Mort à l'arrivée

I watched this about two weeks ago, and being a fan of the original, I always like to watch the remake and talk smack about the terrible changes they made. With that being said....This wasn't terrible. I really liked that even though the premise was the same (man gets poisoned, man goes to police to tell the story, movie unfolds in a flashback), I did not feel like I was watching the original movie after about the first 10 minutes of the film. Now the original is a noir classic, This movie though I would not say is a classic in the NEO NOIR category, it definitely is worth a watch.

Quaid gives a slightly manacle performance that is fun to watch, and he does a pretty good job of holding the movie together. Some of the other cast members, well they work but their motives to me do not lead up to the results that are laid out, but this is a movie, so who cares? The production is spot on. The lighting is what I always imagine a noir picture to be. Fan shadows, lights through blinds, lit cig smoke. All the stereotypes that make a Noir a Noir are here. It does work and looks spectacular. This movie would be a great movie if you were to be studying lighting techniques.

The end, I did see coming but it felt underwhelming. Noir is known for having some twist, or cool plot device that is set up without even knowing was set up, and then BOOM last ten seconds changes everything....not so much here.

Is it as solid as the original? Well the original is a classic, but to me is a different movie, and other than the set up and the title, are different and should be judged on their own.

I enjoyed it and will watch it again.

This movie is an awesome remake of the original by the same title. The movie was cool,despite the fact, I hate new ones! All of the cast was awesome . It has great cast and an awesome plot!! The main plot is a man is poisoned and he has to solve his own murder , neat eh?!Dennis Quaid is the man who is "D.O.A"(in other words Dead On Arrival).He finds help with his friends, but everyone is now a suspect!!Dennis's character has several hours to find out who poisoned him. The movie is quite fast and full of action. You can see two other big stars in Meg Ryan(City Of Angels,Courage Under Fire) and Daniel Stern(Home Alone, Very Bad Things,Bushwhacked) in supporting roles in this awesome ,cool remake of a classic movie!!

As this film opens Professor Dexter Cornell enters a police station to report a murder... his own. As he sits down to tell his story to the police the action jumps back thirty six hours.

Cornell is a Lecturer and novelist although he hasn't written a book in for years and can't be bothered to read a work written by a keen student. The next thing he knows that student plummets past his window and dies on the concrete below. That isn't the only thing going wrong; his wife wants a divorce and it later emerges was having an affair with the student. On learning this he decides to get very drunk. The next morning he wakes up in the bed of student Sydney Fuller with a killer hangover. In fact he feels so bad he goes to hospital and discovers that he has been poisoned with radium chloride and only has a day or two left to live. He is determined to discover who poisoned him and why.

This isn't really a remake of the 1949 film as it only takes the central premise of that film; here we get an entirely set of characters and motives. The opening is a great hook then the story takes its time getting to the point where Cornell discovers he was poisoned. This give us time to meet the various suspects, and student Sydney who will get caught up in the hunt for the truth. Once he learns what happened the tension rises quickly... so does the body count as he finds himself suspected of one murder and targeted by people who think he knows more than he does. Dennis Quaid is impressive as the doomed Professor Cornell and Meg Ryan is fun as Sydney; the rest of the cast is solid too. There are plenty of good action sequences and a few really good surprises... even if the identity of the killer and the motive aren't too surprising. The film has a great neo-noir look; opening in black and white before switching to colour in the flashback; colour that fades as his condition worsens. Overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to people wanting a good mystery.

Fast-paced remake of the exclellent 1949 film-noir. With Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan on fine, romantic form

Quaid is the English professor who walks into a police station and reports a murder: his own. He has 24 hours to live after having been given poison, and is determined to use the remainder of his life to find his killer.

This film is fast-paced and littered with corpses and more red herrings than Brixton market, but the direction and script never gel. Despite a competent and charming performance by Quaid, paired with his real-life wife-to-briefly-be Ryan (a romance necessarily also conducted at top speed), D.O.A. is let down by a cop-out ending.

"D.O.A" is an involving and entertaining little picture from start to finish. Dennis Quaid is at his caustic best; and Quaid is sadly one of the most underused talents in Hollywood. His then beau Meg Ryan also appears with him, but as is usually the case, doesn't really make much of an impact.

The film is stylishly directed throughout, drawing on a number of influences to capture its 'seamy' feel. Would you credit that it's actually directed by two people? The answer is no. The whole thing is superbly slick, from its innovative camerawork to its unabashed use of black and white photography. All these elements help to keep proceedings fresh.

Really the greatest thrill here is to be had with the dialogue, it's snappy yet intricate, doesn't waste a word and yet still manages to be entertaining. The screenplay for this is like a pocket work of art.

This went unnoticed by me for ages before I finally caught it late at night. If this is the first you've heard about it, don't leave it like I did! Catch it soon, it really is top-notch... !

If you're in the mood for a solid genre flick that manages to surprise at every turn, this really fits the bill.