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The reporter Malcolm Anderson (Kurt Russell) is contacted by a serial killer, Alan Delour (Richard Jordan), who seeks promotion of his acts in the news. The only leads for the police force, commanded by Detectives Ray Martinez (Andy Garcia) and Phil Wilson (Richard Bradford), are the contacts of the criminal through Malcolm and the bodies of his victims. When Malcolm becomes more important for the media than Alan, the killer becomes jealous and kidnaps Malcolm's girlfriend, Christine (Mariel Hemingway), looking for revenge and more attention for his crimes.

"The Mean Season" is an efficient thriller, mostly supported by the great performance of Kurt Russell, in excellent physical shape. The story has minor flaws and some clichés, but hooks the attention of the viewer until the last scene. Watching it again in 2005, we can see a not famous Andy Garcia in the beginning of his brilliant career. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Temporada Sangrenta" ("Bloody Season")

Richard Jordan who has played a number of really psychotic villains is the main reason to see The Mean Season. He quite steals the film from Kurt Russell a crime reporter and Mariel Hemingway who is Russell's girlfriend and the last woman Jordan stalks.

Russell has truly grown to dislike his job on a big city paper in this case Miami where he's gotten a specialty in crime reporting, the more lurid the better. He's considering an offer from a small town Colorado paper to take over as editor.

That's when things get interesting. Jordan is a serial killer who Russell has been writing about and in his twisted way considers Kurt to be some kind of personal publicist for him and his peers. Now he starts calling to give him heads up exclusives knowing that this will lead to Mariel's own abduction.

That's the one thing about criminals of the psychotic mind. They don't reason like the rest of us. It sounds wild and improbable the notion that Jordan has, but that's the hard part for FBI and local profiler's jobs, getting in those sick minds to see how they work.

Jordan is one sick and twisted puppy. The rest of the cast is fine, but he really stands out in The Mean Season.

Decent enough movie, with an absolutely menacing performance by Richard Jordan as the sick, deluded serial killer.

Kurt Russell was...just okay. I couldn't quite figure out what he was getting at. He was burnt out in his job with the newspaper in Miami. He seemed to be craving just the situation that he found himself in. Conversing with a serial killer, and writing about it; Having a literal front row seat at the story of the year; being the central figure in a national story; "approaching pulitzer territory". However, Russell erupted into attitude with just about everybody he came into contact with. At one point, he's smugly satisfied to have found himself to be so deeply involved in an emerging story of a sadistic serial killer, then he snaps at the killer when events aren't turning out favorably. This doesn't seem like the emotional response you would expect from a seasoned reporter. A serial killer is doing something like this just to play with the heads of authority. To expect him to behave rationally is naive and foolish.

However, Russell gamely does generally well with the character, and there are effectively troubling and suspenseful aspects to the film. The subject of newspaper ethics is broached and discussed, although I'm not sure all that effectively.

Andy Garcia, Richard Bradford and Richard Masur were excellent.

Mariel Hemingway was absolutely terrible. She either was giggling, looking completely bewildered, or hysterical. Granted, the script gave her little else to do, but a creative actress could have made something out of it. She completely distracted me every time she was on screen. Just a terrible job.

All in all, a decent, flawed movie with a first-rate performance by Jordan. He made the movie worth it.

This was a pretty good movie. Its got good suspense towards the end but it will never top BREAKDOWN, which is his ultimate suspense movie. Mariel Hemingway was a good choice, she hasn't been in much lately. I think she is still pretty. Well, Kurt does a good job. This is worth seeing and its from 1985. It has violence, language and nudity.

This is definitely a thriller. And one of the reasons why is Richard Jordan who plays the psychopath, Alan Delour. He is so convincing he is absolutely frightening. Especially his last scenes, he gives me shivers every time I watch him. He was definitely one of the finest actors that ever was and when he passed away, we lost a great talent. Kurt Russell also did a find job as Malcolm Anderson and the two worked really well together.