Red Team

This was a really good film. However, I seem to remember hearing the musical underscore in another fine film, The Man With a Golden Arm. 1955, starring a young Frank Sinatra. Music by one of the greatest film scorers of all time, Elmer Berstein, and a classic, world famous movie score. Is this allowable? Is the Golden Arm music now in the public domain, and if so, can a contemporary film just "use" the Berstein score? Anyone else pick up on this?

Mediocre thriller about a serial killer killer. That's right. An astute FBI agent(Patrick Muldoon)is assigned to the Red Team that deals with unsolved serial killings. He stumbles into the case of his life when he is on the trail of a murderer whose victims are suspects themselves in serial killing. He thinks his supervisor Tim Thomerson has crossed the line and is involved with the new string of killings. He goes to a wheelchair bound veteran cop(Fred Ward)for advice. He needs the aid of his former partner(Cathy Moriarty)to unscramble the good guys from the bad. The cast also features:C. Thomas Howell, David Millbern and Deb Patterson.

"Who is killing the serial killers?" states the quote on the cover of the video box, a quote that promises a twist in the tired serial killer genre. However, the answer becomes quite clear in the first few minutes! Then for about 3/4 of the movie we have to sit though yet again the various cliches that we typically see in this genre, with no real new twist to them - not really badly done, but tired and familiar. Near the end, there is an intriguing development with an alliance of sorts, but unfortunately it's dealt only at face value at most, and is finished with after a few minutes. The production values are pretty decent, and C. Thomas Howell (cast against type) is surprisingly good as the serial killer the bland Muldoon pursues. But overall there's really no real reason to seek it out, especially if you're burned out on serial killer movies like I am. Maybe if it comes on TV when you're bored and have nothing else to do...

This movie was a fun ride! There were good twists and turns, and at times it was pretty scary. I particulary enjoyed the directing and cinematography as the shots were very cool and the whole mood was dark and menacing - particulary the opening shots and the chase through the woods at night in the snow. This is definitely a movie worth seeing.

They weren't ready to make this movie when they filmed it. It so much reminded me of a great idea in the midst of thinking it through, like a rough draft of a novel with all the flaws glaring and ready to be fixed. But they filmed it anyway, unrepaired. There wasn't a single surprize, which this kind of movie demands, but they were so close to delivering one with an adjustment here and there. Patrick Muldoon was not the actor to take this lead. We can't buy him as the hero, he just doesn't convince us he's who he's supposed to be. We get faces and expressions and action filmed from an impossible to participate angle. The idea of a serial killer taking out serial killers is an exciting premise with much promise but the writer's couldn't deliver, or whoever was responsible for the final product, the exceptional film this idea deserved. This is a notion that should slip in there with the Silence of the Lambs. We should squirm and fear the scene that comes next. We shouldn't see the G rated climax coming from a mile away, or the plot twists so far in advance we don't mind going to the fridge while they unfold. Fred Ward, who can be a lot of fun, was horribly miscast. This was a really great idea hurried into production and what could have been a riveting thriller fails to make us twitch. I hope they take this idea and run with it again, with more octane. It's rock solid idea. Rock solid ideas shouldn't go limp.