A Murder of Crows (1998) (V)

Director:

Rowdy Herrington

Writer (WGA):

Rowdy Herrington (written by)

Release Date:

6 July 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller | Crime

Tagline:

A work of deadly fiction.

Plot:

A disbarred lawyer takes credit for a late friend's book, which becomes a smash hit but the tables turn on him sooner than he suspected.

Plot Keywords:

Book | Lawyer | Murder | Acting Coach | Automobile

Cast

Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Lawson Russell
Tom Berenger	...	Clifford Dubose
Marianne Jean-Baptiste	...	Elizabeth Pope
Eric Stoltz	...	Thurman Parks III
Mark Pellegrino	...	Prof. Arthur Corvus
Ashley Laurence	...	Janine DeVrie
Carmen Argenziano	...	Judge Wiley Banning
Doug Wert	...	Billy Ray Richardson
Nate Adams	...	James
Jeremiah Black	...	Bailiff
Derek Broes	...	Agent Manning
Adrian Colon	...	Detective
Gaelle Comparat	...	Thurman's Girl
Tara Crespo	...	Young Woman
Anastasia Drake	...	Clerk

MPAA:

Rated R for language, nudity, a scene of strong sexuality and some violence.

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Germany:12 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | France:U | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Key West, Florida Keys, Florida, USA

Company:

Crows Nest Films Inc.

Quotes:

Lawson Russell: Drink, detective?
Clifford Dubose: Nah. Never touch it. Makes me happy.

Movie Connections:

References The Warriors (1979)

Soundtrack:

Put My Faith In You

Good performance by Berenger and some nice locations.

This is one of those gimmicky plotted,elegantly produced movies that can be fun to watch if you go with the flow and don't dwell too much on the implausibilities.

Cuba Gooding is a lawyer who has a fit of conscientiousness and promptly gets disbarred. He travels to Key West and becomes friends with a retired Englishman who gives him the manuscript of a novel and asks for an opinion. The Englishman is found dead. Gooding decides to publish the novel as his own and then the fun begins.

Gooding has an engaging personality but his acting leaves something to be desired, his name is on the credits as producer (which in Hollywood can either mean a lot or nothing at all) so we would assume that he had read the script, but it doesn't always seem that way. He sometimes seems to be acting from off stage cues with his mannerisms at variance with the mood of the scene. In one scene, for no reason at all, he looks down at floor then shuffles his feet to another position as though he has just been told he is standing in the wrong spot.

The plot takes some not always credible twists and turns and we get that hackneyed scene where for no plausible reason the protagonist makes a run for it. In this case Gooding makes a surprisingly easy escape from a house swarming with cops, then of course we get the chance to visit some nicely photographed locations and to meet some quirky characters.

Tom Berenger does best in the acting department as a surly cop. He also has some of the best lines. He refuses a drink at one point with a terse "I never drink. It makes me feel happy."

Mainly for Berenger's performance and some nifty locations I give it 7 out of 10.