Gold Coast

Well written story, good acting, moves right along. Better than 99 percent of theatrical "thrillers" that have nothing going in the way of plot or characterization. I liked the subtly quirky characters and Caruso's too-cool-for-words character. Marge Helgenberger was a fun sighting -- hadn't seen her since she was an alien sex slave in Lexx.

I agree with all of the above comments, both good and bad. I taped it just to see Marg Helenbarger, the chick on CSI. She is really very beautiful, in a sort of hard, blonde way. Mostly, though, I fast forwarded thru most of it. I enjoyed the Cuban chick, Vivian, and wished she was in more of the movie. What I didn't like most was the sense of helplessness that the rich widow had. She should have killed the mob guy much sooner.

Gold Coast had definite possibilities. Based on a story by currently in vogue (not to mention accomplished) crime writer Elmore Leonard, and with a pretty decent cast in David Caruso, Marg Helgenberger and Jeff Kober, plus direction by actor turned director Peter Weller it sounded like it could be a pretty interesting little film. Unfortunately none of the above quite came off as they should have done, and while nothing on it's own was singularly poor, there was nothing that injected the film with any sort of quality either, and as such it just all came up as a very flat viewing experience.

All of the main cast have given better performances than they manage here, and while no-one gives a bad performance exactly, Helgenberger, Kober, Wanda DeJesus and even the usually intense Caruso seemed to be working pretty much on auto pilot on this one, while the supporting cast were dull at best.

In the case of Peter Weller's direction once again it seems to be a case of just going through the motions. While it was technically fine it lacked any real sense of itself, with Weller not managing to inject any excitement or suspense, or in fact anything to heighten the story. As such the film just meandered along without providing any real focus on the already somewhat lacking storyline, which in itself seemed to be both underdeveloped and even slightly convoluted due to a rather lacklustre screenplay adaption.

All in all Gold Coast came across as a rather tedious little film with very little to recommend it, not bad exactly, just somewhat boring.

David Caruso plays the part of a drifter and small-time crook who falls for a newly-wealthy mafia widow and tries to help her thwart the ambitions of a scheming, sadistic mob enforcer who's after her and her money, especially her money. As the creepy villain, Jeff Kober is both obnoxious and scary--he even looks vaguely reptilian. Unexpected plot twists and touches of quirky humor keep the tension going right to the ending, which turns out to be another odd twist in itself. Do not be fooled by the fact that this was a made-for-TV movie; it's actually quite good.

A very faithful adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel. Great characters, intriguing plot with double-crosses on top of double-crosses, beautiful scenery. Everybody was great, particularly David Caruso as Maguire and Jeff Kober as Roland Crowe. Loooove the range hat, honey!