O Preço Da Ambição

You probably expect this movie to be awful. It's a made-for-cable flick starring David Caruso, and it's already in the $2.99 sale bin at Best Buy.

Well guess what? It's a pretty darned good movie. It's a good little mystery with fewer cliches than most theater releases of this genre. Caruso is a likeable, well-meaning but not-quite-competent angel to a mafia widow trying to escape the clutches of the baddies.

The performances are capable, the sets have a sumptuous look, the head psycho-baddie is both scary and funny. The dialogue has a touch of poetry, and the story is by Elmore Leonard.

And, unlike most of these things, the ending fooled me! That alone makes it worth the rental.

Funny thing though, they never should have shot Caruso running. He's a macho guy in his bearing and voice, but he runs very strangely, slowly, with his thighs frozen together and his hips swaying from side to side. Kind of destroys the illusion.

Well written story, good acting, moves right along. Better than 99 percent of theatrical "thrillers" that have nothing going in the way of plot or characterization. I liked the subtly quirky characters and Caruso's too-cool-for-words character. Marge Helgenberger was a fun sighting -- hadn't seen her since she was an alien sex slave in Lexx.

I agree with all of the above comments, both good and bad. I taped it just to see Marg Helenbarger, the chick on CSI. She is really very beautiful, in a sort of hard, blonde way. Mostly, though, I fast forwarded thru most of it. I enjoyed the Cuban chick, Vivian, and wished she was in more of the movie. What I didn't like most was the sense of helplessness that the rich widow had. She should have killed the mob guy much sooner.

A very faithful adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel. Great characters, intriguing plot with double-crosses on top of double-crosses, beautiful scenery. Everybody was great, particularly David Caruso as Maguire and Jeff Kober as Roland Crowe. Loooove the range hat, honey!

This movie and cast are awesome. The scripts and the story lines! I'm a B!G fan of David Caruso and Marg Helgenberger who are both from CSIs. I don't really understand what the hell it's all about but it was awesome. Frank died and his worker, Maguire were having a relationship with his wife. I think Maguire and Karen are a perfect couple. Hope there is season two which is starring both of them (again). David Caruso made a perfect character as Maguire and Marg Helgenberger made it as Karen Di Cilia. But I don't understand why did Maguire and Roland fought until Maguire drowned. Could anybody tell me? But I tell you, ROCK 'N' ROLL CSIs especially CSI: Miami!