The Criminal
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C
How
distant has film production become from its roots? When it comes to Thrillers, Mysteries and
even Action films, Julian Simpson’s The
Criminal (1999) is the epitome of everything NOT to do when making such a
film. He also wrote it. The film involves a musician (Steven
Macintosh) who is being framed for being a serial killer, but the authorities
are certain it is him. The film that
immediately comes to mind with that description is Alfred Hitchcock’s last
great film, 1972’s Frenzy.
This film
is too busy trying to look like very bad Music Videos, and trying to be both
Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie (Mackintosh is an alumni of his films, all
better than this), then has some very sloppy editing by Marc Arrons (making his
feature film debut!) to back it up. How
this won awards is stunning, showing it must have been a very, very bad film
season with some very wet-behind-the-ears judges who have only seen films for
the last five years. I cannot remember
the last time a British film in these genres bored me so much. This is most unimpressive and I kept wishing
that the decent actors had a better film to be in, because they were its only
appeal.
The
letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is from a clean print and acceptable transfer, but
it is not anamorphically enhanced and cinematographer Nic Morris, B.S.C., does
not come up with anything memorable or interesting in the way of visuals. The attempts at some kind of Film Noir images
are laughable. This is cliché city, but
I again blame the director the most. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 soundtrack outdoes the 2.0 Stereo Pro Logic surround
version, but not by much. The music is
thin and the dialogue-based film holds back the sound design. Too bad they are not saying anything
interesting. Extras include a director’s
commentary (where he identifies his “influences” and you can hear the many
places he and the film went wrong), web links, trailers for this and other Palm
DVDs, cast/crew biography section, and interviews with them.
Even with
the extras, which help show what went wrong, The Criminal is something to pass on. It does not even match up to the formula
police procedurals British and U.S. TV keep sadly churning out. Many American thrillers of late have been
dreadful, and this film proves to be their equal. If only Ashley Judd was British, then the
joke would have been complete.
- Nicholas Sheffo
