I love this movie so much

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Charles Bronson enjoyed a career boost with the successful release of Death Wish (1974) and throughout the 1970's and 1980's Bronson was in a string of violent action movies, most of which were hit-and-miss. Murphy's Law was one of those movies which can be seen as one you just have to accept the fact that it is what it is.Hardnosed alcoholic LAPD Detective Jack Murphy (Charles Bronson) successfully had serial killer Joan Freeman (Carrie Snodgress, who was effectively good value as the villain) locked up behind bars years ago. When Freeman is finally released from prison, she vows to ruin Murphy's life by murdering his stripper ex-wife Jan (Angel Tompkins) and other police officers on her hit list, framing Murphy for her crimes. After he's arrested, the police handcuff Murphy to a foul mouthed car thief, Arabella McGee (Kathleen Wilhoite) who Murphy had arrested earlier. Still handcuffed to Arabella, Murphy breaks out of police custody and the two must work together to find the real killer.By no means is the movie tame with it's R18+ rating deserved for its violence and sexual content. Leave your brain at the door and don't expect too much from Charles Bronson and the straightforward plot and you might enjoy some old school action. Otherwise, you may consider this a waste of time and look elsewhere.6/10.

Action movies has been Charles Bronson's forte. "Murphy's Law" is no exception. In this movie, Bronson plays Jack Murphy, a boozy cop who gets set up, and cuffed to a potty mouth female convict(Kathleen Wilhoite). First of all, Murphy has his career going down the tubes when his ex-wife become an adult entertainer. That really sends him over the edge. Unbeknownst to him, when he follows her and her new beau, someone knocked him out, grabbed his gun, and killed her and her boyfriend at her place. It turned out the person who framed Murphy is no other than Joan Freeman(Carrie Snodgrass) one of Jack's first felons. She's on a revenge streak to take out all who has put her behind bars. The only partner Murphy has is the foul mouth Arabella McGee(Wilhoite). Since one cop was working for a mob boss(Richard Romanus), Murphy goes all the way to stop Freeman any way he can. Even though that Jack had started to drink earlier, he was able to sober up to help McGee in every aspect of the situation. He did take an ax to the stomach, but Freeman ended up "axing" for trouble on her own. This movie has a lot of action and suspense, but there was enough cheese factor to make it more comedic than dramatic. Great cast though. 2 out of 5 stars

On the cover of the DVD case there is a close up of Charles Bronson, looking wary but determined, holding the biggest, shiniest revolver you ever saw, framed against a burnt orange background of Los Angeles' slick, wet city streets. At the bottom, the tag line. "They set him up. He takes them down." Now, my advice is to get hold of the case -- not the DVD, just the case -- do something that will produce a chemical alteration in your brain, then sit back and stare at the cover for ten or fifteen minutes. This, I assure you, will save you both time and money, and the results, however shabby they may turn out to be, will be an improvement over the movie.Does anyone really care about the plot? The screenwriter and the producers certainly didn't. But, okay. Ten years ago, LA cop Bronson and his partner sent a more than usually savage female murderer, Snodgrass, to Camarillo, which used to be called, aptly, a "Hospital for the Criminally Insane." Now Snodgrass has just been released. This was a big mistake on someone's part. She's nuttier than a fruitcake and is obsessed with payback. She's going to put Bronson through hell. She does so by systematically murdering his ex-wife, his former partner, and some others -- I forget -- and managing to frame him for the killings by means so improbable you can't even imagine them.Well, I'll give one example. Bronson leaves his office and gets into his car. In these kinds of movies, anyone entering his car should always check the darkened back seat. Snodgrass bops him over the head. With the hero slumped unconscious in the passenger's seat, Snodgrass drives to Bronson's ex wife's home and, with the cop's own pistol, shoots down the ex wife and her boyfriend. She drives away and is duly spotted in Bronson's car with his license plates. She's wearing a black fedora, so she's mistaken for a man. The perfect frame. Now Bronson is wanted by the police too.It goes on, but I can't. Along the way, pursued by the fruitcake, the police, and known Italians, he picks up a potty mouthed companion, Wilhoite, who curses all the time and calls people names like "monkey vomit" and is supposed to be amusing instead of irritating.Absolutely none of the characterizations ring at all true. I don't have any idea how J. Lee Thompson, who was responsible for the original "Cape Fear," a movie full of similar stereotypes yet with some texture, could have committed this abortion to celluloid. Shootings abound. Faces splattered with blood are a dime a dozen. In the final shoot out, Snodgrass is armed with a crossbow that has a scope attached to it. She manages to drown a fully grown man by the simple expedient of yanking his feet out from under him when he's in the bath tub.Golam/Globus were always less interested in the film than in the profit. There's nothing wrong per se in working within a limited budget. Some fine flicks have emerged from similar strictures -- the Boettiger/Scott Westerns, Val Lewton's unit at RKO, and some Indies like "The Littlest Fugitive." But to do something respectable, even if the attempt fails, I suppose you need more on your mind than money. It doesn't take much additional effort to prune a lousy script like this of its more heinous features. You and I could do it.The climactic slaughter takes place in the Bradley Building. It's a famous and familiar location. Monomaniacs will remember it from movies as diverse as Jack Nicholson's "Wolf" and Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity," in which the insurance office was located on one of the floors of the Bradley Building. But I can't even recommend seeing this film for a good look at an old, reassuring location. The atrium is too dark to make out anything but the vine-like ironwork and the elevator descending to squash the tied-up victim beneath.

