L.A. Law: The Movie

This was not a bad reunion movie at all!! All the story lines came to a conclusion, and it still had the same drama/humor mix. The weirdest part was seeing Dann Florek as Dave Meyer again. He is great at playing him (I forgot what annoying ass Dave really was!!)but Mr. Florek is now Capt.Donald Cragen (Law and Order SVU) to me. The fact that Jimmy Smits wasn't even in it is not a big problem at all. The important characters were there, and that's what counts. The only reason I even bought this DVD is because I haven't been able to find the series on DVD yet. If you loved LA Law in the 80's and early 90's as much as I did, you will really like this movie.

Arnie is suddenly a complete loser and is getting manipulated by his ex-wife? Ann is no longer a tough-as-nails skeptic, she's been defrauded by a cultish guru? Kuzak has given up the law to run a bar? And he's still going over Douglas's head to Leland, even though Leland is retired and working in a greenhouse. Pretty unrealistic, and an assassination of the original characters. And the plot behind the reunion special was as cookie-cutter as you can get. It wasn't utterly horrible, but it wasn't the L.A. Law of old.

This reunion took some of the most loved characters and took them ten steps backwards. Some characters are back with vengeance in the heart and others are having returned with nothing to do. This movie might have done better by extending to at least a three hour format to give the story line some time to complete. Instead we get this mess of changed characters that no one really gets a chance go care about. Even the background ambience is gone. From the ringing phones and office chatter that once filled the law firm, the sound environment now represents either a very poor law firm with no business or that of a funeral parlor. This movie should never have been made with such a weak and quickly thrown together script. Unfortunately I would have to say this garbage is a D.O.A. movie that should not be shown again....

All rise, the honorable Reviewer Alec Pinkston is about to give his ruling: "What have all your favorite prosecutors been up to in the last eight years?" This is a question that you may have been asking yourself back in 2002. Well, in the matter of People vs. Sappy Television Reunion Shows, the jury finds the LA Law reunion show to be guilty in the first degree of quality programming. So if you have any objection to this reunion you are hereby over-ruled. From Harry Hamlin to that girl from the Patridge family, even the retarded guy made the trip. There's no much more you could ask for from Stephen Bochoco and the gang. Case dismissed.

Although we, in the UK, have not had the pleasure of seeing this reunion movie it seems as if it is one NOT to miss. However, the ending seems to have left an opening for a second movie or EVEN a mini series!!! Now that would be good! Especially now that are having the chance to relive the whole series thanks to the new digital channel ITV3. It is also good to see that the majority of the cast from the series agreed to return for this movie, but what happened to Blair Underwood and Jimmy Smits? Would they and the others return for a second movie or a mini series? I do hope so as when L. A. Law ended it left a big hole in believable legal dramas that also contained very believable humorous moments as well. Even when new characters were brought in the show maintained a high level of writing and acting that would have sustained the show even though the US networks cancelled the show.