Spoilers, if anyone cares!
I really gave this movie a try. I heard only bad things about it and thought I'd give it a look to see for myself if it's that bad. Well, the critics were right. MIKE'S MURDER is dull. No, it's not just dull, it's beyond dull! Not since RAISE THE TITANIC have I seen such a boring movie (ironically, both films' scores were made by the great John Barry, who should have chosen his projects a little bit better!). I can't believe the script was greenlighted. There's nothing in it. Zip. Nada. Nothing! The first half of the movie, we basically see Debra Winger, single woman: she plays tennis; has sex with tennis instructor; drives around; listens to her answering machine; works; drives around some more. Then she hears that the tennis instruction called Mike was killed. She reluctantly tries to know why he was killed. So we see her driving around L.A. for what seems to be an endless amount of time. Eventually she goes to a mansion where Mike used to live. The owner of the mansion is played by Paul Winfield. She learns a few things about Mike. Then one night, after going to a performance art thingy, she returns home and the story suddenly becomes a claustrophobic hostage-like situation, with Mike's psychotic friend forces his way into her house because the killers who killed Mike are after him after he and Mike stole some drugs during an exchange. The friend eventually gets killed from inside Winger's house. End of story. That's it. WTF?!?!
The people who wrote the script and grennlighted this project must have been high on drugs or something because there's nothing worthwhile in the entire film. Except for Paul Winfield, the acting from everyone else is terrible, including Winger, who seems to be completely bored out of her mind. The dialogue is painful to listen to. And the story is slooooow. Scenes of Debra Winger alone, talking on the phone for almost 5 minutes, with the camera on her face for almost that entire 5 minutes, do not make for compelling viewing. Things aren't made any better by the script's humongous improbabilities, like Winger being affected by his death. She didn't seem to care about him one bit. Or Winger going to see the apartment where Mike was killed. Sure. Or the whole videotaped moment Winger was shown, for no apparent reasons, by that male stripper at Winfield's house. Who was behind the video camera when the argument took place? Why did the person behind the camera kept on filming the argument or why didn't anyone around, like Winfield, ask the person to stop recording the moment? Or the flimsy plot point of when Mike's psychotic friend decides to go to Winger's place. Moments like this made my eyes roll. The film tried to be edgy and current but only ends up looking poky and trivial. For instance, the whole film is populated by characters who are obviously gay or bisexual but the producers were so afraid to deal with the subject that every time they showed some homoeroticism, they always showed some girls in bikinis or something else to detract the underlying subtext. If you're going to make a movie about a hustler, who does everything, including selling his body, don't fidget about it.
But the worst thing about this ill-conceived project is Mike himself: the character is ugly and totally unappealing. It's impossible to care for the loser. And the actor who played him was terrible AND unappealing. If you're going to build a film around the unfortunate murder of a tragic character, make him interesting or worthwhile. In this case, when Mike is murdered, no one really cares!
I really gave this movie a try. I heard only bad things about it and thought I'd give it a look to see for myself if it's that bad. Well, the critics were right. MIKE'S MURDER is dull. No, it's not just dull, it's beyond dull! Not since RAISE THE TITANIC have I seen such a boring movie (ironically, both films' scores were made by the great John Barry, who should have chosen his projects a little bit better!). I can't believe the script was greenlighted. There's nothing in it. Zip. Nada. Nothing! The first half of the movie, we basically see Debra Winger, single woman: she plays tennis; has sex with tennis instructor; drives around; listens to her answering machine; works; drives around some more. Then she hears that the tennis instruction called Mike was killed. She reluctantly tries to know why he was killed. So we see her driving around L.A. for what seems to be an endless amount of time. Eventually she goes to a mansion where Mike used to live. The owner of the mansion is played by Paul Winfield. She learns a few things about Mike. Then one night, after going to a performance art thingy, she returns home and the story suddenly becomes a claustrophobic hostage-like situation, with Mike's psychotic friend forces his way into her house because the killers who killed Mike are after him after he and Mike stole some drugs during an exchange. The friend eventually gets killed from inside Winger's house. End of story. That's it. WTF?!?!
The people who wrote the script and grennlighted this project must have been high on drugs or something because there's nothing worthwhile in the entire film. Except for Paul Winfield, the acting from everyone else is terrible, including Winger, who seems to be completely bored out of her mind. The dialogue is painful to listen to. And the story is slooooow. Scenes of Debra Winger alone, talking on the phone for almost 5 minutes, with the camera on her face for almost that entire 5 minutes, do not make for compelling viewing. Things aren't made any better by the script's humongous improbabilities, like Winger being affected by his death. She didn't seem to care about him one bit. Or Winger going to see the apartment where Mike was killed. Sure. Or the whole videotaped moment Winger was shown, for no apparent reasons, by that male stripper at Winfield's house. Who was behind the video camera when the argument took place? Why did the person behind the camera kept on filming the argument or why didn't anyone around, like Winfield, ask the person to stop recording the moment? Or the flimsy plot point of when Mike's psychotic friend decides to go to Winger's place. Moments like this made my eyes roll. The film tried to be edgy and current but only ends up looking poky and trivial. For instance, the whole film is populated by characters who are obviously gay or bisexual but the producers were so afraid to deal with the subject that every time they showed some homoeroticism, they always showed some girls in bikinis or something else to detract the underlying subtext. If you're going to make a movie about a hustler, who does everything, including selling his body, don't fidget about it.
But the worst thing about this ill-conceived project is Mike himself: the character is ugly and totally unappealing. It's impossible to care for the loser. And the actor who played him was terrible AND unappealing. If you're going to build a film around the unfortunate murder of a tragic character, make him interesting or worthwhile. In this case, when Mike is murdered, no one really cares!