Murphy's Law: If anything could possibly go wrong, it will. Murphy's Second Law: Don't mess with Jack Murphy. (Substitute the usual word for 'mess.') Murphy's Law is a lot better than some people would have you believe. Yeah, yeah, it's a Charles Bronson film from the Eighties, a period when a lot of film enthusiasts sniffed that Bronson was little more than a stuffed dummy who phoned in his performances. Bronson is one of those actors who make condescension drip from the lips of some cineastes. Charles Bronson was no typical Hollywood actor. He didn't have to be. With that worn-out, weary, tough face he could set a scene just by being there. Bronson was Bronson, and we knew the kind of taciturn, honest, relentless character he'd be. Bronson was a private man, kept to himself, was realistic about his talents and proud enough to deliver the goods. With all that said, you either kind of like his star movies, or at least some of them, or you kind of don't. Murphy's Law is one I like. Jack Murphy is a police detective on the downslide. His wife, a stacked stripper at a gentlemen's club who fancies herself a dancer, has just divorced him. Murphy doesn't want to let her go, drinks himself into a stupor most nights and shows up for work with stains on his rumpled suit and bad breath. Then his wife is killed and he's arrested for her murder. Jack Murphy knows he must find out who the real murderer is, so he breaks out of jail. While he tries to identify the killer, the killer bumps off one person after another who helps Murphy or who was associated with him. Early in the movie we know who the killer is (this is no spoiler), a psycho named Joan Freeman (Carrie Snodgrass). Murphy put her behind bars ten years ago and now she's out. She's ready for some wet revenge. She leaves corpses in her wake. She pumps iron with a vengeance. She smokes. She's also handy with a garrote, a cross bow and a pistol. Never, never take a bath with her. With just this as a plot Murphy's Law might have been an efficient, violent and reasonably entertaining Bronson movie. What I like about it is the gimmick -- the relationship between Murphy and a foul-mouthed young thief named Arabella McGee (played by Kathleen Wilhoit). Murphy had been handcuffed to Arabella at the stationhouse after he was arrested. When he broke out he had to take her along with him. A movie cliché? Sure. I think it works because of Murphy's tough stoicism and Arabella's creative and energetic profanity. There's nice chemistry between Bronson and Wilhoit. Wilhoit looks more like a tomboy than a cutesy starlet, more a gamin rough around the edges. She's a good actress and holds her own with Bronson's screen charisma. When the handcuffs finally come off thanks to Arabella's lock- picking skills, she decides to stick around with Murphy. If he can clear his name, he'll clear hers as being an accomplice in the escape. And off they go, with Murphy now fighting a three-front war. Freeman is after him. A cop who hates his guts is after him. And a mob smoothie he beat up is after him. The climax is a rough battle between Murphy and Freeman in a dark, gloomy building already loaded with some of her corpses. Arabella proves useful. Murphy proves capable.