Slow Burn

This wore out its welcome about 40 minutes into the movie and after the halfway point, about 10 minutes later, I totally didn't care if our girl here was innocent or guilty. The story just became plodding.

I am so glad it wasn't just me, that the first review I see here - Mermaidbronze - felt the same way I did. I'll put it in simple terms: this film was not as "smart" and "clever" as it thought it was. In fact, it was stupid because it committed the ultimate sin for making a movie - it bored the hell out of its audience, and an audience that includes some "smart people" who can figure things out. A convoluted movie is just that, and not fun to watch no matter what any viewer's IQ might be.

Movies that revolve around the big question "Did he/she kill the person or not" are either extremely interesting and involving or the opposite. I found it un-involving, and when you don't care about the characters, then you don't care who's innocent or guilty and the film loses all effectiveness.

This movie was filmed in 2003 but not released until this year - four years later! Maybe they knew it was a turkey.

SLOW BURN is a film that has much to like, much promise, and a cast of trusty actors to bring it off. The problem with the result is in director/writer Wayne Beach's hands and especially in the editing job on the completed film. It is like watching a 'follow-the-bouncing-ball' film: there are many surprises and subplots and altered identities that keeping a score card of where the story is going is a bit difficult.

Reduced to the bare bones the plot takes place in a 24 hour period during which District Attorney Ford Cole (Ray Liotta) and his Assistant DA Nora (Jolene Blalock) are in a showdown with a significant crime boss Luther Pinks (LL Cool J). Nothing is as it seems, as irritating flashbacks attempt to prove, and in the end the good guys and the bad guys are difficult to appreciate. There are some excellent performances by reliable actors such as Taye Diggs, Mekhi Phifer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Bruce McGill, but the plot depends on a significant point of the confused racial identity of Jolene Blalock's character, and though she acts well, the part would have been better served by an actress like Nicole Ari Parker, to name just one.

The problem with this supposedly enigmatic thriller is that the astute viewer will see through the plot far too early. But given the quibbles, it is good to see these actors at work, especially the underused Ray Liotta. Grady Harp

Wayne Beach's storytelling tactics are very particular but eventually effective. Characters are chameleon-like and plot is transparent and convoluted at the same time, reminding a bit John Grisham's novels adaptations. The twists capsizing everything over the last twenty minutes turn the conclusion into a big mess but heat is not lacking at all. Plot reversals and action flashes look like a fusion of "The Usual Suspects" and Hollywoood legal thrillers, besides this political/Court story also handles themes of racial confusion and conflicts. Not a stellar cast, but the movie is overall well acted (Ray Liotta has a pulse as usual).

I remember growing up on films such as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Fugitive, films with enough plot twists and turns to keep things fresh and interesting. I was more than pleasantly surprised to see excellent performances from an otherwise pieced-together cast of Ray Liotta, Taye Diggs, LL Cool J, Mekhi Phifer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and of course Jolene Blalock. I enjoyed every minute of this film whose score and choice of background, and especially credit, music made it all that much more memorable.

Personally, I love films in, around, or about the city. Without giving anything away, Slow Burn deals with corruption and a little gang-related mystery; all the while providing that sense of empathy for Liotta's character that seems all too absent in modern films today.

No, this film is not for everyone, but if you can remember what it was like to be genuinely stringed along and interested in what happens at every twist and turn of those 90's film plots, then you should find yourself feeling that you got you're 9.50's worth on a Friday night.

Ray Liotta as a DA running for Mayor who has trouble when one of his best and brightest assistants turns herself in for shooting someone in self defense. Complicating matters is a drug lord who shows up to tell Liotta things are not as they seem.

Bad make up job on our leading actress aside this is a good but not great little thriller that would have fared better as "made for cable original" where the expectations wouldn't be that high. Give it points for twisting and turning, take one or so back for being only a step or two above most direct to video releases.

Worth a look but late on a Saturday night where this would be perfect fare before bed time.