Malevolent (2002)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

John Terlesky

Writers:

Peter Bellwood (writer)
Dennis Shryack (writer)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The setup. The betrayal. Vengeance is coming.

Plot:

Detective Jack Lucas, a harried, self-hating, Los Angeles police detective races against the clock to clear his name when he's framed for a series of killings committed by a crafty serial killer, who targets him as his latest fall guy.

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Framed | Set Up | Serial Killer | Exotic Dancer

Cast

Lou Diamond Phillips	...	Det. Jack Lucas
Edoardo Ballerini	...	Oliver Chadwicke
Kari Wuhrer	...	Jessica Tarrant
Gwen McGee	...	Det. Carla Gifford
Carmen Argenziano	...	Warren Lucas
Iva Hasperger	...	Sandy
Steven Bauer	...	Capt. Greg Pruitt
Rex Ryon	...	Det. Sgt. Joe Dexter
David Reivers	...	Det. Ray Bressler
Guy Ecker	...	Det. Al Voss
Jack McGee	...	Eddie the Bartender
Amye Williams	...	Mother
Troy Beyer	...	Kelly
Mike Butters	...	Mike, Strip Club Bouncer

Also Known As:

Twist of Fate (USA) (working title)
Twisted Fate (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Netherlands:12 | Germany:16 | UK:18 | USA:R | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Burg/Koules Productions

Trivia:

Stock footage used: The opening car chase are edited scenes from The Corruptor (1999), while the finale (another big car chase) was originally seen in Marked for Death (1990).

Movie Connections:

Edited from Marked for Death (1990)

Soundtrack:

The Natives are Restless

Disappointing lack of editing finesse!

It always amuses me when bad editing results in cars magically having regrown hubcaps that clearly flew off in an earlier scene - just seconds earlier.

It struck me that the final car chase scene was very familiar, from the way the blue BMW zigzagged across the park and jumped the wall, followed closely by a beige Dodge Ram. I thought it was remarkably similar to a scene I remembered from a Steven Seagal movie, probably "Marked for Death" which I saw in the early Nineties. Then I noticed that the mag wheels had miraculously changed from alloy spokes to gold BBS honeycomb style wheels... and the shade of blue wasn't right, either. If you're observant, you can clearly see both Seagal and his co-star companion in the truck (supposedly now driven by Phillips, who elsewhere is shown to be alone in the vehicle) at various times, but most noticeably when it spins round and enters the sidewalk, and again as it gets back on the street.

If you watch closely, you can even see those nasty Jamaican drug dealers from the 1990 movie in the BMW... in one scene there is a black hand hanging out of the passenger side window (when there's supposed to be no passenger at all in either car)

You sort of feel cheated when they pull this kind of stunt on the audience. Did they manage to save so much money after paying royalties to the owners of the Seagal movie? Or did budget constraints prevent them from staging their own car chase and doing their own stunts..? I'm told that the opening car chase was similarly taken from another movie which I haven't yet seen.

Recycling in general may be sensible and politically correct - but this is taking the concept too far. Moviegoers should be entitled to a partial refund - or free copies of the movies from which these scenes were lifted.

Lou Diamond Phillips has done better work for decades. It does him no favors to be associated with a production which relies so heavily on disingeniously regurgitated material.