Detective

Another Tom Berenger special, this time courtesy of Hallmark. For some reason they have two TV stars in supporting roles: Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Boxleitner.

There wasn't enough content to stretch to three hours, but it's three hours.

I believe the main story is the detective and his messy private life. Malcolm (Berenger) is an ex-priest, separated from his wife, and his detective girlfriend is a councilman's daughter.

However, we never find out about his life in the priesthood, any guilt he may have about that and shacking up with someone else while he's in marriage counseling, or any angst over the fact that his son is angry with him.

Instead he concentrates on the vicious serial killings in the LA area. I suppose Hailey made the character an ex-priest so he could recognize signs at the crime scenes from the Book of Revelations.

All this added up to not much. The serial killings were gross beyond belief as were the suspects. In the end, you really didn't care about any of it.

It took many hours to get through this predictable detective story. With a strong heavy weight cast, it still seems endless with many scenes that were just too long. Is this the writing? Directing? Or acting? Tom Berenger in the lead role as the detective out to solve the crimes, seemed to be going around in a daze, not sure what was happening around him. When he is faced with truths, his face doesn't change expression. I usually like this actor, but not in this. Cybill Shepherd wasted in a thankless role as the wife he left behind. Not much for her to do. Too bad. More of her could have made the story at least exciting. Annabeth Gish, just was bad casting. Not much going on there. One expression throughout the movie. No one cared. Veteran Charles Durning also wasted in a nothing role. Don't see much of him. Sean O'Bryan and David Atkinson, to this viewer turned in the most interesting and challenging roles. Good acting and energy sadly lacking from the others. But, please a four hour movie? It has to have something to hold interest. I welcomed the commercials just to get a break.

This movie reminds me of the reports I'd write in college that had to be ten pages on a subject I did not even remotely care about. The result was always 2 pages of substance with 8 pages of rambling crap that added absolutely no value to the final product. Was I a poor student? Yes, and I have the attention span of a hummingbird on crack so maybe I'm missing something here. It's 8:58pm where I'm at right now, and I swear this thing started six hours ago (no control over the TV). I glance up once in awhile to see another pointless conversation with some more cliché dialog. The actors aren't bad - they just have nowhere to go. It's a one hour episode of a cookie cutter crime show that's been stretched out like a Caramello. There should be an "end now" feature on modern cable systems that allows viewers to instantly turn any slow snore-fest into a disaster movie. Hit the blue button and in flashes an asteroid. Hit green and out comes a lava flow. Aliens on red. For now, I guess I'm stuck with the +/- option on my channel control - not that I have any control.

Tom Berenger is once again a great detective. Like his characters Michael Keegan (Someone To Watch Over Me), Harry Dobbs (Love @ Large), Clifford DeBose (A Murder of Crows), and Rem Macy (True Blue)- his wit, take-charge attitude, and Noble authority - combined with his personal side - give depth to what could have been a staid character. Most of the supporting cast were perfectly cast. I was pleased to see that the movie kept very closely to the book, except for Malcolm's turning atheist. Was even more pleased that Hallmark did not show gruesome close-ups like was shown in Tom Berenger's Eye See You. Mr. Berenger shines in Alex Haley's Detective. A great movie to watch and re-watch :)

It is amazing the level of actors that stooped to act in this badly written movie. The plot idea has value, but 1. the dialogues were terrible, and 2. the audio production was horrible with background music almost drowning out the actors. Interesting concept, but be prepared to be disappointed.