Le Justicier de minuit

Serial killers ... mostly weirdos aren't they? At least in movies. That doesn't mean that they are easy to get. Quite the opposite - even if the viewer and maybe the characters involved do know who the culprit is. Those in the movie may only be guessing (right), but as viewers we know for sure who does it in this case. We watch with our own eyes ... despicable acts of murder, quite vividly taking place. And a lot of nudity thrown in for good measure.

If you have issues with these things (for whatever reason, I'm not judging), you probably shouldn't watch this movie. And yes while some who watch it may call it entertaining, in the end it is a movie. With a questionable moral compass and an even more in your face ending ... not for the faint of hearted that's for sure!

In Los Angeles, the rookie Detective Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens) teams up with the veteran Detective Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) to investigate the murder of Betty Johnson (June Gilbert) and her boyfriend that were stabbed by a naked serial-killer in a park. Detective Kessler recognizes the victim, who lived in the same neighborhood many years ago and childhood friend of his daughter Laurie Kessler (Lisa Eilbacher). The killer Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) goes to the funeral and overhears Betty's father telling Detective Kessler that his daughter had a diary.

Warren breaks in Betty's apartment and stabs and kills her roommate Karen Smalley (Jeana Tomasina) trying to find the diary. But Karen had already delivered the journal to Detective Kessler. Leo Kessler is sure that Warren is the serial-killer and her plants a false evidence in his apartment. However, Warren's defense lawyer presses Detective McAnn accusing him of perjury and Warren is released. Now the Warren is stalking Laurie to revenge against her father.

"10 to Midnight" is a classic thriller from the 80's and among the best movies of Charles Bronson. I saw this film two or three times in the past and I have just seen it again. The unexpected reaction of Detetctive Leo Kessler is the climax of this great film and gives an unforgettable conclusion to the story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Dez Minutos para Morrer" ("Ten Minutes to Die")

... Could a tag-line possibly sound more Bronson-like? J. Lee Thompsons "10 To Midnight" of 1983 starring the great late Charley, is a decent cop flick, not nearly one of the most memorable Bronson flicks, but still a pretty suspenseful little thriller that will highly entertain all my fellow fans of everybody's favorite no-nonsense ass-kicker.

Warren Stacy (Gene Davis) is a psychopathic serial killer who gets his kicks by running around naked and stabbing his victims to death. He does not randomly select his victims, but kills, because he wants to get back at the women who have rebuffed his advances. Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is a tough and experienced cop, who doesn't hesitate to use unorthodox methods to get justice done. When Kessler investigates the murders he has to find out that the latest victim was a close friend of his daughter's (Lisa Eilbacher). Accompanied by his rookie colleague Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens), Kessler soon finds out who the murderer is. Warren Stacy is quite smart, however, and never leaves any evidence. Things quickly get personal between Kessler and Stacy, and you know Charley B. - he's probably not the guy you wanna mess with.

"10 To Midnight" differs from the majority of other Cop vs. Serial Killer thrillers, since the viewer knows from the very beginning who the killer is. The movie focuses on the strife between Bronson and the serial killer, and builds up suspense by focusing on the serial killer and his possible victims. Since Bronson has to use illegal methods in order to get justice done ("Forget What's Legal... Do What's Right!") the film is, of course, politically incorrect as hell; But isn't that exactly what we love about Charlie Bronson? The man takes the law in his own hands and doesn't mind the bad guys getting hurt - If you don't like it, stop whining. Bronson is great as always and Gene Davis delivers a great performance as the serial killer, very wooden and therefore very creepy. Lisa Eilbacher, who play's Bronson's daughter, is very cute, and Geoffrey Lewis is great as the killer's sleazy lawyer. Some folks complain about poor editing in this movie, I don't really see why. One of the things I didn't like was the fact that the killer was rather one dimensional. "10 To Midnight" may lack depth, but it is a suspenseful film, certainly no masterpiece, but nonetheless a decent thriller that Bronson fans should like. I recommend to watch this, and to have a beer doing so.

Compared with the ridiculously shoddy "Death Wish" sequels, most of Charles Bronson's 1980s collaborations with J. Lee Thompson are masterpieces. In fact, even with the high ratio of bad actors and technical shortcomings, films like "Evil That Men Do" and this one, "10 to Midnight," kick modern hardboilers right in the balls.

In any case, I've read some comments by folks who don't understand the title "10 to Midnight." Here's what it means: the killer's alibi is that he was seen at a theater watching a movie that ran between 10 pm and midnight, the same time the murder took place. 10 to Midnight--get it? Oddly enough, even the marketing department of the movie's original distributor, Cannon, didn't get the title. Hence the tag line, "A Cop, a Killer, a Deadline." There's no deadline in the film.

Here's where I think the confusion lies: During this period, director Thompson convinced Canon heads Golan and Globus, and Bronson's producer, Pancho Kohner, to hire his son, Peter Lee Thompson, to edit his films. While most of the younger Thompson's editing was pretty good visually, he was a bit sloppy when it came to points of continuity. For instance, in "Evil" a character passes Bronson a photo of the villain, The Doctor, mentioning him by name. But we can plainly see that the photo is not of the Doctor at all. In "Murphy's Law" we see an over the shoulder shot of a gangster laid out on a sofa, stark naked, being administered to by a hooker. When we see him face-on in the reverse shot he is wearing a robe. The scene continues to bop back and forth--robe, no robe, robe, no robe, etc.

So Thompson the younger didn't really get that whole "reality" concept.

Anyway, back to "10." I'm sure that J. Lee shot footage establishing a very specific reference to the timeframe of the first murder. And I'm just as sure that his son just didn't think it was all that important to keep in. After all, it wasn't a naked woman being stabbed to death--it was only the title of the movie.

It's easy to forget that in the 80s, action movies were every bit as violent as horror films and 10 to Midnight is pretty harsh. It feels like they're attempting to make both a Friday the 13th and a Death Wish movie AT THE SAME TIME!

Charles Bronson plays a tough cop dedicated to his job. He stumbles onto a serial sex killer and obsessively hunts him down only to have the system fail him leading to a truly shocking bloodbath at the finale.

10 to Midnight is Cannon film, thus it's over-the-top with lots of sex and violence. It's also through and through a Bronson film so there's a lot of tough guy grandstanding and complaints about a broken legal system that values the rights of the accused over those of the victim.

The positives of this movie are that it has a truly solid cast. Bronson actually seems to care about his performance (not always the case in his later films), the villain is creepy and frightening (he likes to attack his lady victims while he is totally nude), and the kills are intensely effective.

The negatives are that the movie is just a little too slow. There are too many cop movie cliches and I didn't care at all about Bronson's partner. Honestly, I feel that this movie would have worked much better as a straight forward giallo film.

This is a cop movie that occasionally turns into a slasher film which leaves a movie that can't find a consistent tone. Fans of slashers and cop flicks are both likely to be put off by the movie but it is unique enough that I get why it has a cult following. It's an above average latter day Bronson film and probably at least worth a look for fans that don't mind a little (or a lot!) of bloodshed.