1988
Starring: James Spader, Cynthia Gibb, Robert Picardo,
I don't think I comprehended how much I like James Spader until I saw this movie. It's not so much that his performance is outstanding, it's more that you seen him shirtless a lot. When I picked up the VHS, I knew that it wasn't straight up horror but I figured it would be some fun as the premise is based around a serial killer.
A serial killer has begun killing prostitutes on the 100th anniversary of the Jack the Ripper murders. The police are on the case but they don't have much to go on, but they do end up linking all the prostitutes to a health clinic. John (James Spader) is a doctor who works at the clinic and is also curious about the connection to the clinic. He begins to do his own research trying to figure out who the murderer may be. He is suspicious of one of the clinic technicians, Jack (Rex Ryon) so he follows him after work. John finds him at the apartment of clinic's patients, he busts in to see that the woman covered in blood. Jack tries to flee with John in pursuit, they end up in a city government building, where Jack says he just was giving the woman an abortion, but they he tries to strangle Jack. They get in a big tussle, it ending with Jack hanging John to make it look like a suicide.
*SPOILER* Cut to John waking up from a nightmare, or so we think. It's not John, but his twin brother Rick who through some weird twin connection saw the murder. The cops think it was a suicide because they also think that John is the serial killer. Rick is now on the mission to clear his brother's name and find the real killer. Rick meets up with Chris (Cynthia Gibb) who worked with John at the clinic. They have some instant chemistry, but Rick doesn't know exactly how to clear his brother's name. The cops question Rick and they hypnotize him since he claims to have details about John's murder. In his hypnotic state he relives the last moments on John's life and sees who killed John, it was Jack! They find Jack but can't link him to any of the prostitute murders. Several people come up as witnesses that John couldn't have committed some of the murders because he was out of town on a business conference. The killer is still out there and the cops now think it's Rick.
Rick has another hunch and goes to the house where Jack lives and steals a bag that has some dirty latex gloves in it, tying Jack to the murder of the last woman that was killed the night that John was also murdered. The real killer is preparing to kill again. He heads to Chris's house where she is sleeping. He breaks in, in turns out the real killer is the head of the clinic and a total asshole as we have seen throughout the film. Luckily Rick busts through the window to save Chris and the cops show up because they were following Rick, thinking he was the killer.
Chris and Rick embrace and the end but they don't kiss which makes sense because they both were almost murdered. There aren't any sex scenes in the movie, which is a little bit of a letdown but is also really logical because Rick just lost his brother and people are being murdered left and right which isn't really a turn on, for most people anyway.
Since he plays twins you get twice the James Spader action, you get straight laced doctor Spader and bad boy shoe salesman Spader, who wears sleeveless shirts. If you don't like James Spader, don't watch this movie, but otherwise it's a good thriller with some cool twists.
No comments:
Post a Comment