Rating of
3/4
Lots of twists in a pretty good mystery
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
A call girl has been murdered at a Japanese office building in Los Angeles, and the current liaison officer to the Japanese, "Web Smith" (Wesley Smipes) has been called in to help investigate. However, on his way to the murder scene, he gets a call to pick up a former cop (Sean Connery) who knows much about Japanese culture and its people.
Together, they are involved in a major culture clash where the Japanese business men want to wipe the case under the carpet. However, they look for the murderer as the law states. But they find more than just a killer.
There are a lot of unexpected twists in this movie. And that is the reason to watch it, despite that the movie lags at times. Some twists may have you think you predicted it minutes before it happens on-screen, but the film will go in another direction.
There are some strong performances in this film from many in the cast, but many characters are not well developed. If you read the book this movie is based, you may get a better feel for the poorly developed characters.
The stars of the movie, Snipes and Connery, work well together. They really do a good job at bringing their characters' relationship to life.
One thing this movie does well is making you guess who the killer is. And, let me warn you, there are a few plot twists which just might throw you off track. There are also other clues to throw you off in subplots related to the main mystery plot.
Believe it or not, there really isn't a lot of gun and hand-to-hand battles. The martial arts is part of the movie, but it's not a major part of the storyline. The fights are pretty weak in fact, and are poorly choreographed.
The special effects are fairly typical, and only a few stand out. They do help with revealing clues to the mystery though, and some make it even more of a mystery.
If you ask me, the movie doesn't put the novel it's based upon on my "Must Read" list, but I might check it out to see how different it is to the movie. I do suggest that you may want to check this movie out.
