User reviews

Here's a film that might have been a classic. The story had all the elements. But the direction could have been better and the main actress wasn't up to the material. The supporting actors didn't help either. With a different cast and a different director this might have been great. That being said, it is still worth a look.

There are some movies that if you do not just hand feed the audience, they assume that it is boring. Slow Burn has a lot of twist and turns the movie is to be taken just as the title "Slow Burn".

I enjoyed it and have watched it 3 times. The first time, I was involved with doing something else and when I would glance up, I was like oh, okay. But, you actually need to sit down and really get into this movie. Action good, plot is good. There are a couple of underlying plots that you have to watch for. You have all the things needed that people request, drug lord, corruption, love, and sex. As the plots thickens, the viewer should attempt to pull the plots away from each other. Just relax, let the movie take its course. Girls you have some of the top good looking men in the movie that's a plus. There are some up and comings in the movie, that with a few more times, they will survive on their on.

Ray Liotta as a DA running for Mayor who has trouble when one of his best and brightest assistants turns herself in for shooting someone in self defense. Complicating matters is a drug lord who shows up to tell Liotta things are not as they seem.

Bad make up job on our leading actress aside this is a good but not great little thriller that would have fared better as "made for cable original" where the expectations wouldn't be that high. Give it points for twisting and turning, take one or so back for being only a step or two above most direct to video releases.

Worth a look but late on a Saturday night where this would be perfect fare before bed time.

I remember growing up on films such as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Fugitive, films with enough plot twists and turns to keep things fresh and interesting. I was more than pleasantly surprised to see excellent performances from an otherwise pieced-together cast of Ray Liotta, Taye Diggs, LL Cool J, Mekhi Phifer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and of course Jolene Blalock. I enjoyed every minute of this film whose score and choice of background, and especially credit, music made it all that much more memorable.

Personally, I love films in, around, or about the city. Without giving anything away, Slow Burn deals with corruption and a little gang-related mystery; all the while providing that sense of empathy for Liotta's character that seems all too absent in modern films today.

No, this film is not for everyone, but if you can remember what it was like to be genuinely stringed along and interested in what happens at every twist and turn of those 90's film plots, then you should find yourself feeling that you got you're 9.50's worth on a Friday night.

Wayne Beach's storytelling tactics are very particular but eventually effective. Characters are chameleon-like and plot is transparent and convoluted at the same time, reminding a bit John Grisham's novels adaptations. The twists capsizing everything over the last twenty minutes turn the conclusion into a big mess but heat is not lacking at all. Plot reversals and action flashes look like a fusion of "The Usual Suspects" and Hollywoood legal thrillers, besides this political/Court story also handles themes of racial confusion and conflicts. Not a stellar cast, but the movie is overall well acted (Ray Liotta has a pulse as usual).

"A ripoff of 'The Usual Suspects'". Oh , look at me. My eyes are rolling. Rather than use any intellectual energy, the clueless feel that the only way to summarize a movie, is to compare it to another movie. Let's see, the documentary reminds me of "the Holocaust". Instead of Jews, there are migrant Hispanic workers. Instead of Germany, it's California. Instead of Hitler, there's the former-lieutenant governor, Gray Davis. Instead of concentration camps, there are lines at the DMV. See, almost the same. For dolts, any movie with a twist and characters "aren't who they seem to be"...bingo (!), it just like "The Usual Suspects".

"The Usual Suspects" is a better movie, but "Slow Burn" is a lot of fun. It keeps you guessing, and that really upsets many movie goers. It certainly upset a lot of people who posted on this forum. Lots of discussion of why a white woman was used, rather than a black woman. If a black woman was cast, it would have been a different movie. I prefer Chinese women and, if Zhang Ziyi was cast, it would have been a different movie. For a mixed-race actress, Jennifer Beals would have been perfect. Unfortunately, she is too old to play an ingénue but, for the rapidly aging Roy Liotta, more appropriate.

