Morte Sob Suspeita

Mantegna and Harden are very good as Spenser and Susan, the by-play is good. Mahmud-Bey makes a good Hawk, though he does not seem to have the sharp edge that Hawk in the books does. The story is followed as closely as time permits for a 90 minute production. An enjoyable two hours.

Y'know, my wife and I have EVERY Robert Parker book ever published. We've even read a few of them several times. We've seen EVERY "Spenser for Hire" TV episode at least a few times I think. So....it's awfully hard to sit through this decent outing thinking "Geez, Joe Mantegna isn't bad, but he isn't Robert Uhrich!" And Hawk: we REALLY miss Dr. Brooks! Couldn't Rutgers free him up from his teaching long enough for ONE more project?!

On the flip side, Vinnie and Gino were lots of fun, and it was cool seeing Mr. Parker himself (and possibly his very own canine, playing Pearl, the Wonder Dog?) in cameo roles.

The movie was pretty faithful to the book (after all the author also penned the screenplay). By the way, we're glad we videotaped it: A&E is AWFUL with commercial breaks (but aren't ALL broadcasters these days?!)

So 7 of 10 is all it gets from us. 9, if it's Uhrich/Brooks in the remake!

Good show featuring tough guy Spenser and his pal Hawk as they try to figure out if a convicted man is innocent or not. Spenser suspects the man is not guilty and gets into hot water when he gets too close to the truth. The story was a little corny and the character Spenser is somewhat unbelievable, but the film was enjoyable none the less.

Plot is more original than most; I even learned something about drilling for oil. Joe Montegna is always watchable,one of most underrated actors. And Farnsworth,in small but important role, is always a joy to watch.

I loved how true to the book the film stayed, thanks to Parker himself writing the script. My only problem is that none of the actors from the original series and Lifetime movies were brought in to reprise their roles. I could live with the recasting of Frank Belson, (done once before) Susan Silverman (done twice before) and Martin Quirk, (Richard Jaeckel's (qv) dead) but not bringing back Robert Urich (qv) and Avery Brooks (qv) made the film suffer. Sheik Mahmud-Bey (qv) struck me as someone I'd like to marry into my family rather than as a mysterious mercenary/crimeland enforcer. I was even hoping they'd bring back Carolyn McCormack (qv) to play Rita.