IMDb RATING
5.2/10
1.9K
YOUR RATING
Jack sleeps with a waitress, who's later murdered. Did Jack's usual lover do it? Palm Beach detectives Jack and Steve investigate. Twists follow.Jack sleeps with a waitress, who's later murdered. Did Jack's usual lover do it? Palm Beach detectives Jack and Steve investigate. Twists follow.Jack sleeps with a waitress, who's later murdered. Did Jack's usual lover do it? Palm Beach detectives Jack and Steve investigate. Twists follow.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Jim Belushi
- Jack Dobson
- (as James Belushi)
Danny Kamin
- Prosecutor Dan Ayeroff
- (as Daniel Tucker Kamin)
Mario Ernesto Sánchez
- Tony Garidi
- (as Mario Ernesto Sanchez)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe ties worn by Jim Belushi in this film all came from his own personal wardrobe.
- SoundtracksTHESE FOOLISH THINGS
Written by Jack Strachey, Eric Maschwitz (as Holt Marvell) & Harry Link
Performed by Dinah Washington
Courtesy of Blue Note Records, A Division of Capitol Records, Inc.
By Arrangement with CEMA Special Markets
Featured review
A pretty inept erotic thriller, who's very description could be one after by Trading Standards
When homicide cop Jack Dobson starts getting threatening letters and has his car trashed, he and his partner assume that it is the work of a mobster who Jack is testifying against. However when the writer of the letters starts killing friends and lovers of his, Jack starts to investigate with the killer's lipstick and a defective typewriter as his only clues.
Opening with a shot of his own dead body, we are taken through this film by the narration of Jack himself, seemingly in an attempt to make it more gritty and typical of the genre. The plot spins wildly out of control - but not due to an abundance of ideas so much as just poor writing and poor delivery of the finished product. The connections between the various dots is not very important as the vast majority of the strands exist solely to act as red herrings - although how you could ever hope to guess the ridiculous twists that come at the end of this film is beyond me - the makers needed have bothered trying to trick us!
The plot never manages to thrill at any point, which could be considered a problem in a thriller. The lack of clarity in any of the threads (never mind their composite) means that you never really get involved enough to be gripping or indeed even care who the killer is or what their motivation might be. Having established that this erotic thriller has no thrills, then we are left with only the promise of the erotic! Of course, as you might imagine, this film doesn't deliver that either. Oh, it has nudity and some quick scenes of sexual material but it is just lazily stuck in there to widen the market appeal of this film - certainly if you came here looking for, ahem, whacking material, then you will be very disappointed.
The cast is OK in regards names, but don't really do anything in regards helping the film be better. Belushi is as average as ever; I suppose he does try to bring intense emotions out of his character here, but generally he is doing his usual stuff. Goldwynn is OK but his main contribution here is another recognisable face. Bracco tries hard but she is no Sharon Stone! She doesn't suit her hairstyle, never mind her character. She tries but she comes off silly - and her body double does her no favours during the nude scenes - lying there as flaccid as a deflated balloon!
Overall this film is just poor. In terms of thrills it is dull and so incoherent and badly structured as to render any excitement dead. If you're looking for erotic thrills then this film will disappoint you as well. The only moment of interest for me was the fact that the makers clearly took bets to see how absurd a twist they could get away with.
Opening with a shot of his own dead body, we are taken through this film by the narration of Jack himself, seemingly in an attempt to make it more gritty and typical of the genre. The plot spins wildly out of control - but not due to an abundance of ideas so much as just poor writing and poor delivery of the finished product. The connections between the various dots is not very important as the vast majority of the strands exist solely to act as red herrings - although how you could ever hope to guess the ridiculous twists that come at the end of this film is beyond me - the makers needed have bothered trying to trick us!
The plot never manages to thrill at any point, which could be considered a problem in a thriller. The lack of clarity in any of the threads (never mind their composite) means that you never really get involved enough to be gripping or indeed even care who the killer is or what their motivation might be. Having established that this erotic thriller has no thrills, then we are left with only the promise of the erotic! Of course, as you might imagine, this film doesn't deliver that either. Oh, it has nudity and some quick scenes of sexual material but it is just lazily stuck in there to widen the market appeal of this film - certainly if you came here looking for, ahem, whacking material, then you will be very disappointed.
The cast is OK in regards names, but don't really do anything in regards helping the film be better. Belushi is as average as ever; I suppose he does try to bring intense emotions out of his character here, but generally he is doing his usual stuff. Goldwynn is OK but his main contribution here is another recognisable face. Bracco tries hard but she is no Sharon Stone! She doesn't suit her hairstyle, never mind her character. She tries but she comes off silly - and her body double does her no favours during the nude scenes - lying there as flaccid as a deflated balloon!
Overall this film is just poor. In terms of thrills it is dull and so incoherent and badly structured as to render any excitement dead. If you're looking for erotic thrills then this film will disappoint you as well. The only moment of interest for me was the fact that the makers clearly took bets to see how absurd a twist they could get away with.
helpful•87
- bob the moo
- Mar 27, 2004
- How long is Traces of Red?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,206,714
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $804,336
- Nov 15, 1992
- Gross worldwide
- $3,206,714
- Runtime1 hour 45 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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