Une star assassinée

I wish they'd make more films with these characters! A great rainy day popcorn movie-very entertaining! Gary Basaraba (one of the most prolific character actors who isn't a household name) is smart, funny, warm, charming and believable as a medical examiner with a unique gift for the culinary arts. (The fact that he cooks for his beautiful hairstylist girlfriend-who reciprocates with a turn at the shampoo bowl-won me over. Their natural chemistry plays as very real.) And the quirky cast of other characters make it fun to watch throughput. The juxtaposition of his medical knowledge and culinary skills skill comes into significant play elsewhere in the film. The twists and turns as he investigates the mystery (what he believes is the murder of his niece, a celebrated actress whose sudden death others believe to be accident or suicide) is well plotted. If you enjoy clever cozies (ala Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, or any of the new Hallmark mystery movies) you will love this film-if you can find it. Hasn't aired in a while.

Even for a TV movie this one should have been much better. The story is fair about a car wreck that kills a young actress who happens to be the New York City medical examiner's goddaughter. He suspects that the wreck was no accident. Just as in Roman times when poisoned mushrooms were called the "food of the gods" by palace conspirators so in "Recipe for Murder" mushrooms are suspected by the examiner to be the murder weapon. There are a few twists and turns along the way but by in large mainly a routine mystery yarn. What really hurts is the poor acting, especially by the lead Gary Basaraba whose histrionics distract from the cold hard facts of the case. He is not completely to blame. The writer put far too many words into his mouth. His parables become tiresome after awhile as does his fake accent.

The print I watched on television had poor lighting and the color appeared bleached. Otherwise the cinematography was OK for a TV movie.

Not a complete waste of time but with satellite television you should be able to find a much better mystery movie to watch.

Not a bad murder mystery, but I guessed the killer within 5 seconds of first seeing them on the screen. I never saw anything the rest of the movie to make me think otherwise. If you really want a hard to guess mystery, look elsewhere. I should add I watch many of these mysteries so I've become pretty good at spotting the plot twists. Writers of these types of shows, rather they know it or not, are often very formulaic. If you really want hard to guess mysteries, try the Poirot series. They have some seriously complicated mysteries there. These were of course written by the best.

Otherwise I thought the acting was fine. The main character was great. With better writing this could have been a series. Too late now.

This movie was made in 2001. Early on you'll see the Manhattan skyline with the World Trade Center.

I saw Recipe for Murder on cable in the UK. For a TV movie this production has excellent acting, dialogue, directing and sound. I'm not someone who gets excited by murder mysteries, especially of the non-nonsense New York tough-guy detective type, but I couldn't turn this off before seeing it to its conclusion. My criticism of the script is that the cast seems to be 80-90% male, with a lot of testosterone flying around in the investigation interviews. Plus perhaps too many New York accents -- there ARE people in NYC who don't have strong Brooklyn/Bronx accents but they don't show up in this film. I thought the lighting was good; interesting that the director was also the cinematographer.

I don't remember seeing another murder/mystery movie as bad as this. This movie, about a medical examiner who investigates his friend's mysterious death in a car accident, has the complete receipt for a bad movie: bad acting, boring story, lack of suspense, poor humor and no drama. I remembered seeing this movie on PAX, a TV station notable for dishing out low-budgeted and campy made-for-TV movies such as this one. TV movies, of course, do not have the edge factor or the suspense as movies from the Big Screen. But, this movie sure hit all sour tastes. The makers of this movie have missed out on an opportunity to making "Receipe for Murder" a great TV movie; the title does offer some suspense.

So, if you want a good recipe, don't watch this movie. This movie alone can kill your TV appetite.

Grade F