True Crime

The movie never becomes intolerable to watch. And to tell it straight, it has nothing to show either, except maybe part-sexy Alicia Silverstone in a nerdy non-sexy character in revealing quite-sexy dresses. The story is very easy to follow or there's nothing to follow -- you can see in either way. There is no suspense, little action, unimpressive dialogs, unsatisfactory sensuality, same boring locations and very bland acting. Kevin Dillon is totally worthless. Silverstone... well, I didn't concentrate too much on her acting, I confess. Yet as I said earlier, if one has nothing to do except watching a movie, this won't look so bad. 4/10

Alicia Silverstone stars in True Crime in which she plays a Catholic school girl about to graduate who has an intense interest in criminology. In a more innocent time she would have been cast as Nancy Drew.

One thing in those Nancy Drew novels and also with the Hardy Boys the juvenile sleuths never went after criminals whose mental states were in question. If you can recall the kids going after a sex criminal so be it, I sure can't. Takes a whole different kind of perspective in dealing with that. A theme that should have been more clearly developed but wasn't in the film.

During the course of the investigation she starts looking at a stranger hanging around where her school girl friends go. It turns out to be Kevin Dillon who is close to graduating the police academy. The two turn into an R rated Nancy Drew and Ted Nickerson. But it certainly doesn't end that way.

I think the roles were superficially drawn here and the players not given direction enough so they were left to their own devices. This had the potential to be better than it is.

Alicia Silverstone (pre-"Clueless") plays a modern-day crime-obsessed teenager attempting to solve the brutal slaying of a local girl. Pat Verducci wrote and directed this B-flick, which isn't especially well-made but is however surprisingly serious-minded in regards to its leading character. Silverstone is appealing and successful in carving out an interesting young woman here, despite the picture's kitschy undermining. The supporting cast (including Kevin Dillon and Michael Bowen) isn't bad, though the violence in the last act goes overboard. Not a cheesy camp-fest, but nothing exceptionally memorable either. *1/2 from ****

RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 1995/1996 and written & directed by Pat Verducci, "True Crime" (aka "Dangerous Kiss") is a mystery/crime/teen/romance starring Alicia Silverstone as a Catholic school senior in California who befriends a police cadet (Kevin Dillon) to solve a case of serial killings of young women. Their investigations lead them to a traveling carnival. Bill Nunn plays the girl's detective friend and the cadet's boss.

This came out right after Alicia's breakthrough flicks "The Crush" (1993) and "Clueless" (1995) and, while entertaining for what it is, it pales by comparison. The main problem isn't the cast, locations or excellent percussion-oriented score, but rather the script; and, more specifically, who the killer turns out being. With just a couple imaginative tweaks this could've been a very satisfying teen mystery à la Nancy Drew, but with considerable edge. Still, Silverstone makes it agreeable, along with the other highlights noted. If you like those other two flicks, this is a must.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 34 minutes and was shot in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, CA.

GRADE: B-

My problem with this film is that it looked like someone wrote it in one day and then proceeded to cast the actors and film in the next week. There were glaring plot holes in this film. They created scenes that had no logic in them just to keep the movie flowing.

The acting from just about everyone was poor. The main female was just so out of place.

Why does IMDb have this listed as a video and not a film? Why didn't it show up on my prime search? I had to type silverstone instead.