The Poison Rose

Forget some of the film's flaws. It's an entertaining film-noir type of the 1940s. Travolta is not an ideal PI, but a joy to see him act with Morgan Freeman and Brendan Fraser.

If you like film noirs of the 1940s, don't miss The Poison Rose

Starring an impressive cast including John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Famke Janssen, Brendan Fraser, and Robert Patrick. This want a be film noir tries too hard with its more wordy than usual voice over of John Travolta and the efforts to make this movie into some sort of Maltese Falcon (1941), The Long Goodbye (1973), China Town (1974), Fargo (1996), L. A. Confidential (1997), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), or Gone Baby Gone (2007). The script has too much thrown into the plot along with unconvincing gunfights. Instead a simplified script that allowed the actors to really shine would have been much better. Oddly enough Brendan Fraser, the Doc, gets the best character from which to show off his out of character star persona. The Poison Rose starts to show promise a third of the way in but then sort of collapses under its own weight to a more ambivalent but cliché ending. A more thoughtful script would have greater improved the movie and performances.

It's rated only a 4.6, but in my opinion, it's better than that. It's not great, but I love film noir and this was a pretty good one. I like how John Travolta narrated throughout the movie, like a classic film noir. I liked the steamy, Southern atmosphere and the plot twists & turns. It had a star-studded cast and they all did a very good job. I liked that John Travolta's real life daughter had a role in this movie and the scenes between the two of them were very sweet & tender. I liked the slow, sensual pace of the movie, which is realistic for us Southerners. We don't rush for anything. Lol And I loved the music in the film, especially that seductive trumpet tune which played during the end credits. This movie just oozed steamy, Southern flavor and the acting was good by all involved. Like I said, not great, but if you like classic film noir with a sultry Southern feeling (I certainly do) then you'll like this film. Give it a try, who knows? You might love it as much as I did. I gave it a 6, but would've given it a 6.5 if I could have.

I couldn't believe the polarized reviews - some rating high and saying they also were confused by the extremely low ratings of others. The low ratings (almost all "1"s) are so similar in their generalized criticisms that it feels like someone paid people to leave them or the same person wrote them all. ("Worse movie ever"? Really? With no explanation as to why) When you go to rotten tomatoes same thing. A ton of only 1 star ratings, all by UNVERIFIED people. This is definitely not a 1 star movie. I have seen WAY worse movies rated way higher than 1. It is an interesting movie worth watching that I think has been under attack by someone trying to discredit it intentionally.

The film starts like a typical Chinatown syndrome. The locations r gorgeous with those plentiful awesome greenery all around. It has some violent shootout scenes but the best is Freeman's screen presence, Fraser's laughable body shape n Travolta's cool act.