from my mental image. Monica Potter, as Secret Service Agent Jezzie Flannigan, bears a resemblance to a younger Julia Roberts and sounds uncannily like her. Michael Wincott, as Soneji, was fantastically evil, the highlight of the film. I look forward to seeing much more of him.

Some final thoughts: the opening scene has some of the least convincing computer generated images seen onscreen in ages. This certainly isn't a reason to miss the film--the scene is almost entirely incidental to the rest of the movie (and not even in the book at al) and if you come in 5 minutes late you miss nothing--but I have to wonder why more care wasn't taken. And the musical score, by Jerry Goldsmith, one of the Hollywood giants, is not his best work by far. The music of the closing credits worked well, but there was a curious mis-match between music and scene in most of the film. Finally, in the opening credits the vowels drop down into the actor's names on CGI spiderwebs--a single textured filament, like a spider descending on its thread. I have to admit to almost laughing out loud at what was obviously supposed to be dramatic, but when the capital "A" dropped down I couldn't help but think it looked like a zipper...

All in all, it's worth waiting for this one on network TV.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Skillful, fun and intelligent.
Review: "Thumbs Up!"

This intelligent thriller featuring Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter is edgy and hip. The plot is thickened to shine and the acting is too good! In this sequel to 97's KISS THE GIRLS, Freeman returns as Alex Cross, on the hunt for a new chilling killer. The suspense never lets up on this rip roaring chiller, which could possibly make it one of the best films this year. ALONG CAME A SPIDER is a guaranteed good time.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Itsy Bitsy Spider
Review: Along comes a flimsy but obligatory follow up to the successful thriller, KISS THE GIRLS. This film features a typical good performance by Morgan Freeman but is marred by a predictable, formulaic script. The film does have one good trick up its sleeve, but it's a long time coming and you have to wade through a load of dead bugs to get to it. Monica Potter does a nice job in her role as a secret service agent who is troubled by the case of a missing rich girl. Might be served better on the small screen as it is a pretty intimate look at the psyche.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Along Came A Spider
Review: Excellent movie!! The story was very well written & it was not predictable as to the next event - at all. It kept me on the edge the entire way! Morgan Freeman was wonderful as always! Seemed very strange to me not seeing my dear friend Bob Collins in THIS movie. He was Morgan's double in many other productions. Bob Passed away last year. Left me with a loving, yet odd feeling. I totally enjoyed this suspence thriller!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: More like "Along came a dumb script"
Review: I can't believe all of the praises for this B-movie trash! Did we all see the same movie? This thing stank to high Heaven. Talk about predictable. And why do so many people like movies about children being placed in danger? Why do so many people find that entertaining? This whole film plays like a network television's "Sunday Night Movie" which is probably what the script was written for in the first place. Michael Wincott and Morgan Freeman both deserve better material than this.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Truly refreshing, edge-of-your-seat thriller!
Review: ALONG CAME A SPIDER, in my opinion, is a truly refreshing, edge-of-your-seat thriller. I thought that Alex (Morgan Freeman) and Jezzie (Monica Potter) made a good team when they were working -- Especially when they were looking for Megan (Mika Boorem). There was one person that REALLY gave me the creeps, and that was Mr. Soneji (Michael Wincott). When I saw people get murdered, I was scared. I didn't scream, though. I was just scared and refreshed at the same time. In conclusion, I HIGHLY recommend this truly refreshing edge-of-your-seat thriller to all you Morgan Freeman or Monica Potter fans out there who have not seen it. When you see it, prepare to be thrilled and refreshed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great but not ground-breaking
Review: First off, let me say that I enjoyed "Kiss the Girls," a movie Morgan Freeman appeared in back in 1997. That film featured him playing as Alex Cross, a detective solving a mystery with enough plot twists to keep things interesting throughout. It wasn't the best movie ever made. It wasn't the best movie in the thriller/mystery genre. But it was fun to watch more than once. And that's what I can say about "Along Came a Spider."

The movie begins with Alex Cross losing a partner. One might say it was his fault. He feels that way, at any rate. And so he goes into a slump where he just sits around building ships. This is the character development that sets things up for the rest of the movie. But that opening scene rather fails, mostly because--and this is going to sound stupid, but it's true--the special effects are so achingly bad. If they release a 'look how we did this' feature on the DVD, people will say, "Uh, it was OBVIOUS how you did that." And yes, that's a bad thing. At any rate, it gets things going.

Once the ball is rolling, the audience watches as a little girl is kidnapped by a criminal who craves fame. To get that fame, he drags the reluctant but famous Alex Cross into the scene. And so Morgan Freeman gets to show that he's very good at this kind of role. He's on the case, accompanied by Monica Potter. And though lots of people thought she did a terrible job in this flick, I thought she did wonderfully.

As the hypothetical member in the audience watches, the movie takes him or her through a number of intriguing plot twists. This just wouldn't be a movie about the Alex Cross character without those. And the plot twists are very cool. They mess around with your head, which I rather like. However, some of them felt hollow simply because after they happen, you sit there and go, "Yeah, that's nice, but as I viewer it would have been nice if I were privy to that information." In other words, you're stunned simply because you didn't know how some things functioned.

The real thrill doesn't come from fearing who will die next--this is seldom a problem, except where the little girl is involved--but in seeing how Alex Cross attempts to outwit the deadly mind behind this whole affair.

So what it comes down to is this: if you enjoyed the basic setup in "Kiss the Girls" (that is, mystery, plot twists, light action from time to time), you're going to think that this is just as good, if not better. If, however, you like tons of explosions and a lot of action, pass on this one. It's a great movie, certainly, but nothing you can feel good about unabashedly recommending to every last friend you have.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie
Review: We recently saw this in a hotel room and enjoyed the movie. It is one of the best Morgan Freeman movies yet. Clearly a suspenseful movie.

Can hardly wait for DVD!


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