Crime Story

I can't believe what I saw made the final cut-to-market. This film by Adam Lipsius should be a film school example of what NOT to do.

Firstly, this is the perfect example of how a score can make or break a film, and this has to be one of the worst. I'm used to the typical annoyingly loud, overbearing, non-stop and unfitting score in B-grade films, but this was a whole new level of annoying. At the start, I kept yelling at Dreyfuss to "answer the damn door!". But it was the score - a constant knocking sound. Throughout, you'll hear clanging, ringing, banging etc... was there even a composer in this production, or just some random tools in a garage being slammed around?

Then you have Lipsius' incoherent and convoluted story, with dialogue and scenes that will make you shake your head. Why did he shoot the bathroom door where Nan was if he loved and cared about her so much? Don't even get me started on the plot and technical issues, that made what was supposed to be a criminal underworld story, feel inept, unconvincing and boring as it gets. And that's a real shame, when this is supposed to be "based on true events", and you end up scratching your head and yawning by the end.

Next, you have the barely legible muddled dialogue of Dreyfuss, that when combined with his slow and poorly postured demeanor, I thought he was constipated throughout the entire film. Add in Pruitt Taylor Vince's character Tommy, and you have two geriatric actors trying to get through filming. Aside from their snail-paced movements (I'm sure blame falls on Lipsius' failure to direct his cast properly), the entire film's slow pacing, made the normally comfortable 98 min runtime feel endless. Even Mira Sorvino's performance seemed like it was her first ever acting gig (again, due to Lipsius' failure to direct his cast properly).

His (twitchy) camerawork and cinematography were just awful, and this film needed some serious editing. I really can't find anything redeeming about Crime Story. It's a very generous 3/10 from me (much better than the current 0% on Rotten Tomatoes), all going to the Oscar winners out of pity they'll have this mess on their resumes.

Two talented actors wasted in a poorly written and poorly directed film that is too long by a factor of three. Not a likeable character in it. Just bad. Trim your nails it will be time better spent.

I'm no movie writer but this movie makes really no sense. Horribly put together. Halfway through I was like why am I still watching this movie. Waste of time.

That was definitely one of the worst endings I've ever seen. It felt like the director just gave up and stitched together whatever he could. And what the hell happened to Mira Sorvino? She was awful in this. It was cool to see Richard Dreyfuss in the movies again but he couldn't save whatever I just watched. I was set on rating this film a 5 but that ending was terrible. 4 stars.

I read all the horrible reviews - and they were right!

You can have a magnificent portrait of a very messed up family, such as this! But ......

Just goes ta show ya that you can have great actors (they were having off days here) and what could have been a great story - and who knows why everything went topsy tervey - but it most certainly did.

Obviously the music budget was low. It was AWFUL. Hurt my ears it was so very bad. They tried to recover at the end (during the credits), but that piece swung too far in the other direction of what they assaulted our ears with during the movie.

All in all, a most unpleasant experience. And not so bad that it was at all fun. The sin of it is, it had great potential. Oh well.

I would suggest passing it up as have several other reviewers, but you know your gonna wanna watch it because how can it really be THAT bad!!??

Your mistake, not ours. Oh, wait!!! It was! PS - after "sleeping on it", I had to take it down a star. Yep. THAT bad.