Letters from a Killer

Patrick Swayze portrays a death row inmate that gets a new trial, when a witness testifies that he wasn't the killer of his wife several years earlier. He is re-tried and found not guilty, but this is just the beginning.

He becomes a successful writer, and one of the women that recorded a taped message would later frame him for the murders that occur on film. He is eventually stalked, a la Clint Eastwood in Play Misty For Me (1971), but in this film, he is framed and later vows to find the real killer.

The scene in the apartment near the film's end is horrifying, where a meat cleaver and a handgun are present, which makes this film like a Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street flick, and one that would view this particular scene would remember it for eternity.

This movie had the potential to be a decent thriller, but it was hampered by only having about twenty minutes worth of good script, which was mostly used up in the beginning. After that holes started to appear in the story that one could drive a truck through. The movie followed a descending curve from good to ordinary to bad to ludicrous by the time it concluded. It's not recommended.

Letters from a killer has a very unusual storyline. It starts off quite confusing and uninteresting, but as it goes on the excitement gets more and more. Then at the end, you are at the edge of your seat, with all the gun shooting and racing about. I think that this is a film worth watching, but if you miss the beginning, you will probably find the rest of the film hard to understand.

I taped this off HBO largely because it was in HD and might be OK. It turned out to be a very competent thriller, nicely constructed and at about 100 minutes pretty much perfect time, and should keep you guessing to the end. I wasn't a fan of Patrick Swayze but I have to say he is perfectly cast in this, and turns in a very credible and watchable performance. If you are looking for a movie with action and twists for a wet afternoon that doesn't insult your intelligence, you could do an awful lot worse than to watch this. Interestingly line dance scene was choreographed by swayze's mother (Patsy Swayze).

I know, everyone considering watching this movie thinks the same thing...it's probably going to suck, but there's nothing else on, or you watch it for Swayze in his post 80's straight to video film career. Either way you look at it, this is actually a pretty entertaining film, if you can suspend any rational thoughts for about 90 minutes.

The first hour of this film is the best. We see Swayze wrongfully put in prison, on death row and about to be executed within a few weeks. He has written a best selling novel in prison and has acquired 4 very lonely fans that he communicates with via cassette tapes. The problem is, he leads every one of them to believe that they are the only ones keeping him alive, so when two of the tapes get switched, one of them sends him a death threat out of pure jealousy. After about 15 min into the film, his eviction is overturned, and he is released from jail with the ubiquitous fear of a killer stalking him. He then visits each one of the girls to find out who is sending him the threats.

Honestly, I liked the plot of this movie. Not an original theme with the jealous psycho slasher, but it is an original storyline nonetheless. Swayze does act kind of stupid in some scenes, and unconvincing in others (when he is released from jail, we all know he had the first death threat, but come on, to show NO HAPPINESS at all for escaping death row and having your name cleared?? Bad acting, Patrick), but overall it is a good movie. It does kind of wander in the middle, and becomes a routine slasher where most of the killings are done off screen, but it does serve as a fairly capable who-dunnit. Oh, and there is a pretty lame 'buddy' part in the middle which you can basically ignore.

I was able to guess who the killer was before the first murder, but honestly, they played it out so it could be anyone (also, one character is written as a little too conveniently psycho to allow anyone to possibly get any clues as to who did it). I thought the best part though was the fact that only 2 of the 4 tapes were switched in the beginning, so we can surmise of course, that 2 of them found out about the other girls, and we have to guess which 2 they were (though one is very obvious, complete with broken picture frame of Swayze during the montage of him calling all of them). The ending shot is pretty cheesy, but hey, what do you expect? Overall, an entertaining movie. Not thought provoking, but worth a look. 7/10 stars.