My first question is rhetorical: Are there any cinematic police departments that teach officers to shoot to wound, rather than shooting to kill? I suspect that most real ones probably do, actually. But in Along Came A Spider, there are at least two occasions when Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman at his most "Morgan Freeman-esque") has the opportunity to end a standoff by just popping a suspect in the leg rather than shooting them in the chest. Winging a suspect might allow for, say, a trial and sentences. All that good legal stuff. Instead, though, Cross feels perfectly comfortable killing suspects after either realizing they don't have any new information, or that they were actually guilty. This raises the question of when you last saw a thriller in which the cop or investigator captures the criminal at the end, puts them on trial, and gets their cathartic release watching them get sentenced to life in prison. Nah. Instead movies just look for cool ways for the hero to waste the bad guy in the final reel. And when that wasting occurs in a dull manner, as is the case with Along Came a Spider (I don't feel I've given too much away here)... Well, what's the point?
Along Came A Spider begins with a tragic accident in which Alex Cross leads a botched sting operation that leaves his partner dead (in a horrid special effects sequence). Cross is so shattered he hasn't recovered 8 months later. That's what we're told, at least. Mostly Morgan Freeman just looks a little tired. Once he gets launched on a new case, though, the 8 months of depression cease to be a factor. The new case involves the kidnapping of the daughter of a US Senator. The kidnapper (gravel voiced Michael Wincott) seems to want fame, I guess, though it's never fully important. Cross picks up a new partner in the Secret Service agent who feels responsible for the girl's kidnapping (Monica Potter). For around ten seconds Cross has an adversarial relationship with a federal agent (Dylan Baker) who is leading the investigation until he drops jurisdiction and basically lets Cross take over. Things twist and turn and there are "surprises" and double-crosses galore.
The fact that the surprises really aren't surprising is a moderate problem. The number of little details that make no sense are more problematic. There's a series of clues involving a Charles Lindbergh web page and web cam that are pretty foolish. In fact, any time the film references computers it seems out of its element. Every detail is off. But since the computer stuff is basically the only detective work in the movie, you've gotta wonder about things. At the end, Cross hacks into a suspect's computer, for example. He figures out the password in an arbitrary manner (and then enters the password into the only security field in computer history that actually shows the letters in a password onscreen as you type them) and he pretty much clicks on a series of files that might as well be labeled "Motive," "Kidnapping Evidence," and "Where I'm Hiding Away." But I guess we don't see these movies for their realism. But absent any thrills, I guess I'm at a loss. Beyond the obviousness of the plot, nothing about Along Came A Spider is really bad. But I have equally little to recommend it.
Like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is based on a novel by James Patterson. And like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is directed by a man who started in independent films and has graduated to making indistinct run-of-the-mill Hollywood thrillers. Lee Tamahori first made his mark with the searing Once Were Warriors, but since then he's gone from bland (The Edge) to dull (Mulholland Falls) to blankly innocuous (here). His style, which once seemed so fresh, has been so subverted that his next assignment is helming a James Bond film, the ultimate reward for a director who gets the job done without letting such "irrelevances" as personal style and vision cloud his judgement. In Along Came A Spider, Tamahori does nothing to call attention to himself, but also offers nothing of originality to goose the narrative along. Basically the suspense involves lots of thunderstorms, dark dank hiding places, and children in peril. That plus a climactic chase that makes you yearn for the skill of Dirty Harry. But basically all of the technical aspects of the film are acceptable (damning praise).
Morgan Freeman, of course, is never anything less than an intelligent, composed, strong on-screen presence and you frankly wish more depth could be added to the Alex Cross screen persona so that Freeman could have a little more acting fun. As his foil, Monica Potter is, as always, a blonder, blander version of Julia Roberts. Potter's only true acting success, in my book, was in the Robert Towne Prefontaine story Without Limits. Otherwise, she's pretty much coasted on charm and a resemblance to the biggest star in Hollywood. In the smaller supporting parts Wilcott is fine, Baker is wasted, and you wonder how Penelope Ann Miller's career has disintegrated to the point where she has a half dozen lines here as the kidnapped girl's mother.
