First Degree

I watched this movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and though I agree with others that it wasn't the best, it was good enough for that type of viewing, with commercials. The major plus here for me was Tom McCamus, one of my favorite actors, which then gave me a clue that it was a Canadian film. I like Canadian films, I often watch CBC for their offerings. I'm not sure what would have made this movie better because it really does have a pretty good storyline, and a good ending, it just lost something in the translation to film. If someone asked me if it was good, I'd just say watch it if you are not expecting great art, it has its moments.

I don't mind the same story being told over and over as long as it's well done and well acted.

I do mind when it's something like "First Degree," which is just draggy, filled with swearing to spice it up, and has pretentious music. There was one other problem -- some of the actors thought speaking in almost a whisper would be effective. Yes, you effectively can't hear them with the television up to full volume.

This had a few redeeming qualities having nothing whatsoever to do with the story. The first is that, looking at Rob Lowe, 31 at the time, the movie could have been made last week. I swear this guy bathes in the blood of virgins or something.

The second was getting to see Don Francks, an old TV actor, playing a role in this. And the third was seeing another old TV and movie actor, Bret Halsey, in another role.

And that's about it. The story goes like this: A wealthy, prominent New Yorker, Andrew Pyne, is found dead in an alley. The head of the investigation, Rick Mallory (Lowe), believes it to be a mob hit, specifically from the Galeno family.

I'll make this short. Though it looks for all the world like a mob hit, some people aren't convinced. Meanwhile, Mallory and the widow (Leslie Hope) begin an affair. So professional.

The dead man's mother hires an ex-cop to investigate. He finds the hit man, who claims that the widow paid him to kill her husband. Mallory of course is now under suspicion and is taken off the case and out of homicide. But he is convinced that the widow didn't do it, nor did the mobster Galeno (Bret Halsey).

This went right to video, for good reason. I will concede that the ending was good. If you have supersonic ears and you like this sort of film, you may like this.

This movie is exactly the same as Ridley Scott's, "Someone To Watch Over Me", which is a classic. It stars Tom Berenger and Mimi Rogers and the bad guy from the Fugitive. It's a quality movie, with good direction and great acting. This movie is the polar opposite. It's the same plot, just minus any good acting and adding TV movie direction. I do have to say I like the interaction between Lowe and the woman. She's hot and their romance is believable on many levels. Unfortunately, that alone cannot save this carbon copy of the classic Ridley Scott film.

Usually crappy TV movies have some redeeming quality that makes them watchable at the very least. I think for me, this film's redeeming value is that Rob Lowe and the lead female have chemistry. That and I was able to watch and compare the plot to another quality film.

There was absolutely nothing in this film that hadn't been done better in a hundred other films. It was barely worth the trouble of watching through to the end. Even the bad language sounded tired. Tom McCamus, a very fine actor, was particularly disappointing here.

Of course, it's true that story lines are being re-hashed on a constant basis, many films are guilty of this, but really, what can they do? How many endings are unique these days? Seems as if all the story lines are taken! So then it's up to the actors to make it fresh for us and I feel that this film succeeded in doing so! I would recommend it to anyone who needed a new film to watch, that has not been in the theatres, who is interested in maybe seeing all the work of more obscure actors because I have to admit that I hate to see a fine actor such as Tom McCamus WASTED in a movie like this, but even he probably could use a chance to make money now & then for his art. I just want to see everything he's done (and enjoyed his appearance in Stratford in Threepenny Opera, too.)