Blue Caprice

In 2002, the Washington DC area was paralyzed by sniper shootings. John Allen Muhammad (Isaiah Washington) was in a relationship with Lee Boyd Malvo (Tequan Richmond)'s mother and became his father figure. John brings Lee with him to America and indoctrinates him. John is bitter at the being declared unfit to be a father. He is angry and paranoid. He convinces Lee to murder and turns the blue Chevy Caprice into a killing machine. He discovers his wife and children hiding in Maryland, but it's about more than them by then.

It's a slow meditative movie. It spends most of its time with the quiet young Lee under the unceasing domination of John. It spends little time with the DC killings. It's not altogether successful. There is no tension and it provides no great insights into either personality. It's the first full-length feature for Alexandre Moors and he shows a competence with the camera. However the movie is too slow and too quiet. I'm not sure he achieves anything more than an artsy film about two of the most enigmatic mass murderers.

A well shot, moodily scored and impressively acted indie from last year, Blue Caprice is also a frustratingly cold film that in the end misses the mark in such a way that you just can't help but wish you were more affected by a story that is all different types of sad and horrific in equal measure.

Alexandre Moors film looks to delve into the events leading up to the tragic 2002 Beltway Sniper shootings around the USA that led to the deaths of 10 innocent civilians at the hands of John Muhammad and Lee Malvo. It must be noted that these events Moors displays in the film are largely dramatizations as facts concerning the two men remain sadly blurred. With the blurring of these facts and fictions the films growth as a narrative does suffer as what we are presented with is a strangely generic telling of a true story that is anything but. While moments in the film are at times extremely shocking and confronting they're merely short bursts of memorable material that quickly dissipates back to slow moving and uninvolving instances – these moments of quality are made increasingly more annoying due to the films many other affective sums not adding up to a satisfying whole.

Seasoned actor Isaiah Washington has rarely, if ever, been better than he is here in a role that must of required quite a lot of mental and emotional stress on his behalf. The character of John is a role that features much pent up rage and at times evil that Washington cleverly plays to and is backed up by a very assured performance from young actor Tequan Richmond as his surrogate son Lee. Lee is a boy whose lot in life has left him scarily low choices to make and Richmond does a fine job at displaying this sad boy and also excels at the moments where a boy becomes more than that and becomes a monster. Sarah Neufeld and Colin Stetson's affective score must also be commended here as a haunting accompanying piece to a growing terror.

A well-made movie yet undeniably cold and at times to distant for its own good Blue Caprice is an interesting look into an horrific situation that you get the feeling will one day be turned into a much bigger and affecting big screen treatment.

3 combat handbooks out of 5

Amazing indie gem, but far less exciting than the two other mass murderers story movies : ELEPHANT or POLYTECHNIQUE. No, this film is more than interesting but so slow, so slow, you always wonder where does it drive to. The other movies, the most famous in terms of mass murder schemes, are definitely more powerful, more terrific and terrifying too. However, this little independant feature is still interesting to watch. Only a few things are shown, nothing spectacular, shocking is shown here. I think this movie will forever remain under the radars of many viewers. But I don't regret to have seen it.

The film begins where our two beltway killers meet and slowly become one in their hate and lust for murder. It is entirely speculative in its dialogue and development. The one thing I liked is that it was not acted like some Charlie Manson crazed mass killer. Nevertheless, the characters never really reach a believable characterization of the type of anti social personality disorder that makes it possible to behave in such a way. I would suppose that it would be hard for such a young writer to lose himself in such a mind as that.

The editing of this film is laughable and there really is no rhythm to the cutting, it jumps around which makes me think that the director was not experienced enough to get enough coverage. There is a lot of running through the forests, proclamations about why people are no good, but none of which have any impact or gives the feeling of menace. In fact, menace is lacking in every part of this film.

Any thought that there would be a payoff for the time spent watching this movie is lost with a uninteresting and boring final scene that could have been cut from the film without any consequence. I say skip this one...

This movie doesn't add anything, but it comes as a real bore! what they were thinking!, I have never thought much of Isaiah Washington as an actor, I could care less about his participation on every movie I have seen him before, and watching Tequan Richmond is like watching green paint dry, don't ask, but I think green paint is the most pathetic paint to watch while drying.

This movie is a really missed opportunity, the question is if the writer and producers Just said " Hey lets do an insipid, bland, characterless, and unmoving piece of nothing, "uninspired" on the beltway Sniper" the movie is not even all over the place, because has nothing to offer, it's a shameless situation that blue caprice get a 6.0 rating when "D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear" is just 5.8

Yesterday, I re - watched Bus 174 (2002) (documentary) and then "Last Stop 174 (2008)", I mention this just in case Alexandre Moors, R.F.I. Porto and everyone involved with blue caprice wants to see how a real movie based in actual events is made!