Murder Live!

A serious effort about how TV talk shows ruin lives - and on occasion, as with Jenny Jones, take them away. Co-written by Peter Horton who also plays the negotiator, directed by Roger Spottiswoode (48 Hrs., Turner & Hooch, Air America, Tomorrow Never Dies), with excellent work in the leading roles by David Morse and Marg Helgenberger (CSI, Erin Brockovich). The irony is thick here - the movie is the property of NBC, perpetrator of the infamous quiz show 'Twenty-One' which later became the subject of the Robert Redford movie.

The tenet is good, but it is concise and to the point, and so cannot be satisfactorily stretched into feature film format. Once the point has been made, there is little to do except introduce more and more plot vehicles to carry the movie to its somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion. This is nevertheless a noteworthy movie, and it's good that someone took the time to make this statement - even if it was the hypocritical NBC. But as the Morse character says, 'you vote with your remote', and the life-endangering 'crap' these shows churn out will be around as long (but only as long) as mindless TV viewers continue to beg to be fed on it.

NO SPOILERS HERE! I watched this film because it stars two of the most underrated actor/actresses in the business. David Morse and Marg Helgenberger are both in this film. I really like both of them and wish they'd hit the big time! The basic story is that a man, played by Morse, blames a talk show host, played by Helgenberger, for his daughter's death. I can't help but recall the Jenny Jones talk show incident of a few years ago and wonder how much of an influence it was on this story. Anyhow, Morse's character takes Helgenberger's character, along with the studio audience and the entire production crew, as hostages to extract his revenge. The acting is pretty good across the board and the story is written well enough to keep the viewer's interest. The story is told from both sides of the issue, with the Police one step behind Morse and gaining fast. Will they save the Damsel in Distress? Sorry, as I said, NO SPOILERS!

Flawless movie. David Morse (great actor, very intense) has the role of his life in the role of a father mortified by the loss of his daughter and holds a journalist responsible for it. She's in the middle of a talk show, and then the dead girl's father decides to close the issue with an unusual pursuit of justice. The film progresses very well, it is well done, edited, produced, scripted and directed and it is a pleasure to see films with these characteristics. It is a film that shows the great rot in which we develop and gives us the bitter lesson that instead of improving we always get worse. Very good film. Very good.

Movie starts as another ho-hum crime/suspense thriller, but it's chilling to hear truth about our culture spoken so plainly in a media package. I have no doubt that the talk-show TV execs will not want to show this too widely even if it was given to them free of charge. Well worth sticking with it. David Morse is one of those actors whose face you remember having seen somewhere, but you can't remember in which show -this movie really showcases his ability to carry a feature length film. I didn't think Terri Garr added much as the ex-wife - maybe I've seen her play that same type of 'tired of putting up with a difficult husband' role too many times.

Excellent performances and a worthwhile script mean that Murder Live! finally achieves what Mad City and Mistrial between them failed to do. It's refreshing to see satire handled without the sledgehammer subtlety of those efforts. One can only hope that this gem receives a much overdue release on DVD.