Meurtre Cardiaque

Erroneously advertised as a horror movie, this is in fact a DETECTIVE DRAMA; it might solicit praise from "Monk" or "Columbo" fans not simply because its paced as a TV movie or an extended teleplay, but because a lot of time is spent on the development of humane characters with real fallibility. The mystery takes time to unravel, and it does so in a reasonably realistic and tasteful manner. In an ocean of conflated stereotypes, stilted scripts and nerve-wracking formulas, watching a subdued, 70s-style drama like this one can be quite pleasant. Moreover, however slow or lacking in suspense, no one will say that this story bores with its predictability.

That's it! With God as my witness (hmm, maybe Satan would make a better witness in my case), this is the absolute last time I allow an appealing VHS-cover to fool and trick me into watching a movie that is generally – and righteously - considered as a huge piece of crap. "Cardiac Arrest" is downright unendurable 80's junk and, maybe it's just me, but there's something seriously wrong with the plot. The lousy excuse for a "film" opens and continues with the investigation of a couple of murder cases where the hearts have been surgically removed from the victims' bodies, only … we didn't see the murders happening! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the point of horror films to show the violence and blood? This is more like a comedy with homicide coppers puking each time they encounter a corpse and that sort of lame things. "Cardiac Arrest" is a totally senseless and incoherent piece of crap with lousy characters, irritating dialogs, a dreadfully boring pace and – as said before – no gore. I made a rookie mistake picking out this film for its cover, and I'm trying to make the pain go away by advising others to avoid it like the plague. Suffering from a cardiac arrest yourself even looks like more fun.

Who is Garry Goodrow, may you ask? I only remembered him, as the sleazy smart talker, Berrudi, in the 83's hit Breathless. But this film, he's running the show, and I'm glad. Most of the film's enjoyment, I got out of his cop character, but he's playing more true to life, as in the character, but of course he's not the most conventional cop. Hey, if he wasn't, we wouldn't have as good a movie. C.A. does show moments of Amateurville, with not the greatest script for starters. Watching it last night, it looks very old now, kind of 70's film noir, which it is, but I'm saying, if the film was made today, and set in that period. The engaging film, which I 'spose could of made better use of it's great story, which today of course would seem old hat or tiresome, has people being butchered, and their hearts missing. The killer or killers responsible, have very expensive motives let say, and I'll leave the story there, and you can fill in the rest. Yes this is an oldie, but it's a good one, you should witness. It is though, and I really re-iterate here, Goodrow's presence and his show that engages you. For a cop, he doesn't have the strongest stomach. His girlfriend cop, dinkying him on her three wheeler bike, is a hoot, or watching him devour a sandwich with his Asian colleague, and their arguing differences were great, if only getting better dialogue. A real medical cop thriller, that's a heart starter.

Cardiac Arrest (1980)

1/2 (out of 4)

Detective Garry Goodrow (Clancy Higgins) gets sick at the sight of blood, which isn't a good thing considering his latest case. Set in San Francisco, the detective is trying to track down a serial killer who is ripping the hearts out of his victims. It turns out that the killer might be involved in a harvest program.

CARDIAC ARREST hit video shelves and was being sold as a horror movie with a pretty good cover showing an evil doctor holding a heart. I'm going to guess that this film was put into theaters as a detective story but it flopped so the producers tried to make their money back on video by passing it off in the slasher era. Sadly, the film is just really awful from the start and has very little working for it.

I will say that the idea of an evil doctor, hearts being stolen and sold is a pretty good idea but sadly nothing is done with it here. I really thought this was a poorly made movie right from the start as it lacks any real tension and there's never an atmosphere or anything else built. Even worse is how awful some of the performances are as you'd really think that they filmed a rehearsal because the performances are that bad.

The mystery of who the killer is was well kept but at the same time the viewer is so bored by the film that by the half hour mark they won't even care who is doing it. The lead detective isn't very interesting and neither is everything that happens for him to solve the case. With the mystery side of things not working you'd hope for some good kill scenes but that doesn't happen either as we usually just see the aftermath so those expecting gore or violence should go somewhere else.

CARDIAC ARREST is a film that just doesn't work and should only be viewed by those wanting to see the bottom of the barrel.

This has to be the weirdest movie I ever saw.Number 1 because it dosent really have a plot and 2 some of the acting is so bad you'll laugh.The one good thing about this movie is that if your from san francisco you will notice that the movie was filmed in the raphael hotel which is now the maxwell hotel and actually the movie was filmed where that sprial stair case is in the hotel.