The Master Criminal

I watched this as I had seen the original British 4 part series a few years back. This version wasn't bad but was not in the same league as the series which starred Timothy Dalton as Eddie Myers leading a very good cast.

Le Plante is a good writer and her stuff is better in either a long movie version or spread over several episodes. This movie for TV version wasn't so good because the story needed longer to tell and cutting down on time and detail just made it look as though it was cheaply made.

If you compare it to the 1992 4 hour series it shows just how mediocre it is. Nothing wrong with the acting, just that a good story was badly diluted.

I saw the ads for this on TNT and was impressed by the stable of actors involved. Sam Neill, excellent in everything I've seen him in, (including "Omen IV"--that's saying something); Rob Lowe, an actor who until recently hasn't secured the challenging roles his ability demands; and Alicia Coppola, an actress whose looks and abilities deserve more air-time.

The surprise aspect: A very good story. Nice twists, and a sense of humor and style (rare for TV movies, generally speaking).

Sympathetic characters (a depth to them) with shades of gray. They make mistakes and deal with them, but in the end maintain their integrity.

All in all, worth the time spent watching. Satisfying and entertaining. In the end, that's everything a movie should aspire to be.

I was not expecting this movie to be very good at all, to be quite honest. I thought it was going to be one of those 'one of them is good and one is bad' kind of movies. Here, we saw that Rob Lowe's character and Sam Neil's character sort of kept trading places, if you will.

Especially Sam Neil's character. It's like he was a good bad guy. I thought that the plot was really interesting. You thought it was going one way and then the next minute it's going another. It really kept me guessing! And TNT's slogan fit this movie: "We know drama."

I`ve never been a subscriber to the the train of thought that Lynda La Plante is one of the greatest writers in the history of British television . Her success his mainly down down to other people especially to producers like Verity Lambert who has produced much of La Plante`s output . Don`t believe me ? Watch this version of FRAMED then

Being an American movie produced for television there`s criteria as to what can and cannot be shown , so out goes the grittiness ...ooopps sorry " grittiness " that La Plante is famed for so we`re just left with the bare bones of La Plante`s original teleplay and it doesn`t hold up to too much scrutiny . NYPD cop Mike Santini arrests international criminal mastermind Eddie Meyers who then turns prosecution witness ? Forgive me for asking but do cops get assinged to look after the same people they arrested on the witness protection program ? Am I alone in thinking Mike is the only cop assinged to looking after Meyers ? and how does Mike manage to afford a big house and swimming pool if he`s a mere detective ? The plot twists and turns which ends up making it not complex but somewhat contrived and there`s a bizarre scene where Sam Neill`s character ( And Neill plays Meyers in a totally camp way ) emulates a scene in a police car that another character played by Sam Neill did 25 years earlier in the movie SLEEPING DOGS .

The script is mainly to blame for this mediocre crime tale but it`s not really helped by Daniel Petrie`s directing or the usual TVM restraints on budget . No doubt La Plante afficianados can blame American TVM network regulations on its failure , but if that`s the case shouldn`t other people be getting the credit for La Plante`s British TV successes ?

Nothing is as good as the 1992 version of Framed with Timothy Dalton and David Morrissey. Don't waste time on this one.