Rijndri
Load of rubbish!!
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
mycannonball
This movie is a great example of a character thrust into an awful situation - a situation where you question, "What would I do in his shoes?" For that reason, it is very tense and suspenseful throughout as Tom Selleck's character tries to navigate prison life. I really felt for his character - his acting was great. Sure, there are some moments of cheesy lines and overdone composing and a bit of over-acting by the various villains, but for the most part, this is one of the better character thrillers I've seen in awhile. Selleck is great, as if the man who befriends him inside the prison. Can't find anything new to watch? I recommend checking out this little gem from 1989!
gcd70
Pure revenge film all the way is this drama from the pen of Larry Brothers which tried to be a serious movie about the prevailing of justice when "An Innocent Man" (Tom Selleck) is framed by a pair of corrupt narcotics detectives.Peter Yates never stood a chance of making this a film with a message due to its obvious direction, conclusion and its total lack of life's ever present ambiguities. Tom Selleck's character is just too pure and righteous, and his loving wife is far too good for words, while the bad guys are just so, so bad it's annoying. F. Murray Abraham is probably the only slightly believable, and enjoyable, character, as he doesn't mind helping out a friend, yet we know he has a dark past. An agreeable showing from the one time Academy Award winner.This is the only highlight though in what is essentially a two dimensional movie lacking completely in originality. Howard Shore's surprisingly below par score is also a let down. Recommended just for audiences who either love Tom Selleck or love seeing the nasties get their comeuppance.Thursday, August 25, 1994 - T.V.
Jonathon Dabell
The name Peter Yates is not bandied around a great deal amongst movie fans, which is quite surprising since he is the director who brought us such fondly remembered classics as Summer Holiday, Bullitt and The Hot Rock. Yates is also behind the camera on this Tom Selleck vehicle, but there's little here to remind one of the halcyon days of his earlier classics. If anything, An Innocent Man has about it the air of a competent but totally uninspired made-for-TV prison drama (in actual fact, this is not a TV-movie but a major big-screen release, complete with relatively big stars). It is not a bad film, merely one that never rises above mediocrity at any point.Airline mechanic Jimmie Rainwood (Tom Selleck) leads a normal life. He works nine-to-five like any ordinary citizen, pays his bills, and loves his wife Kate (Laila Robins). His existence is shattered when two narcotics cops mistakenly raid his house and shoot him. The cops, Mike Parnell (David Rasche) and Danny Scalise (Richard Young), have been holding back drugs from some of their busts and selling them privately for big bucks. They were only in Rainwood's house because of an address mix-up linked to another bust. Fearing their profitable scam might be exposed unless they take drastic action, Scalise and Parnell plant narcotics in Rainwood's house and make it look like they were there on a legitimate raid. As a result, Jimmie is convicted of a crime he never committed and sent to a tough penitentiary for several years. While her husband is inside, Kate works tirelessly to clear his name, bringing in honest cop John Fitzgerald (Badja Djola) to investigate her suspicions of police corruption. But it's a slow process, and in the meantime Jimmie must learn to survive in the dangerous prison environment. A tough, experienced convict called Virgil Cane (F. Murray Abraham) teaches him how to cope, but Rainwood's peaceful life prior to imprisonment makes him struggle to adapt to his new surroundings. After many hardships including having to kill a prison bully Jimmie is finally released. Hardened by his experience, he sets out to track down the dirty duo that set him up in the first place.There's nothing hugely wrong with the basic story (scripted by Larry Brothers) other than the fact that it is somewhat familiar. The problems with An Innocent Man are more to do with issues regarding the general handling of the film. In the acting stakes no-one gives a really strong performance; in the music department Howard Shore provides a bland, lazy score; photographically the film is totally conventional and "play-safe"; and in the directing stakes, Yates goes about his job in strictly by-the-numbers fashion. When thinking about the film afterwards, words like "inconsequential", "unmemorable", "unremarkable" and "routine" spring to mind. Nothing about it stands out in a good nor bad way it's just typical 5-out-of-10 fodder from first frame to last. One of the main purposes of the film seems to be to give the star a more hard-edged role than usual, but apart from dollops of foul language and extra fake blood during the fighting sequences, it's still Tom Selleck playing Tom Selleck. An Innocent Man is easy to watch - it's even easier to forget.
Nazi_Fighter_David
The film opens with sequences conceived to present Selleck as a loving husband and a devoted airlines maintenance supervisor
His name is Jimmie Rainwood
One night, a couple of crooked narcotics cops break down Rainwood's peaceful door...Jimmywho had just taken a showercomes out with a hair dryer in his hand
He is shot twice by the anti-drugs cops who have caught a shadow of what looks like a gun
So to justify their error, they concocted an entire fairy tale planting drugs in Jimmy's home and a gun in his hand
Rainwood ends up in jail
Luckily, he is befriended by Virgil Cane, played by F. Murray Abraham
Cane was the character to keep your eye on
He is a 'schemer and a charmer.' Virgil disagrees with Jimmy's sensitiveness as a straight man
This is an 'insane place with insane rules' that tests the human consciousness, yet survival will never be the same without some sort of sacrifice
A group of degenerate prisoners make life unbearable for Jimmy until he learns how to really fight back
The film had its fair share of bloody moments and did not shy away from the nasty things that go on in men's prisons