This wore out its welcome about 40 minutes into the movie and after the halfway point, about 10 minutes later, I totally didn't care if our girl here was innocent or guilty. The story just became plodding.

I am so glad it wasn't just me, that the first review I see here - Mermaidbronze - felt the same way I did. I'll put it in simple terms: this film was not as "smart" and "clever" as it thought it was. In fact, it was stupid because it committed the ultimate sin for making a movie - it bored the hell out of its audience, and an audience that includes some "smart people" who can figure things out. A convoluted movie is just that, and not fun to watch no matter what any viewer's IQ might be.

Movies that revolve around the big question "Did he/she kill the person or not" are either extremely interesting and involving or the opposite. I found it un-involving, and when you don't care about the characters, then you don't care who's innocent or guilty and the film loses all effectiveness.

This movie was filmed in 2003 but not released until this year - four years later! Maybe they knew it was a turkey.

At first the movie seemed like an excuse for a soft porn movie. The only reason I stayed with it was because the acting was pretty good. Later it evolves into an interesting, twisted who's it. So in the end, I'm glad I stayed with it.

In a movie this complicated, I am sure there are some loose ends, but I thought they did a good job of tying things together in the end.

I was OK with the flashbacks and plot twists, but I am probably not your average viewer. It is true you have to pay attention to keep everything straight. If you don't like to stay with a film, it may not be the film for you.

They do keep you guessing to the end.

I rented this movie because of the actors involved - Ray Liotta, LL Cool J, Taye Diggs, Mekhi Phifer and the great Bruce McGill. However, the movie basically bored and confused me simultaneously. To put it simply, it's just too messy. The movie touches on some interesting subjects and has some potential - but the end result is, well, quite a mess.

Slow Burn seems to be quite inspired by "The Usual Suspects" - which is by no means a bad thing. But it all just gets too convoluted. I lost track of the tricks the movie tried to pull to surprise the audience toward the end. It seemed pretty forced as did all the flashbacks throughout the film. I will, however, give the movie credit for "hiding" the bad guy really well - I didn't guess who it was, despite being a big movie buff. The actors all do their jobs just fine, though I think LL Cool J was somewhat miscast.

All in all I would not recommend this movie. I guess there is a reason it was held back for 2 years ;-)

I recently found out i had this movie in DVD in my house and today i decided to give it a chance, especially for the cast (LL Cool J, Ray Liotta, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mekhi Phifer...). I didn't expect much because of the low rating here on IMDB but i was truly positively surprised by it. It's a very decent movie with many plot twists that will keep you focused and not bored. I recommend it! 7/10!

In the opening scene of "Slow Burn," an assistant district attorney (Jolene Blalock) is found wandering the streets of the city, disheveled and confused, informing those who find her that she has just killed a rapist in self defense. The alleged attacker (Mekhi Phifer) was a man she supposedly met one night in a record store and who then proceeded to stalk her for weeks thereafter. Suddenly, into the head D.A.'s office strides LL Cool J, as a friend of the deceased who has a considerably different story to tell about the events leading up to the murder as well as an entirely disparate take on the couple's relationship. Things get even more dicey when we discover that the D.A. (Ray Liotta) and the assistant D.A. have been conducting a torrid affair of their own for a number of years now.

"Slow Burn" fails on so many levels of rudimentary storytelling and film-making that it's hard to know where exactly to begin in compiling a list of its shortcomings. To start with, there's something inherently self-defeating and pointless in constructing a narrative from two widely conflicting viewpoints - a la "Rashomon" - when one of the supposed eyewitnesses is already dead and, thus, unable to personally relate his side of the story. How does it enhance the verisimilitude of the tale if most of our information has to come filtered down to us through a secondhand source, a person who wasn't even present at the events he's describing - unless, of course, he was hiding in a nearby closet during all those "intimate" moments he is able to recount in such juicy and exhaustive detail? Either that or the murder victim was one of the chattiest, kiss-and-tell gossips in the history of the movies. And why does it take till the closing reels for the supposedly intelligent professional investigators to smell a rat in that setup? Eventually, the twist-and-turn plotting leads to so much incoherence and confusion that you might well wonder if the filmmakers themselves understood what it was they were doing.

