Naked City: A Killer Christmas

Well, what a waste of 90 minutes. Some of the worst acting you would ever want to see (particularly the waitress who was Peralta's girlfriend - this would be an example of overacting at its absolute worst) allied to inept, wooden screenwriting. Its sole redeeming feature is a nice twist in the story but the ending is lame. If you have anything better to do dont bother watching this movie.

"Naked City: A Killer Christmas" is a journeyman made-for-tv movie about a NYC detective duo (Glenn & Vance) who continue investigating a serial killer case after the FBI has put a bow on it. A no brainer flick which doesn't take itself too seriously, is laced with light-hearted side plots and humor, and doesn't get bloody or ugly, "NC:AKC" is an easy watch for crime flick junkies. Keep expectations low, kick back, and enjoy.

This NY city piece starts sneakily with its characters but eventually unfolds in the first 40 minutes with both the characters and the basis of the plot. Once the characters and plot are established it turns into a quasi mystery who-dunnit. Nice to watch but not so intriguing and edgy as typical thriller movies with the who-dunnit theme. The sub plot of the media exciting the serial-killer story is a very good study. That, alone, is worth the time.

Before going into reviewing this sequel I already explained in the review for the predecessor why I saw this one first, but it wasn't a problem since I nearly loved this and it didn't hurt that much having seen the sequel before the predecessor (and I also have never seen the 1948 NAKED CITY either).

Sergeant Daniel Muldoon (Scott Glenn) and Officer James Halloran (Courtney Vance) as usual patrol New York streets, this time during the days before Christmas. This time they have to investigate on a serial killer that dresses up as Santa Claus and as they come to the point of finding the killer and his reasons they'll deal also with their personal lives, chaos in the office as they all are soon to go on restive days and very much behave like in a typical Christmas movie.

As I said in the summary this wasn't intended to be a Christmas movie but it happened to be because it was scheduled for a first airing on December 14 in 1998. Not that it hampers the plot that much but still it was great having lots of light-hearted moments (like when Muldoon hangs out with a colleague and start chanting while going in another office) while also dealing with a murderer disguising himself as Santa Claus.

Not to be missed even if you didn't saw the predecessor first like me, it's much better (perhaps it's just me but still, they are both very underrated).

A very good film worth watching and recommending. Although it's low on suspense, the acting by Laura Leighton makes up for it. Her role as Newsreporter Gerry Millar is one that makes the movie. She steals the scene everytime she appears. Who knew that she was also pretty as a blonde!