CWEB.com - Movie Reviews For " Criminal " (7/10). Win A Free Ticket For You And Your Family When You Vote For The Movies We Review!

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CWEB.com  - Criminal Rating (7/10)

Runtime 113 minutes.

Not for children.

This is a high octane, edge of your seat thriller. Directed by Ariel Vroman from a script by Douglas Cook and David Weisberg, it is a science fiction chase film with effective performances by Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot, and Michael Pitt.

Despite a close-your-eyes scene of torture at the beginning that did not need to be so graphic, Dr. Franks (Jones) transfers the memory of a deceased CIA agent into the brain of a psychopathic death row convict, Jerico Stewart (Costner). The MacGuffin is that the deceased agent knew the location of a hacker known as “The Dutchman” (Pitt) a person who is being sought by not only the CIA’s peripatetic London chief, Quaker Wells (Oldman) but also by a ruthless anarchist, Xavier Heimdahl (Jordi Molla). As a result, everybody is after Jerico so that they can get the Dutchman. Jerico is understandably confused as he experiences emotions that had been totally foreign to him and he is invaded by thoughts beyond his ken, coming as they do from the deceased agent’s life.

The result is a relatively believable sci-fi Chase film not unduly overloaded with special effects, although there are some in the form of car chases and accidents.

As long as you can accept the premise, which I was able to do, the tension never lets up as Jerico grapples with his new thought pattern that threatens to give him emotions and feelings that had been absent from his life since brain damage suffered as a young child. The film is enhanced by exceptional cinematography by Dana Gonzales.

Tony Medley is a Motion Picture Association of America accredited film critic. His reviews may be read in several newspapers as well as on CWEB.com, Rottentomatoes.com, the Movie Review Query Engine, mrqe.com, and atwww.tonymedley.com. In addition, he’s written numerous newspaper and magazine articles for publications like The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Magazine, The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and Good Housekeeping Magazine. 

He is a Silver Life Master in the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), an ACBL-certified Director, and the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge. With over 100,000 copies in print, it is the best-selling basic bridge book. He is also the author of UCLA Basketball: The Real Story, available on Kindle, and Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed, first published in 1978 and now in its third edition with over half a million copies in print, the first book ever written about the job interview for the interviewee, also available on Kindle.