Beyond the clumsy, inscrutable storytelling, "Slow Burn" also suffers from some of the most overripe dialogue this side of "The Black Dahlia." With such knee-slapping howlers as "She stood there like a tangerine, ripe and ready to be peeled" and "She walked in smelling like mashed potatoes and every guy within thirty feet wanted to be the gravy," the script could easily win First Prize in a Bad Film Noir Writing contest. It's hard to believe at such times that the film isn't actually intended to be a parody (the acting sure suggests it on occasion). On second thought, perhaps it would be best to stick with that notion; it just might go down easier that way.

I rented this on New Year's Eve to counter the boredom of Bowl games, and found the movie to be surprisingly good. There was a compelling and believable storyline (think of "Body Heat" set in a contemporary northeastern city instead of lazy Miami), it was well acted and a real thriller. I especially liked LL Cool J's performance, and Liotta was believable as the White urban politico. I also liked that the movie didn't shy away from comments (however simplistic) about race. Mekhi Pfifer was useful in his role and Taye Diggs was hilarious with his usual witty and sarcastic commentary. The female lead, Blalock also gives a believable performance as damsel in distress. The Desk Sgt. Drown character was quite funny. Comparable (but better) films would include "Double Indemnity" or The "Postman Always Rings Twice". This was a good yarn, well worth the 3 bucks I spent to rent it.

'Slow Burn' starts as a "slow burn" (hehe). In all seriousness, this was a solid B-movie with some notable actors (Ray Liotta was as good as always). In all honesty, I've written reviews on IMDB before but I'm not that knowledgeable on the filmmaking process. I just say whether a movie is good, bad, or in between and whether you should watch it or not. Cut and dry, that is it (this being a line delivered from Al Pacino from the Michael Mann movie 'Heat'). Getting back to 'Slow Burn,' as I mentioned earlier, the movie started out slow, but started picking up in the middle. Towards the end, there were lots of twists and turns (some of which actually surprised me). If a movie can get me to feel genuinely shocked at a plot twist then it did its job by thoroughly entertaining me.

This film brings back memories of "The Usual Suspects". It's a real puzzle, right to the end, with surprises coming along throughout. Very well written script, with excellent acting. Ray Liotta is great, as the lead. Of course, this type of film is a staple for him, and he doesn't disappoint. The other actors, including Jolene Blalock and L. L. Cool J are also very good. The script is quite realistic, hinging on a real estate scam. The story is seen from different individuals' perspectives, which is always interesting and certainly in a twisty tale, like this. Although this isn't a classic film, it certainly is entertaining, with lots of tension, and a great atmosphere.

There's few movies that suffered more from poor editing more than Slow Burn. A strong cast with fine performances, but ithe film is sliced and diced until you suspect that you're the only viewer that's confused. All the right scenes are there, just in the wrong order. I get what the movie was TRYING to do: see everything through the eyes of DA Ford Cole (Ray Liotta) as he saw them at the time he saw them. This can work OK (and just OK) in a book where the reader can page back and sort things out but not in a 93 minute movie. This film should be reedited and rereleased.

Worth watching, but it could have been oh so much more.

This is not about concentration. Nor is it about having enough film savvy or cleverness to figure out obscure themes and subplots in films, after all, some of us are David LYNCH fans and enjoy decoding and detangling films as though they are mazes. Those films are at least vibrant and colorful enough to maintain the interest of a BINGO audience. They have characterization, plot, action, theme, etc. We have become accustomed to the complexity of flashbacks and out-of-sequence story lines. We loved "Pulp Fiction", "Memento", "Traffic", and "21 Grams", but a film should not be so chaotic, disorderly, and cluttered with digressive subplots that you can't determine the main theme of the film. When films do this, they are simply exercises in mental masturbation for a self aggrandizing filmmaker and are not interesting to the rest of us. We are not all falling asleep because we have Attention Deficit Disorder. Some of us are really laid-back and low key, with excellent concentration skills, and are detail oriented to a fault. We are falling asleep because the film simply doesn't have any action to move it forward. Its boring, frustrating, and tedious. I mean after all, both Theoretical Mathmaticians and Avant-Garde Poets find what they do equally interesting, neither is more valid than the other. A film needs to be interesting enough to appeal to some audience within the range between them, this film is not, does not.

