Den Tod vor Augen

I've seen it twice, with maybe a 25 years gap in between. It's good. Mimi Rogers is very convincing and very sexy. John Shea is credible too and subtle. Tom Irwin is good as the understanding police colleague. Alice Krige is good too as the criminal wife who eventually commits suicide. It's not a masterpiece, you will forget it quickly, but it's worth seeing once.

The plot -- Mimi Rogers is a lady cop named "Michael." She drinks with the guys, but has no love life to speak of. She is a member of a video dating service, but can't make up her mind whether or not to call anyone for a date.

Jack Packard (John Shea), claiming to be an engineer named "Tim Smith," shows up at her apartment late at night, says he's from the dating service and sweet-talks her into dinner and sex.

She finds out that "Tim" is really "Jack," a married rich guy, and tells him to leave her alone.

From this point on, you have to wonder what this women is using for a brain. For starters, she gets reinvolved with Jack, and from that point on things get complicated, in a soap-opera sense.

Shea's performance is unremarkable, which is too bad, but the movie is watchable if you have nothing better to do.

Things pick up somewhat during the final third of the film, so hang in there if you want to see how it all comes out.

For the first 18 minutes of this movie, I was rather intrigued. It has that typical decently shot, decently acted 90s American tv movie feel, which can make one feel rather nostalgic sometimes.

But then the main character Michael (played by Rogers) seems to lose her brain and the entire film becomes almost unwatchable.

Get this - our lead, who is apparently a seasoned homicide detective, sleeps with an incredibly creepy dude that shows up on her doorstep in the middle of the night under false pretenses.

Then proceeds to keep getting involved with him all the way through.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like this script was written by a man with no understanding of women.

It's established that Michael is lonely and feeling burnt out. She's joined a dating service. Feels like she's never going to get married.

A mid-life crisis of sadness. Understandable. Happens to everyone.

But why would a seasoned detective, even a lonely one, fall for a creepy married dude that turns up on her doorstep in the middle of the night?

It just feels like one of those male script writer decisions.

"Woman lonely. Woman need marry man. Woman no brain when need sex. Hurrrrr."

Ruins the entire film.

But if you want to see a lead character make stupider and stupider decisions, this one's for you!