Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Passable time filler...back in 1988. Otherwise a somewhat unnecessary redo of a '50s era Noir classic, lensed for the most part in Austin, Texas. Quaid's portrayal of a haunted and hunted college lit prof is passionate if nothing else. Supporting roles are mostly filled with what can generously be termed, "over-actors". Charlotte Rampling must have wandered in from another set, ironically giving the proceedings a bit more art house street cred than deserved. I enjoyed this when it was released. Upon re-watching in 2016, the film now seems slight and dated. Not really clever enough to be a satire, it instead aspires to homage with somewhat uneven results.

The original D.O.A. had one of the all-time classic premises of Film Noir: man investigates his own murder after he is poisoned. This perfectly encapsulated the Film Noir world: creeping doom, hidden motivations, danger around every corner, and the everyday, ordinary man whose world is turned upside down and thrown into confusion and horror. To the ultimate level, in fact: his world is coming to an end and there is nothing he can do to alter his fate. All he can do is unravel the mystery, ensuring that he will obtain the one minimal thing he can achieve at this point, that being the answers to his fate: who killed him and why. Cold comfort, but it's all he has left at this point and he knows it, so he grabs for it with all the tenacity of a drowning man struggling for a life raft, but one which is full of holes anyway.The 1988 re-imagining keeps that general premise, but changes everything else, and for no good reason that I can determine. The newer film copies the 1950 film for about the first minute, then deviates into its own world. Setting, plot and motivations are all completely altered.We have the "Christmas heat wave", the University setting, changing of the protagonist from accountant to English professor, adding of additional murders, the Crazy Glue on the arm bit (a bit of The Defiant Ones there) and a good chunk of Chinatown lifted wholesale, as well as a few bits taken from Citizen Kane. Well, if you're going to steal, steal from the best, so I can't dock them too much on that score. There's also the addition of Meg Ryan as occasional helper and romantic interest, something which weakens the notion in the original where the doomed hero must figure out everything for himself.The film was directed by Max Headroom creators/directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, helmers a little later of the justifiably excoriated Super Mario Brothers: The Movie. Note the Max Headroom tribute in the first scene at the police station where Dennis Quaid is seen on the twonky video monitor.Well, they do put together a lively action film with a lot of 1980's colors, and even a cameo from one-hit wonders Timbuk 3. Cool, like watching one of those obscure 1960's relics like The Cool Ones which features Mrs. Miller.But, that ending! You really sank the boat with that ending, people. Have to rate you at a 2 out of 10.Spoiler Alert! What happened at the end? Did he die? Isn't the whole point of the movie that he dies at the end? Otherwise, then why, for corn's sake why, is the movie even called D.O.A.? Does he just walk down the hall? Or is that a metaphorical hallway, where he "walks toward the light"?It was not clear! A little clarity would have been appreciated guys. But, if you intended that he was cleared of all charges and he just walked out of the police station, then, with all due respect, I must ask you: W T F ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

In the original, the main character and the premise are established in a few minutes. The plot moves along briskly and as O'Brien tries to find out who did it and why, you are as interested to learn the answers as he is.Here, for more than half an hour you have no idea what the picture is all about; at one point it crossed my mind that it might not be any sort of remake at all. How is this half hour spent? In establishing that Quaid's character is someone who could live or die and you couldn't care less either way.Learning form other reviewers that the denouement is a colossal letdown comes as no surprise; I couldn't say myself because I couldn't be bothered to watch it through.Meg Ryan is gorgeous and Quaid gives a solid performance, but apart from that it is hard to find much good to say about this.

Rudolph Maté's film from 1950 is given a revamp for the 80's, Dexter Cornell(Dennis Quaid) is a university lecturer who used to have a successful writing career, but thats now gone down the tubes along with his marriage. The initial exposition plants the notion in the viewers mind that everybody has something against him, so when the revelation comes that he has been poisoned, we are not that surprised, unless of course you are familiar with the original. Dexter after being told he has less than 48hrs to live, decides to trace back his steps with the help of one of his students Sydney Fuller(Meg Ryan), but they find they have many obstacles in their way.The film begins promisingly in black and white, as Dexter staggers in the rain towards the local police station where he wishes to report a murder...his own, but the Huey lewis style 80's beat that accompanies this scene only serves to remove any sense of tension and tells the viewer that this is going to be pretty bad, its only a question of how bad? Sure enough we are soon using the old flashback medium, but now the film resorts to full Technicolor. There are some brief homages to Noir, as the embracing couple stand in front of a venetian blind, but there's really nothing here to recommend it, the performances are awful, Ryan in particular doing her usual dizzy blonde with a cutesy pie smile routine. The film is a lazy attempt to put some unneeded ooomph into an already fine movie premise, obviously trying to cash in one the Body Heat audience, the seeming results are undoubtedly aimed at a teen audience and to be sure, they are welcome to it. 4/10