Le frisson du crime

Warning to those with epilepsy: don't watch the first five minutes.

Crime author Graydon Jennings narrates the first scenes of this movie, which take place in a dance club with strobe lighting. I say crime author because his books are like "Columbo" movies. You know who did it, but the idea is to watch the investigation.

A year after the murder of her sister Alison, bartender Kelly of Manchester, Vermont, sees Jennings being interviewed and buys one of his books. Amazed by the similarities to her sister's case, Kelly goes to a book signing in Burlington and persuades Jennings to investigate the murder. He agrees.

Weird things start happening. Hank, a frequent customer at Clyde's Bar where Kelly works, liked Alison a lot and continues stalker-like behavior. The prime suspect in Alison's murder, though, seems to be Senator Hartford, one of many men she spent time with. At least he is believed to be "Cicero" from Alison's diary.

Kelly confronts Hartford, but there's no real evidence, and Hartford wants Kelly silenced.

Despite this being a TV-movie, certain words to describe Alison's promiscuous behavior are used. In flashbacks, we see Alison behaving badly. But the most sexy scene is the one where Kelly's friend Linda stays over (because Kelly is afraid) and takes a shower after running.

During the second half, there are some scary moments, but this is an ordinary thriller at best.

There's nothing that special here. Matt Cooke is pretty good as the senator. Chris Potter's narration at the beginning raises expectations, and he has some good moments later, but this is nothing more than a Lifetime-type movie, and not one of the better ones. But it is entertaining enough, and not too violent.

If you like mystery/thrillers, this is a good one & keeps you guessing almost to the end. The acting was very good by all and each had a clear identity that gave one pause to wonder, "was it him?" Very enjoyable and held my interest from beginning to end and a good job of a movie made for television by all. Definitely entertaining which is WHY some of us STILL DO watch such movies that give us a thrill and chill at the same time.

Kelly Holden (Shiri Appleby) is a feisty young attractive woman who wants answers as to who murdered her more flirty sister. When the police seemed to have all but closed the case, Kelly seeks out the assistance of the famed crime writer novelist Graydon Jennings (Chris Potter) to pick his brain to help get the murder investigation moving in the right direction, that being with a big "SOLVED" over the cover of her sistsers stalled murder investigation.

It does not take a lot of convincing, nor does it take a lot of time for crime novelist Graydon Jennings to agree to get invlolved and quickly embarass the local police with his investigative approach whiich leads Kelly and Graydon with a couple of prime suspects. What would a murder/mystery film be if we didn't have an influential, well known, corrupt and slimy politician leading the list of potential murder suspects?

Okay, so the film has a few holes in it and the director/writer(s) deliberately provide us with a few suspects so we have to fugure out the "whodunit", but all in all the on screen chemistry between the two lead actors Shiri Appleby and Chris Potter helped me at least want to see how the movie ends.

Did it thrill me? No But it did not disappoint me either so I give the film a passable 5 out of 10 rating. An okay time waster. Nothing more, nothing less.

'Twas the night before Christmas and all that was on TV was … dreck. There was the usual complement of the usual Christmas movies that I've seen dozens of times before. We had a few rented DVDs to watch but I needed something to amuse me that didn't require my full attention while I prepared Christmas Eve dinner for the wife and me.

I checked out our cable on-demand station and found more dreck. When I saw "Thrill Of The Kill" starred Shiri Appleby I figured that it might prove interesting and, if nothing else, provide a little eye candy. I haven't noticed Ms Appleby in anything since Roswell where I thought she did a very capable job of portraying Liz. And, here in TOTK, she does an admirable job of playing Kelly Helms whose sister, Allison, was brutally murdered several months ago. The police have no leads and the murder is a cold case.

Kelly reads the titular book written by crime fiction novelist Graydon Jennings (Chris Potter) which describes a murder with striking similarities to that of Allison's. Kelly contacts Jennings and asks for his help in solving Allison's murder. Reading Allison's diary makes it apparent she would crawl into bed with nearly any guy but was actually in love with someone she referred to as "Cicero". With some more sleuthing, the pair determines that Cicero was a US senator. After confronting the senator, the usual sort of bad stuff starts to happen around Kelly.

Plot starting to sound familiar ? It should – this things pulls up almost every stupid heroine cliché. Kelly doesn't call the cops when she should, several times. There is a jealous admirer whom everyone ignores. Who, in their right mind in the 21st century, confronts a politician about an affair and possible murder without wearing some kind of recording device ? I guessed the ending about ten minutes into it. My wife paid attention for about ten minutes in the middle of it and knew the ending. Potter's acting was no great shakes ( I kept expecting Zoe Busiek to pop up) and, apart from the sisters, the characters could have been played by mannequins – I think some of then actually were ! ;-) If you want to turn your brain off for a couple of hours, this is your movie. Otherwise, bypass it widely.

It's not your high budget movie but it's a good paced and good movie which has some interesting twists and turns. Worth a watch. And definitely beats some high end Hollywood flops.