Murder at Midnight

Ha ha, 9 out of the 12 people who voted on this movie so far gave it a perfect 10, that's a good one! I, on the other hand, will give it a 3 - it could easily be a 1 but it gets an extra point for the spin it puts on the genre by having a female serial killer and another point because...well, I did watch it all the way to the end. Make no mistake, however, it is a bargain-basement production in most respects, except maybe for the acting that might be called "mediocre", though there is one guy who plays a psychiatrist that seems to be having serious trouble remembering his few lines. Oh, and a memo to the cops: when a serial killer is targeting a specific area, it might be a good idea to check the houses in that area before he or she gets to victim #5. (*)

Before looking this movie up on this web site, I thought that I'd be the only person who saw this very obscure movie. But I found out that others have seen it. I guess just about every movie gets seen by someone. Anyway, how is the movie? Well, currently there is one positive user comment and one negative. I'll break the deadlock by revealing that this is a terrible movie. For starters, you might think that a movie that has a female serial killer... who kills African-Americans... and is pursued by two female cops... may be trying to put a fresh spin on the serial killer genre. But just about NOTHING is done with this. Very little rewriting and casting would be needed to make this another typical entry in the genre.

Plus, the quality of the movie is strictly amateur hour, done on a poverty-row budget. I could go on for some time about the inept execution of the movie, such as the terrible sound, the cheap musical score, a weird visual look that suggests it was shot on videotape and transferred to film, and the appearance of the boom mike at least once. Sometimes the ineptness is funny, but most of the time it will have you shaking your head in disbelief at just how bad this movie is.

I'm not as surprised as the other reviewer here that so many people have rated this movie 10. Although it's not a 10 from me I'd still give it 7/10 as it may not have a big budget, but it does what it sets out to do and delivers! The plot - Two female cops hunt down a female serial killer in the crime thriller MURDER AT MIDNIGHT. Diane was abused as a child, seriously damaging her psyche, and now preys on the men of Los Angeles in a perverted quest for justice and revenge. It's up to detectives Sharon and Barbara to find Diane before she kills again. But it won't be as easy it at seems--not only is the entire city of LA Diane's hunting ground, the two cops also have some personal demons of their own to work out.

It's a shame that the movie appears to be out of print everywhere, here in the UK it was released as 'Good to Go' on DVD. If you ever come across it i'd suggest snapping it up, as you won't be disappointed.

The UK title for this one is 'Good to Go' far more relevant (the several murders tend to take place more in broad daylight) and intriguing. I'll start by saying that this is an entirely straightforward and unoriginal crime movie, with the usual serial killer (yawn) pursuing detectives, journos, political pressures, psychological advice - oh yes and it appears to have zero budget, which shows at times. So why did I like it? Well I didn't so much like it as find it extraordinary.

The reason being, ALL the main characters are women and all of them are black. I can't recall ever before seeing a movie where this was the case and a 1994 American crime drama isn't where I would have gone looking. To come back to the movie itself, the direction is OK and the main actors do well enough most of the time (though some of the support, like the advising psychologist, verge on laughable). Nothing great in any respect, but it gets a 5 rating for that one aspect of originality, which is made to feel quite believable.

I'd recommend anyone to watch this, but keep your expectations low. It's quite entertaining if you do that.