Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueA college professor's day: his top student allegedly commits suicide, his wife presents him with divorce papers and he overnights in a freshman girl's dorm. The next day: more murders around... Tout lireA college professor's day: his top student allegedly commits suicide, his wife presents him with divorce papers and he overnights in a freshman girl's dorm. The next day: more murders around him. Will he find the killer in time?A college professor's day: his top student allegedly commits suicide, his wife presents him with divorce papers and he overnights in a freshman girl's dorm. The next day: more murders around him. Will he find the killer in time?
- Réalisation
- Scénario
- Casting principal
- Nicholas Lang
- (as Rob Knepper)
Avis à la une
English lecturer Dexter Cornell (Quaid) is a bitter, bored shell of a man. Formerly a great author, he never recovered from the critical failure of his fourth and final novel and vowed never to write again. Without the drive of writing to fill his life, he gave up on everything else too, including his marriage and his dedication to the job. When pupil Nick Lang (Rob Knepper) apparently commits suicide after handing in an assignment, Cornell hits the booze to get over the shock. But soon thereafter, he learns that he has drunk a slow-acting poison, and that within 48 hours he will be dead. So close to death, he finally finds a renewed purpose in being alive.... as, aided by student Sydney Fuller (Meg Ryan), he desperately attempts to solve his own "murder".
It's such a good idea that one can hardly imagine how it could fail. But it does. It really, really does fail in a big way. All the pointlessly fancy camera angles, all the inappropriate musical scoring, and especially the jaw-droppingly stupid solution to the mystery, conspire to ruin the film. D.O.A stands for "Dead On Arrival", and that's the perfect adjectival phrase for the entire film. Some day, this wonderful idea for a film might be used once again to better effect, but for now you'd be best advised to stick with the 1950 version.
The film stars Dennis Quaid in one of his early roles, when he was first becoming really famous, after "The Right Stuff" made him a star, and a very lovely looking Meg Ryan, when she was still now quite famous.
This is more of an "update" of the 1950 film, rather than a remake, since the setting is different and the characters too, are different. The plot is pretty much the same. A man (this time an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin) is poisoned and he has only 24 hours to find out who poisoned him and why. Meg Ryan plays a young college student who tries to help him. Jane Kaczmarek plays Quaid's estranged wife, in a low key, but intense performance; she steals every scene she is in. Daniel Stern (also in an early role, before "Home Alone" made him famous) plays Quaid's colleague. Charlotte Rampling is fine too in a supporting role.
The entire cast is top notch; The film is stylish, with a quick pace that keeps you guessing until the end.
I think this is a film that is certainly worth watching as a thriller, and as a modern version of a classic film.
Quaid is the English professor who walks into a police station and reports a murder: his own. He has 24 hours to live after having been given poison, and is determined to use the remainder of his life to find his killer.
This film is fast-paced and littered with corpses and more red herrings than Brixton market, but the direction and script never gel. Despite a competent and charming performance by Quaid, paired with his real-life wife-to-briefly-be Ryan (a romance necessarily also conducted at top speed), D.O.A. is let down by a cop-out ending.
Le saviez-vous
- AnecdotesThird of five versions of the D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival) story with the first being the classic original film noir motion picture Mort à l'arrivée (1949) with other versions being Mort à l'arrivée (1988), Hyper Tension (2006), Color Me Dead (1969), and Dead on Arrival (2013).
- GaffesAt the end of the movie, Dex shoots the villain, who falls out of a window. Dex shot the villain in the front and the villain took several steps backward, without turning around. The next shot shows the villain very obviously jumping out of the window by running up to it facing forward and spinning around in the air.
- Citations
Bernard: I don't think I like what you're inferring, Mr. Cornell...
Dexter Cornell: [condescendingly] Implying. When I say it, that's implying. How you take it, that's inferring.
Bernard: I see. Infer this.
[punches Dexter]
- Crédits fousThe opening Touchstone Logo is in black & white and the logo's flash is accompanied by a thunder clap.
- Bandes originalesToo Much Sex, Not Enough Affection
Written by Pat MacDonald
Performed by Timbuk 3
Courtesy of I.R.S. Records
Meilleurs choix
- How long is D.O.A.?Alimenté par Alexa
Détails
Box-office
- Budget
- 3 500 000 $US (estimé)
- Montant brut aux États-Unis et au Canada
- 12 706 478 $US
- Week-end de sortie aux États-Unis et au Canada
- 3 751 432 $US
- 20 mars 1988
- Montant brut mondial
- 12 706 478 $US
- Durée1 heure 36 minutes
- Couleur
- Rapport de forme
- 1.85 : 1