majamm

The movie starts quite promising with some flashbacks from the past and with a first murder 17 years later, but then it gets really boring. The majority of the film is not so much about who the killer is but more about showing the killings without giving away his identity. For those careful enough there are some good clues already in the first half of the movie and therefore for me this movie was just too predictable. Retired detective and the son of one of the victims are investigating murders but through the movie they more or less stay in the dark and can't seem to add 2 and 2 together.There are no witty conversations and the characters are not well developed at all so it's hard to really care what happens to any of them. This must be one of the most boring thrillers I have ever seen.

I love this movie. I saw it a few years ago and now I got it on DVD. It's one of those movies I watch when I feel down and it makes me feel better. I admit the movie gets a bit slow at times but if you stick with it, you won't get disappointed. It's a story about people in the search for a part of them that would make them feel complete. What they find may not be what they wish they would find but at the end it's exactly what they needed. We see the transformation in Kikujiro - from a rough guy he turns into, well, a rough guy with a big heart that helps little Masuo cope with the pain of finding out the truth. They make a good pair,Kikujiro and Masuo and I can see Kikujiro watching out for Masuo in later years. In his rough way of course... This is the movie that made a Kitano fan out of me.

The plot is great. I loved Laureen Graham - she's always fun to watch. But Casper Van Dien...well, I don't think so. For me he was the biggest flaw of the movie, as well as his character. A guy, macho type, writes poetry (bad one) and is much too feminine. Not believable. His character made the whole story superficial. Another thing that bothered me was Jessy spending the last night of her father's life with another guy, thinking about her father but that was it. She hasn't seen him in 3 years, she came to L.A. to be with him, yet she spends her time looking for the cat, cooking for the date,... That would make sense if she and her father were fighting, but they're not. She loves him, he loves her and yet he spends his last night with his best friend and she with a lover. So much left unsaid and no one bothers to change that. Not believable again. I think it's a waste of a great plot and cast (with exception of Van Dien) on a below average movie.