Nella morsa del ragno

A terrific movie. Suspense, thrills and a plot that twists and turns. Detective Alex Cross(Morgan Freeman),on sick leave recovering from the lose of his partner, is called back into action when the daughter of Senator Rose(Michael Moriarty) is kidnapped from her private school. Cross is an expert profiler and is very successful in tracking down elusive criminals.

Michael Wincott plays the savvy kidnapper. Also in the cast are: Monica Potter, Mika Boorem and Dylan Baker. Penelope Ann Miller is the Senator's wife. Very tense mood throughout with Freeman strong and steady. Probably the best acting is turned in by easy on the eye Ms. Potter.

The kidnapper has the detective hurrying to keep pace in the race to save the little girl's life. A surprising twist makes for a very satisfying finale. This thriller is just that.

When a senator's daughter gets kidnapped from a exclusive private school by her teacher Gary Soneji, the FBI are called in. However the kidnapper has his own agenda and phones Alex Cross, sucking him into the case even though he has not worked for almost a year due to the guilt he feels over the death of his partner. With the killer leaving him clues, Cross realises that Soneji is after fame and is using him to communicate to the world. Taking on Secret Service agent Jezzie Flannigan as his partner, Cross tries to work out enough about Soneji to profile and catch him.

It has been too many years since I saw Kiss The Girls for me to be able to comment on the quality or lack thereof in the first film but I decided to give this sequel a try anyway. From the opening scene this is pure Hollywood with its clunky CGI and its simplistic plot device of the dead partner and so we continue with a fairly uninspiring thriller that is engaging enough but never does anything that special. It doesn't help that the primetime schedules are full of versions of Alex Cross in TV series mysteries but generally this film just plods its way through a story that isn't "obvious" so much as it is uninspiring. It is an enjoyable enough mystery that is professionally handled but it lacks imagination and flair. The twists come but the film is not exciting enough to prevent the audience from thinking and, in thinking it is easy to rip massive holes in the logic of the whole thing – and thinking a plot is a bit silly doesn't help keep one interested. Tamahori directs without any distinction – he isn't bad but again he doesn't do anything of that much interest.

Instead he sits back and hopes that Morgan Freeman doing Morgan Freeman's "Zen-cool™" will be enough to carry the audience along with the whole affair. Luckily for him this does work to some degree because Freeman on his day could sell shoes to fish. He is solid and professional even if he is underserved by the script. Wincott is good in a role that he could have made more of but instead is controlled and restrained. Potter is blond and dull and is not suited one jot to the role that her character grows into during the film. Baker deserves a bigger role while Miller, Horsford and a few others provide familiar faces.

Overall then an entertaining but uninspired affair that pushes the right buttons but doesn't aspire to anything beyond the genre. The cast and the budget help but the story gets weaker the longer it goes on and although it will do enough for some viewers, it is nothing that special.

Overall I enjoyed Along Came a Spider, it wasn't absolutely brilliant, but it sets out to be a good thriller and does that. Even with some plot implausibilities, a so-so performance from Monica Potter and one or two moments of forced pacing, it is well made and suspenseful. The cinematography is skillful and stylish, and the music is nicely done and adds to the suspense. The pace in general is brisk, apart from it being forced on occasions when it tried to fit in too many plot twists, and the story springs from an interesting concept. The script has some very good moments, and the direction is very good. The performances apart from Monica Potter are strong, with Morgan Freeman great as always and Michael Wincott solid as the kidnapper. Mika Boorem shows promise as a blossoming young actress, and Penelope Ann Miller does a very nice job as her mother. Overall, decent thriller, with problems, but carried by its cast primarily. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I've been reading some of the comments for this movie, and think that many of you are over-critical. This is a psychological thriller, and plays it's part well. Morgan Freeman is one of my favourite actors, and he plays Detective Alex Cross very well. I enjoyed the movie on a thriller type basis. If you want to be critical about it not living up to the book's legend then fine... cause I'll be the first one to tell you that it's barely anything like the book. "Along Came a Spider" was a wonderful book and the character of Gary Soneji was compared to a spider... if anyone was wondering why the title was called that. I'm not one to bash movies unless they are horrible, and for those of you that think this movie is horrible... thats just your call. This movie is good, its just not the book. *** out of *****

I'm not sure why everyone rated this a mid grade movie. It is far better than a lot of 6&7 star rated movies out there. Never was bored, good storyline, not as predictable as other murder mystery stories.