Deadly Message

This movie starts downhill the moment we fly with our protagonist to India, which is a montage of canned footage and poor set designs. The enciting scene where Ed Quinn's son is kidnapped is shot in a gaudy rendition of an Indian convention center, with stereotypical Hindi designs and gold plating covering every wall and pillar. Quinn runs outside to see if he can find his son, and we cut to yet another canned shot of Delhi street life.

The film says it was shot in India. I cannot believe that anyone with a budget to shoot overseas would create such atrocious sets rather than shoot on-location. I cannot believe that any native Indian would take part in such a grotesque representation of the nation and its people. The script is predictable, and while Joey Laruen Adams and Harvey Keitel aren't bad actors, this story does their respective careers no favors.

I hate to be rude, because it is an accomplishment that this film went through production and distribution, but the best moment in the film is the fade to black. This film shows no respect to the nation of India or its people, nor to the tenents of a good script or good acting.

BEEPER is the product of those films that deal with kidnapping of a child with the only connection with the perpetrators being by cell phone or other mechanical devices supposedly to enhance the tension of identifying the bad guy. By now the story is so used and tired that it takes a spectacular gimmick to make it fly. BEEPER remains grounded.

Dr. Richard Avery (Ed Quinn, known to only those who watch TV) flies to India with his young son (he is a widower) to give a lecture at a worldwide medical conference. In the audience the son Sam (Stefan Djordjevic) disappears and the good doctor notices too late, beginning a long series of chases to find Sam. Avery encounters Sr. Inspector Vijay Kumar (Gulshan Grover), whose specialty is drug dealing problems, and Inspector Julia Hyde (Joey Lauren Adams), whose specialty is kidnapping. But Avery is informed that he is to follow instructions given through a beeper and to avoid the police. Avery finds his only source of information is through Zolo (Harvey Keitel), a drug lord in Delhi who has special interests in fulfilling the ransom: cash for opium. After an endless car chase through the streets and markets of Delhi the truth about who is the real kidnapper is revealed...and the movie glides to a bumpy end.

Seeing India as a backdrop for an intrigue film is promising but visually this viewer gets the feeling that much of the footage is actually from a can rather than being on set. The acting ranges from fair to really awful and the script by Michael Cordell and Gregory Gieras is dreary. Made in 2002 and just released on DVD it is not a secret why the movie didn't make it in the theaters. Even the usually reliable Keitel can't save this one. Grady Harp

Beeper is simply put, a mediocre movie. It places our SWM hero in a strange and exotic society and from there it tries to develop a thriller, but failing on multiple levels. No exciting pictures of Indian society, no logic in many of the actions, police work is horrible, sets are awful - you get to see some footage of a Boeing 747 the main characters are supposed to fly, but inside it looks like in the 50's.

And what the heck is Keitel doing in this movie? Did he owe Jack Sholder a favor? Was desperate for some money? Got a free trip to India? Anyway, even he can't save this one. Oh yes, and look for the car chase...in The Hidden, Sholder got to play with Ferraris, here he works his car chase-skills on some antiqued cabs. Cheap, but entertaining. Still, go find The Hidden, it's much much better.

Dr. Richard Avery (Ed Quinn) is a recently widowed doctor who decides to get his son Sam with him to a medical seminar in India. He believes that he will have a chance to get closer to the young boy. There, during his presentation, the boy is kidnapped from the audience. Two cops (the Indian cop Kumar and the American cop Julia Hyde (Joey Lauren Adams)) will try to help him. The only means of contacting the kidnapper is through a beeper. Dr. Avery will lose the beeper and will look for help with the drug dealer Zolo (Harvey Keitel). This is a low budget movie. However, this plot in the hands of a better director and cast would lead to a great movie. The screenplay is very interesting and keeps the attention of the viewer until the last scene. There is no 'clichés' in the story and you will be certainly interested to know what will happen next. Unfortunately one of the main characters (the young boy Sam) has a terrible acting. It deserved a best actor child in this important role. Harvey Keitel has a big belly in the present and had much better acting than that in the past. I like Harvey Keitel, but in this movie, him, together with some Indian actors, disappoints the viewers. Another comment: is it common in India to have a foreigner cop in their police force? In this movie, Joey Lauren Adams is an American cop in an Indian police department and I found this situation very unusual. In the end, I liked this movie and I believe that fans of action and exotic places will have a good entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Sequestro de Sam" ("The Abduction of Sam")

...about what exactly it takes for a film to get made. This may be the worst picture I've ever seen. If you like poor acting, especially poor child acting, wait for this to make its TBS world premiere and set your VCR's. The film quality was horrendous as well. I kept thinking to myself, "So, when's Shannon Tweed's character gonna be introduced?" If you've got 6 bucks in your pocket, treat yourself to a good sandwich and count the days 'til that TBS premiere. I feel sorry for Harvey and Joey Lauren Adams, because I think they're solid actors. But even they couldn't save this from sinking into a bottomless pit. Just my opinion.