Blood Crime

If you want to be entertained, this is a wonderful film. If you are the type of person who goes to movies looking for imperfections, you will find them. The reviewers of this film have forgotten the main purpose of the genre - entertainment. The interaction between Caan and Schaech was perfect. The movie carries us until the climax. Which was very satisfying.

I would watch this film again.

Seattle cop Daniel Pruitt (Johnathon Schaech) is getting away from it all. While camping out in the woods, his wife Jessica (Elizabeth Lackey) is attacked. On the way to the hospital, they nearly crash into a semi-trailer. Jessica claims that the driver is her assailant. Daniel beats up the man and locks him up in the trailer. Then in the hospital, she claims the male nurse is her attacker. Daniel realizes his mistake, but before he could fix it, sheriff Morgan McKenna (James Caan) turns up at the hospital and reveals that the truck's driver is actually his son. He's been killed and they found Daniel's gun at the scene. The sheriff assumes that the attacker was at both crime scenes picking up the gun in the woods and dropping it by the trailer. The sheriff takes along Daniel on his investigation.

The concept is set up for a better thriller. However it needs to be more exciting. Johnathon Schaech is not a compelling lead. He needs to show the tension wearing on him better. He's not a good enough actor. The movie loses steam after a promising start.

We all pretty much know what to expect from these Movies of the Week, yet this one stands out as a nicely executed, taught suspense thriller. Some plot holes are there but are more then made up for by gritty, top notch performances by the ageless, amazing James Caan and the smoldering Jonathan Shaech.

The story itself presents a fascinating conundrum: A young homicide detective flees the big city with his wife in search of a better life. After making the move, the wife is brutally assaulted on the same night that the son of the local sheriff is killed. As the wife had previously alleged that this was the man that attacked her, the detective finds himself at the center of a small town conspiracy. The local cop and the big city detective are then forced to find the perpetrators together.

Kudos to the writer Miller for both his keen sense of suspense which always keeps us guessing and his on screen dialogue which absolutely crackles. Stay tuned for the bone crushing ending...

Overall, a fun thriller and a slick MOW suspenser...

I enjoyed this TV movie, but something about it kept irritating the heck out of me. Not enough to make me quit watching, though.

This is one of those movies made with American stars in New Zealand or Australia, but the action is supposed to be taking place somewhere in the United States. In this movie, it's the American Northwest.

However, the rest of the cast are actors from New Zealand or Australia, so they have to fake an American accent. Some actors are better at this than others.

Often the faked American accent fails when the actor is required to yell a line. Whatever, it's really, really distracting.

Just a complaint, that's all. As I said, I enjoyed this movie nevertheless.

"Blood Crime" tells of a detective (Schaech) and his wife (Lackey) whose vacation becomes a nightmare when she is raped and he becomes embroiled in the murder of the suspect and the subsequent investigation spearheaded by a tough rural Sheriff (Caan). "Blood Crime" has the look and feel of a low budget made-for-tv flick with fade-to-black every 15 minutes for commercial breaks and the usual hacked screenplay with flaws, plotholes, and foibles aplenty. With New Zeland standing in for Oregon and drama standing in for common sense, this mediocre flick would have us believe a coroner can not only tell us a gun was used to beat a man to death but he can identify the caliber of the weapon. Or, that a Sheriff can commit a double homicide in the name of justice with impunity...etc. A journeyman no-brainer B-flick with B-flick talent for the sofa spud. (C)