Mr. Murder

This was a very very long entertaining film that really could have been cut in half before it started to become one big boring film. Stephen Baldwin,(Marty Stillwater/Alfie) played two characters in this film and gave a great performance fighting against himself and having to prove himself to his own family. Julie Warner, (Paige Stillwater) gave a great supporting role as his wife who had two girls, Caley Cuoco,(Charlotte Stillwater) and Brittney Lee Harvey (Emily). Brittney Lee Harvey is a very young girl and gave a simply great performance as the younger sister. Caley Cuoco is another actress who gave a great supporting role and a appeared on a great TV Show with the late John Ritter. Nice Sci-Fi film with lots of action but entirely too long for me.

Good Film. Decent Acting. Fine Plot (kinda like Soldier). Too Long !!!

The film starts well. It had me thinking that this kind of GM/Clone type stuff is possible and may well have been tried by governments as we speak. After a great opening 45 minutes the film descends into farce. Chase, evade, catch fight, chase, escape, fight, catch, chase, etc... At on point it feels like a superman flick. One leaves as the other enters, etc. Laughable. I did however enjoy the pathetic special effects when Baldwin was fighting with himself. Shocking!

The actors chosen to play the characters were adequate at best. The premise of the story was changed, making much less sense. The only thing that remained the same was the fact that there was an author and a clone of him. After that the story deteriorates.

I don't know why a Dean Koontz book cannot be made into a movie without making ridiculous changes to the story line. The changes that were made took away the motivation from the characters, so there is no understanding why they do what they do. Drew Oslett actually has a significant reason in the book for pursuing the clone, but that is completely lost in the movie. Clocker's role was pretty insignificant in the movie, but was essential in the book. This movie was not worth the two nights of viewing. If you want a good story, read the book.

I would say all in all a decent TV movie. There was a lot from the book that never made it into the movie but that is to be expected. I'm sure Koontz himself would have done things different if he could have had FULL control. But considering the books are generally butchered for the screen anyway there is not much you can do about that.

The movie flowed well and the acting was solid. The kids were very real and believable, and Baldwin was good in the duel role. I thought the wife (played by Julie Warner) could have been cast better, she seemed a bit out of step with the feel of the story.

It's worth watching.

I rented this as a DVD, unaware that it was originally made for TV. The screenplay has obvious breaks in it where commercials are meant to go, and they were so emphatically built up that I kept reaching for the "mute" button on the remote!

The story itself works, and Baldwin does a good job of carrying off both the good guy and the bad guy role. The writer and director seem to have the good sense not to overdo things.

Take for example the kid characters. Two young girls, obviously hostage bait, and they end up in the bad-guy's hands more than once. They're cute, but they are neither too brainless or unreasonably savvy, and we've seen too much of both extremes in that role in similar films. The older one does some fairly clever thinking that adds to the story.

Less well convincing were the cops, who start out good when they doubting the hero's story, but actually become more passive as the show goes on.

Probably the best thing to watch is not the villain, but the villain's villain, Drew Oslett Jr. Thomas Church actually looks like he could be James Coburn's son. But it is character's internal pain that drives the whole story. Church does his best, but it would have been interesting to give him more screen time to do it in.

The "science" part of this movie is really skipped over; anyone not willing to suspend disbelief will be sorely unsatisfied.

All in all worth seeing for a weekend with nothing else to do.