The follow-up
to 1997's Kiss The Girls, Morgan Freeman once again
plays the role of forensic psychologist Dr Alex Cross, to
great effect.
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Not
a nice man. Lock up your daughters |
While
the film offers little new in terms of style it nevertheless
generates enough tension to keep you entertained for nearly
two hours.
It begins
with a scene straight out of Hitchcock's Vertigo. A
covert operation goes badly wrong leaving Cross's partner
dangling above a raging torrent. She falls and, like James
Stewart in Hitch's classic, Cross blames himself.
|
Jezzie
Flannigan - Cross's new colleague |
He's forced
back into action when the daughter of a congressman is kidnapped.
The kidnapper Gary Soneji (Wincott) wants his fifteen minutes
of fame and leads the detectives a merry dance.
Just when
you feel the storyline is becoming too predictable the twists
begin to great affect.
It's the
strong story which keeps this film interesting because so
many elements seem to have been borrowed from elsewhere.
|
I've
told you before. I don't need double glazing |
When a
ransom is demanded Cross is forced to run around Washington
answering telephones for his next set of instructions. Hardly
new.
Likewise,
when Cross is seeking clues from pictures of Soneji's classroom,
the scene becomes reminiscent of Harrison Ford's Deckard character
in Bladerunner when he finds information from a photograph.
For all
it's magpie like borrowing the film is still a winner. Given
that the Cross character originates from a series of successful
psychological suspense novels by James Patterson and this
film has already proved a big hit in the States, we can expect
Morgan Freeman to reprise his role many times in the years
to come.
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