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"Rising Sun"

There is an old Japanese motto: "Business is war." Well, that sentence is taken to new heights in the Philip Kaufman thriller "Rising Sun," based on the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton.

Wesley Snipes plays Web Smith, a Japanese-American liaison officer in LA who is called on duty after a young woman is found dead at the opening party for the new Japanese company named Nakamoto. Sean Connery plays John Connor, a retired liaison officer who is an expert on Japanese customs and culture. He is requested to come on call as well, and does, trailing along with Web.

When they get to Nakamoto, they find Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel) and other cops hovering over the body of the dead woman. Soon, foul play is suspected, and Smith and Connor must find the killer before it is too late.

"Rising Sun" is taken from a great novel, and turned into an average thriller. There is nothing spectacular about the film. It stays surprisingly true to the book, but the very few things that stray from the course of the novel turn out to be the blunders.

There are no sparks flying between Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. I think that Snipes was a bad casting decision. Connery is perfect for the character of John Connor, but Snipes just doesn't fit Peter Smith - whose name was changed to Web Smith for the film, for no apparent reason other than Peter isn't a suiting name for Snipes.

The director/screenplay writer of "Rising Sun" - Philip Kaufman, who brought us "The Right Stuff" - seems to have charisma and obviously tries to keep the film true to the book. Unfortunately, however, there is an element of suspense missing from the film. There are no real surprises. In the novel, Connery's character John Connor seems to know everything that is going to happen, but there is still a sense of suspense. In the film, however, Connery's Connor seems to know TOO much about everything that is going to happen. Instead of being one step ahead like he was in the book, he seems to be twenty steps ahead in the film. There is one scene that really jumped out at me where Connor walks in and says, upon discovering a man believed to be dead, "Oh, I was wondering when he'd get here!" In the novel, Connor gives a reason why he knew the man wasn't dead. In the film, he just seems to know the man is still alive for no apparent reason. If Connor knows everything that is happening, everything that has happened, and everything that is going to happen, why keep Web - and us - in the dark?

At least Connery fit the character of Connor - it would have been about ten times worse if they had chosen someone else.

Believe it or not, the film might have been better if it had NOT been so close to the book. What I mean by this, is that by making everything just like the book, Kaufman raises the expectations a notch, and when ONE SINGLE THING is changed from the book, the audience is disappointed, because by then we have come to expect everything in the movie to be like the book. Expectations wouldn't have been so high if he had made everything different from the book. Which is NOT to say I don't enjoy that he stayed true to the book.

It's a confusing opinion. In some ways, I enjoy how true to the novel the film was. But there is just something missing. Even though the cast is top notch for the most part, Snipes just didn't fit. And while Connery was perfect as Connor, he seemed to know too much about what is going on. There is no real suspense. Perhaps that is the biggest flaw of the film.

A great book turned into an average thriller worth seeing once.

3/5 stars -

John Ulmer

This movie is not always easy to understand but if you give it a couple of looks, which it is worthy of doing, all the pieces finally fit and it's a good two hours of entertainment.

This modern-day crime movie may have a lack of action compared to others of its genre but it never loses your attention. Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes and Harvey Keitel star, along with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako and Tia Carrere. This is a high-tech story (at least for 1993) as two cops try to figure out who murdered a woman. It's Japanese-big business-politics intrigue with surveillance cameras being the key to figuring out a murder.

Connery and Snipes complement each other as a "buddy" cop duo with Connery being mostly responsible for making this story interesting. The still-suave ex-James Bond plays the cool veteran and it's fun to watch him operate.

The only complaint I might have is the ending, a stupid romance-type story with Snipes and Carrere that was very post-climactic and not needed.

Having just left us, Sean Connery's movies are all over cable TV right now. From the over-rated and mostly execrable Bond series, through the unloved but brilliant The Hill, and on through his later-career home runs such as Red October and The Untouchables.

Rising Sun is one of these latter-day Sean Connery movies. Here he's trying to bridge the cultural gap between the Japanese and Americans in a murder mystery. And as usual, he's way better than the movie itself. Connery is smooth and natural and completely believable as a guy who understands the Japanese language and culture. Also in the plus column belong Harvey Keitel and Wesley Snipes.

But goodness the drop-off from there is enormous. The supporting cast would be hard-pressed to hold up their end of an L.A. Law episode. Ray Wise is esp terrible. As for the Asian actors, well, at least they were able to pick up a nice Hollywood paycheque. Kurosawa this isn't. More like an extra-long episode of Magnum, P.I.

The plot is a mess. It might have seemed interesting to hang a plot on a Japanese corporation's takeover of an American tech firm, but that seems laughably old-fashioned these days.

Connery and Snipes, as far as I can tell, put in about 3 weeks of detective work in one 24-hour stretch. As for the ultimate perp, phhhht, you'd have to be pretty dense not to see that coming.

The fight scene near the end was a nice touch. Pointless, but fun.

And then it keeps going. Like Kaufmann shot a million feet of film and couldn't bring himself to cut any of it.

Rising Sun was a decent enough movie. It was intelligent, it had big names, it didn't disappoint.

Have you ever watched a movie that was good but were so bothered by one part you couldn't shake it? Rising Sun had a scene that so annoyed me it overshadowed everything before it and after it.

John Connor (Sean Connery)--not to be confused with John Connor from Terminator--and Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) were pursuing a suspect in their murder case. They and about a dozen other tactically dressed officers busted into the home of their primary suspect. While chasing the suspect a nude escort/prostitute/side chick jumped on Web Smith's back and began assaulting and verbally abusing him.

Wait. What!?

Yeah, that's what my response to that was.

During the middle of a pursuit, guns are drawn, glass is being broken, foot soldiers are storming through and this daft woman decides now is a good time to what, defend her john? I can't think of a single instance where a hired woman would be willing to jump on the back of an armed police officer to prevent him from apprehending her john/employer/beau. I'm sure he pays her well but does he pay that well? Especially considering that nude woman number two was cowering and screaming.

It's not fair to boil Rising Sun down to that one scene because it was much more than that. It was actually a good movie. The crime had many layers and took time and ingenuity to unfold. Be that as it may, they cannot be forgiven for that atrocious scene.

This adaptation of Crichton's novel of the same name is flawed, specially in some key casting (Snipes is wrong for the part) and tone choices (the main relationship is badly portrayed, some characters enter and leave without regard and the action scenes seem very off).

However, it makes the grade into the above-average category of high-tech thrillers for the excellent Sir Connery performance and the adherence, in about 80%, to the gripping and quite scary, economically speaking, original plot.

Crichton was never afraid to take a stand and the movie version, although clearly into a more action-driven-politically-correct approach, tried to present a more layered portrayal of the business war arena, without hiding the author's criticism of the American posture towards the velvet covered Japanese iron hand on such matters, which is refreshing.

The pace is lightning fast, the convoluted plot is presented in a very satisfactory fashion - the audience can understand what is going on and why - and the almost 2-hour movie passes by with grace.

The little disappointment goes for the last 20 minutes, that present a rather stupid conclusion (different from the book, I might add) and wastes the audience time with perfunctory developments that could, easily, have remained in the edit room floor.