SLOW BURN is a film that has much to like, much promise, and a cast of trusty actors to bring it off. The problem with the result is in director/writer Wayne Beach's hands and especially in the editing job on the completed film. It is like watching a 'follow-the-bouncing-ball' film: there are many surprises and subplots and altered identities that keeping a score card of where the story is going is a bit difficult.

Reduced to the bare bones the plot takes place in a 24 hour period during which District Attorney Ford Cole (Ray Liotta) and his Assistant DA Nora (Jolene Blalock) are in a showdown with a significant crime boss Luther Pinks (LL Cool J). Nothing is as it seems, as irritating flashbacks attempt to prove, and in the end the good guys and the bad guys are difficult to appreciate. There are some excellent performances by reliable actors such as Taye Diggs, Mekhi Phifer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Bruce McGill, but the plot depends on a significant point of the confused racial identity of Jolene Blalock's character, and though she acts well, the part would have been better served by an actress like Nicole Ari Parker, to name just one.

The problem with this supposedly enigmatic thriller is that the astute viewer will see through the plot far too early. But given the quibbles, it is good to see these actors at work, especially the underused Ray Liotta. Grady Harp

I had not heard of this movie when me and my friend picked it up at Blockbuster. It was between this and Be Kind Rewind and fortunately we chose this movie. Ray Liotta plays a district attourney running for mayor when his DA is raped by a supposed psychotic music store clerk and then murders him. Liotta is taken on a roller coaster of a mystery where you don't know who is telling the truth and if everyone is who they say they are. There are so many twists and turns that it becomes confusing at points but it all adds up to the ending which relieves your confusion. I haven't heard of Jolene Blalock but she is excellent in her role as the supposedly raped(was she or wasn't she?) DA who may have some tricks up her sleeve. The only thing i had a problem with was some of the dialouge. LL Cool J's ramblings about everything smelling like food was a bit strange. Other than that it was awesome

I must say I just finished watching this movie, and what a waste. I agree this movie had some great actors (Ray Liotta), and a decent plot. However, I lost interest in this movie after a while and was just waiting for it to end, and did not really care how it ended. The usual suspects ripoff was evident in that there was a crime lord, in this case a Danny Ludden, as compared to the Kaiser Sosa of Usual Suspects who nobody had ever really seen. Yeah right. This movie tried to tell us that the Danny Ludden character owned property all over "the city", which they slipped and called Detriot once, and controlled a gang that ran Detroit, and no one had ever seen him. Wow, this is an amazing concept. Meanwhile the Assistant DA who Ray Liotta is banging is intertwined within the movie as a rape suspect/murder suspect who is thought to be black, but is really white. Is the viewer to believe that in this day in age in the US there can be an Assistant DA in a city like Detroit who is using a false identity and no one catches this? Oh well, don't waste your time, watch the Usual Suspects for a decent movie with a good plot.

This film reminded me of buying cheap furniture where the assembly instructions are lacking detail and too confusing. I grew up watching these actors and most of their movies so it was even tougher to watch.

After having more twists than a Milten Bradley game, I believe what really hurt this film was the main actress. She doesn't have that beauty that can "get any man" nor could she pull off the super sophisticated I know everything role.

The rest of the cast was decent. I wouldn't purposely put this movie on, but it were on HBO or something I would watch it again. And by the way, RIP Ray Latoya, I always enjoy what he brings to the table.

Difficult to follow story with many twists and turns difficult to believe.