Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

chaos-rampant By no means something we haven't seen before, in olden Hollywood times this would have been the kind of studio quickie that fills a double program and starring a Victor Mature or Richard Widmark, here Ed Harris and a young Del Toro.It's film noir, the most standard story in the repertoire; well meaning joe smitten by beautiful woman he chances to meet in a bar, someone's unhappy wife and pleads to him. We move through the customary points fairly quickly, we quickly establish them as in love, the husband as abusive cheat, and you don't even need me to tell you there's going to be a plot that backfires the day after. Ideally I would rather have this in a more spacious way, it's a bit constricted by the need to go through set motions. Interesting is that we're not meant to know if she manipulated him that night or if there's another author in control of the narrative. We have only the enigmatic shot of her leaving the hotel and another woman going up to her room (to assume her place in the narrative).The question is not just who done it here or will he get the rap. It's a question of if love that seemed so eager in her eyes was feigned after all. It's all the more devastating as we switch to his pov, that he wasn't just a dope tricked by sex, he was holding out for someone who was the promise of a life together.It makes a real difference for me that we have these two people. In stuff like Romeo is Bleeding or Last Seduction, noir is turned into garish occasion, and I believe noir is enhanced all the more when we're able to see people who aren't cutouts truly struggle with how the world presents itself to them.Harris is great in anchoring a fundamentally alert person who allows himself to stray for love. But it's the lovely Madeleine Stow who makes it, that we have at the center someone with a face as open as hers clouded by all these momentary flickers. She manages to anchor angst about her marriage, truthfulness in the love, from a soft distance that belies the inclination to reduce her to what we expect from familiarity with this type of story. It simply wouldn't be the same without her.Look for example for the airport scene where she goes to pick up her husband, her steely-eyed look as she realizes the betrayal in plain sight might be a femme fatale's scheming of what we assume she is, or simply a woman's determination to end the charade. It's a more elusive view of noir machinations.So I like that we have these two characters as we do, the wraparound into plot and eventual unmaskings less so. Noir Meter: 3/4 | Neo-noir or post noir? Neo

SnoopyStyle Kyle Bodine (Ed Harris) is the lead detective teaching less experienced Lamar Dickey (Benicio del Toro). Kyle is taken with Rachel Munro (Madeleine Stowe). She had hired a private eye to take pictures of her wealthy banker husband Rupert Munro (Charles Dance) cheating. Rachel buys a gun and starts a romance with Kyle. Kyle and Lamar are called in on a domestic abuse at the Munros. While Kyle is helping her leave her abusive husband, she shoots him in self-defense. She fears the perception of her unregistered gun and no witnesses. She convinces Kyle to help her cover up the killing. Kyle and Lamar investigate the missing Monro. Lamar finds surprising new evidences seeming to point to Kyle.This is very much by the book hard-boiled thriller. The movie moves a bit too slowly for the first half. It needs to start with Kyle and Rachel already in a heated romance. There's no need to waste time developing the chemistry. These are great actors able to sell an already heated romance. They need to get to the killing faster. The tension is all in the cover-up. It's basically a 40 minute setup. This is a bit slow and the tension is not high until the second half. However it has great actors and they keep the movie going.

FilmCriticLalitRao China Moon had a limited run when it was released in 1994.It was resurrected when television channels started to show it on regular basis in 1995.The success of this film proves that television can always be considered as a viable alternative to cinema for certain films.This gave a new lease of life to this film about an experienced cop who is destroyed due to overconfidence in trusting a rich girl friend and a junior colleague at office.There are plenty of good moments in this film which can interest viewers.It is with great interest viewers can watch how actor Benicio Del Toro's character is developed.He gets trained by working under a nice boss but his outsmarting his boss is a complete shock to viewers.Ed Harris is cool in his role as a cop who doesn't know much about imminent dangers when he is part of a romantic relationship with a rich woman.Actors Charles Dance and Madeleine Stowe provide good support to the story as the couple whose marriage has crumbled due to differences of ideas.

phd_travel This is worth a watch just for the 3 main leads. Ed Harris when he had some hair, Benicio before his eyebags got too dark and Madeleine Stowe at her most beautiful. The camera spends a lot of screen time focussing on moonlight shots of her lovely face.The story itself is predictable and familiar but that's okay. Beautiful woman married to brutish wealthy man who cheats on her (why would someone cheat on such a beautiful wife?). A cop falls in love with her and guess what bang bang the husband is dead. The conclusion feels a bit cheap and weak and that is disappointing.Despite its flaws I think it's worth a watch for the actors just don't expect a great story.