Columbo: Grand Deceptions

Colonel Frank Brailie has been stealing money from a foundation fund and enjoying the benefits of it for years until Sergeant Major Lester Keegan finds out and decides he wants his cut in return for silence. The two men work together at a private military training academy that takes citizens and makes them into soldiers. Not wanting to give up his income, Brailie uses a party for General Padget and the setting up of a gift as an alibi while he slips out to find Keegan on night manoeuvres with his unit. He stabs Keegan unseen and then leaves his body on one of many explosive packs set to simulate mortar attacks. The next day he is called to the scene of the "accident" to find that Lieutenant Columbo is there with this men. It all seems "open & shut" until Columbo finds a flashlight and a reason to doubt the accident.

As with many TV film series (such as Perry Mason), if you like one or two of them then you'll pretty much like them all. This entry in the Columbo series pretty much follows the usual formula – we know the killer and the "perfect" plan but then watch Columbo follow his hunch and gradually starts to pick holes in the story he is told before eventually finding enough to prove his suspicions. Knowing this ahead of time won't ruin anything for you; it is simply what happens in all the films. With this strict adherence to formula it is usually down to several factors whether or not the Columbo film stands out or if it is just average. Having had my fingers burnt with my first "new" Columbo, I wasn't sure if I should bother going back or should just rewatch the original series from the seventies, but I thought that the formula can't be that hard to pull off and figured that it was worth another pass. Sadly this film continues the trend of just not being as roundly enjoyable as it did in its heyday. The story is OK but it is the delivery where it falls down. We spend too long on the build up and too long on the characters rather than focusing on Columbo. The mood of the originals used to be quite bright and fun but here it is drab and serious – making it harder to enjoy while being too stiff to enjoy as a drama. The mystery unfolds in a quite uninvolving fashion and I didn't get into it that well.

The delivery problems continue with the characters and the performances. Falk isn't himself and he seems less comfortable in his character than before – a very strange thing considering I'm used to seeing him be so natural. It isn't his fault though that he is almost sidelined by the other characters and I did wonder why the film spent so much time away from him. Foxworth is too dull to interact with Columbo well and he is far from being a good foil for Falk if you use the standard set by the first few series. Romano is OK in a minor role but while the performances from Elliott and Eilber are OK, they don't deserve the focus they are given.

Overall an average Columbo film at best. The idea is OK but the delivery is roundly poor. The cast are poor, the story uninspiring, the music twee and silly all producing a modern film that doesn't deserve to really share the same character as the originals and will barely do enough to please even fans.

GRAND DECEPTIONS is one of the earliest of the comeback Columbo episodes, following on from the superior SEX AND THE MARRIED DETECTIVE. This one's a little dry and stilted for a Columbo episode, not to mention that the military setting is overly familiar from earlier and better instalments (like BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT).

The murder is a typical one with a military angle, but it takes forever to get going and about half an hour of screen time has passed until we get to the meat of the detective investigation. Although the running time overall is only an hour and a half, this story feels very slow and it's a little too serious for its own good; there's no goofiness here, and even though Columbo's dog makes a cameo, he doesn't get to do much.

Falk is on fine fettle, but I find that Columbo is only as good as his opponents, and Robert Foxworth as the guest villain is a bit of a bore, far too straight-laced to make an impact. Andy Romano (ERASER) as the victim is much better, as Stephen Elliott playing the old-time general. But, in the end, GRAND DECEPTIONS is a very ordinary and average-feeling Columbo story, with a completely spurious ending, and certainly not one to remember.

One of the most mediocre of all 68 Columbo episodes, as nearly every aspect thereof is unimaginative and boring. The killer is an utterly uninteresting character, who cannot arouse an ounce of sympathy for himself since he is not only a coldblooded murderer, but also one who betrays both his handicapped boss (a decorated war hero) and the woman he is having an affair with. He is also a mediocre and monotonous actor, who cannot make his role exciting in any way. The woman in the story is also played by an average actress who cannot arouse much interest in her character. There is almost none of the typical humor by or about Columbo. The one comment about his car falls flat; when Columbo happens on a group of people shaking funny cans on the floor it is not allowed to develop into anything; there is nothing about his dog or raincoat; and not one person mistakes him for anything but an ordinary detective. The murder plan is not particularly brilliant, and the alibi is simple and rather unimaginative. Furthermore, Columbo's proof that the alibi does not really exist is not nearly as foolproof as he makes it sound. Plus, the manner in which the false alibi was achieved, is highly unrealistic, and no explanation is given as to how a company would make such a mistake. Finally, there is hardly a single good line in a 90- minute episode of a series that is usually loaded with great lines. Did I leave out any other weak points?

Man, what is it with 1989 Columbo movies? Perhaps it was because of the fact that the 1989 Columbo movies were the first ones to be made after an 11 year 'break' and they were still searching for the right out formula with some new 'modern' additions to it. But fact is that 1989 aren't really among the best Columbo movies, with some exceptions here and there though.

This one really isn't the most exciting or interesting Columbo movie to watch. Despite that the movie is set at a private civilian military think tank base, rarely ever something exciting is happening. The movie is progressing very slowly and some of the sequences are needlessly long and progressing in a lacking pace, without making enough contribution to the movie and its story. Columbo is hardly investigating anything and all he does is walking around, bugging all kinds of people. Everything he discovers and hears happened by chance and not necessarily always because of his investigation skills and tactics. Even though the movie features all of the usual Columbo movie ingredients it doesn't feel like an average Columbo movie because it just doesn't all get handled too well. This was Sam Wanamaker's last movie he directed during his career. He also directed the previous Columbo movie "Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case", from 1977.

It's a sort of an unwritten rule for a Columbo movie that whenever Lt. Columbo himself shows up rather late into the story, the movie normally isn't going to be among the best the series has to offer. This is also the case with "Columbo: Grand Deceptions", in which Lt. Columbo shows up after about 20 minutes.

The movie also isn't helped much by its characters. Military characters are though ones to play as an actor, since they are all so very stereotypical. Only some really fine and talented actors can pull it off to make their characters still work out. This movie just doesn't feature any of these kind of actors unfortunately. Most later Columbo movies made the mistake not to cast some big well known and already established names in it. The movie is filled with some big unknowns who never really had a flourishing career, before or after this movie and for a good reason. Most actors play their roles well enough but it just isn't helping the movie to still make something special out of it all. There isn't really a good strong character opposite Lt. Columbo for this movie and some of the characters also makes a totally redundant impression, as do some of the plot-lines.

Besides, normally it's obvious from the beginning what the reasons and motivations for the killer were to come to his actions. In this movie however new things are getting revealed as the movie progresses. At times the movie even seems to forget that its a murder-mystery.

No, all in all the movie is not that horrible and it certainly also isn't the worst Columbo movie ever made but it however also is one of the least interesting Columbo movie entries to watch.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I don't know why this episode is getting bashed. I thought it was one of the better 'new' Columbos. The Private Military Corp is a fun setting and the acting is uniformly good. Columbo is less goofy than he is in a lot of new episodes, too. There area lot of little touches that they add in this one that are not in a lot of the new ones: a few scenes with "This Old Man" in the background and an appearance by Dog. A lot of people complain that this villain is too easy for Columbo to get, but I will say that he actually gets some pretty decent evidence to build up a case, which does not always happen in Columbo. I will admit, I think this one is helped immeasurably by the score, which is just phenomenal! Check it out!