Gold Coast

You probably expect this movie to be awful. It's a made-for-cable flick starring David Caruso, and it's already in the $2.99 sale bin at Best Buy.

Well guess what? It's a pretty darned good movie. It's a good little mystery with fewer cliches than most theater releases of this genre. Caruso is a likeable, well-meaning but not-quite-competent angel to a mafia widow trying to escape the clutches of the baddies.

The performances are capable, the sets have a sumptuous look, the head psycho-baddie is both scary and funny. The dialogue has a touch of poetry, and the story is by Elmore Leonard.

And, unlike most of these things, the ending fooled me! That alone makes it worth the rental.

Funny thing though, they never should have shot Caruso running. He's a macho guy in his bearing and voice, but he runs very strangely, slowly, with his thighs frozen together and his hips swaying from side to side. Kind of destroys the illusion.

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 took the trouble to look this up on IMDb after coming in late on it on Showtime because I was impressed with just about all of it. David Caruso was the only actor I recognized, but as far as I was concerned, everyone was excellent, particularly the big guy with the big hat; and contrary to some of the other reviews, I found myself remarking on the excellence of the direction, with good angles and fresh touches all over the place. I was not surprised to find it was written by Elmore Leonard, given the convolution; I'm still not sure who did what to whom and why, but who cares. A very pleasant couple of hours.

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.

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.