Certain Prey

After what was a disappointing start, Certain Prey settled into a comfortable watch for the evening. The initial acting was stiff and apart from Mark Harmon and Lola Glaudini, the cast were generally underwhelming. The script improved as the movie progressed and thankfully the plot in which 2 women commit a series of murders was better than expected. The only thing I truly disliked was the narrative by Harmon during the movie which explained too much from the book. It was uneccessarily distracting and quite annoying. All in all I'm glad I tuned in to watch Harmon in something other than NCIS.

I actually enjoyed this movie a fair bit, as a reasonable representation of the book story. I'm about to read the sequel book to Certain Prey book 10, Mortal Prey book 13, so I thought it'd be neat to watch this movie, which I accidentally discovered on google while searching for a physical copy of Certain Prey, which as it happens, is one of my favourite Davenport Novels so far (and Winter Prey).

Harmon didn't 100% fit the image of Davenport, that said. But he did a fair job at the attempt. I am pretty sure Weather Karkinnen was supposed to be the redhead at the beginning? But I dunno? If so, bad representation. But meh.

I loved the actress that played Marcy. She probably didn't have the breasts we get described in the books, but that didn't matter. Loved her personality. Beautiful woman, with oddly perfect white teeth. Loved the scene with her and Carmel Loan in each others face in the office.

I really loved the portrayal of Clara Rinker as well. I thought she fit very well in the role. Loved her dance with Lucas (though I'm pretty sure Lucas danced better in the book? Not that I had a visual, but I thought I recalled him dancing decent).

I think this is about the best you'll get for a TV Movie to be honest. I didn't even plan to watch it. I was just going to skip around and see if it resembled the book and be done (because book movies are usually utter crap). But nope, I oddly enjoyed this. You may not.

From what I remember it seems to follow the book pretty decent. There is a lot of dialogue taken directly from the book. I'd give this a higher rating, but it's still just a TV movie and could have been better in a lot of ways. The car shootout ending could have been better for instance, but was kinda TV cheesy. But that IS how it happened in the book as I recall. So no complaints on accuracy.

Painful. One of the worst screenplays ever written. The acting is not much better. The entire film is a caricature, an excruciating attempt at modern film noir that fails from the opening frames.

From the cheesy, Sam Spade-esque voice-overs, to the excessively cliché dialog, to the ridiculous costumes (the deputy police chief wears panty hose over his head while breaking and entering, as does the assassin.)

Once you understand you're watching a terrible movie, you can almost laugh at how awful everything is. Honestly, this should have been a comedy.

Unless you enjoy pain, this is an easy pass.

The novel and entire series are amazing. This was serviceable, mostly because Harmon, in particular, just doesn't have the edge Lucas Davenport calls for. And I wasn't particularly impressed with the woman cast as Clara either. As a result, this did not live up to the book despite a valiant effort by Chris Geralmo who is talented. Average.

I have read all of the Prey novels and am a big fan. I have been a Mark Harmon fan for years. I was thrilled to hear he would be playing Davenport and he did a pretty terrific job....if he'll lose the narration next time out.

But the casting? OMG, who did the casting? Carmel was a joke. The actress simply can't act. Rinker was good but Marcy? Hell, no! That has to be the worst casting this decade. Marcy is a tough as nails broad and not a bimbo.

Let's get some real casting next time around. Actors who are really worth the wait for the next Prey installment.