So it's hard to know what to say about Along Came A Spider. You could pick at its plot holes for hours. But trying to pick it apart cinematically is a pointless endeavor. There's not much wrong, but there's not much here. This is a totally mediocre 5/10 film.
Along Came A Spider begins with a tragic accident in which Alex Cross leads a botched sting operation that leaves his partner dead (in a horrid special effects sequence). Cross is so shattered he hasn't recovered 8 months later. That's what we're told, at least. Mostly Morgan Freeman just looks a little tired. Once he gets launched on a new case, though, the 8 months of depression cease to be a factor. The new case involves the kidnapping of the daughter of a US Senator. The kidnapper (gravel voiced Michael Wincott) seems to want fame, I guess, though it's never fully important. Cross picks up a new partner in the Secret Service agent who feels responsible for the girl's kidnapping (Monica Potter). For around ten seconds Cross has an adversarial relationship with a federal agent (Dylan Baker) who is leading the investigation until he drops jurisdiction and basically lets Cross take over. Things twist and turn and there are "surprises" and double-crosses galore.
The fact that the surprises really aren't surprising is a moderate problem. The number of little details that make no sense are more problematic. There's a series of clues involving a Charles Lindbergh web page and web cam that are pretty foolish. In fact, any time the film references computers it seems out of its element. Every detail is off. But since the computer stuff is basically the only detective work in the movie, you've gotta wonder about things. At the end, Cross hacks into a suspect's computer, for example. He figures out the password in an arbitrary manner (and then enters the password into the only security field in computer history that actually shows the letters in a password onscreen as you type them) and he pretty much clicks on a series of files that might as well be labeled "Motive," "Kidnapping Evidence," and "Where I'm Hiding Away." But I guess we don't see these movies for their realism. But absent any thrills, I guess I'm at a loss. Beyond the obviousness of the plot, nothing about Along Came A Spider is really bad. But I have equally little to recommend it.
Like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is based on a novel by James Patterson. And like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is directed by a man who started in independent films and has graduated to making indistinct run-of-the-mill Hollywood thrillers. Lee Tamahori first made his mark with the searing Once Were Warriors, but since then he's gone from bland (The Edge) to dull (Mulholland Falls) to blankly innocuous (here). His style, which once seemed so fresh, has been so subverted that his next assignment is helming a James Bond film, the ultimate reward for a director who gets the job done without letting such "irrelevances" as personal style and vision cloud his judgement. In Along Came A Spider, Tamahori does nothing to call attention to himself, but also offers nothing of originality to goose the narrative along. Basically the suspense involves lots of thunderstorms, dark dank hiding places, and children in peril. That plus a climactic chase that makes you yearn for the skill of Dirty Harry. But basically all of the technical aspects of the film are acceptable (damning praise).
Morgan Freeman, of course, is never anything less than an intelligent, composed, strong on-screen presence and you frankly wish more depth could be added to the Alex Cross screen persona so that Freeman could have a little more acting fun. As his foil, Monica Potter is, as always, a blonder, blander version of Julia Roberts. Potter's only true acting success, in my book, was in the Robert Towne Prefontaine story Without Limits. Otherwise, she's pretty much coasted on charm and a resemblance to the biggest star in Hollywood. In the smaller supporting parts Wilcott is fine, Baker is wasted, and you wonder how Penelope Ann Miller's career has disintegrated to the point where she has a half dozen lines here as the kidnapped girl's mother.
So it's hard to know what to say about Along Came A Spider. You could pick at its plot holes for hours. But trying to pick it apart cinematically is a pointless endeavor. There's not much wrong, but there's not much here. This is a totally mediocre 5/10 film.
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