Good movie but grossly overrated

Fresh and Exciting

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Former cop Joe Paris (Burt Reynolds) was suspended for pushing his partner through a window after he shot an unarmed suspect. When criminal Jake Farley is founded murdered, Joe is arrested after finding evidence at his apartment. He's bloody, hungover, and can't remember the night before. Jennifer Hudson (Theresa Russell) is his eager new public defender who spent five years in the Peace Corps. James Nicks (Ned Beatty) is the prosecutor. Deborah Quinn (Kay Lenz) claims to be with Joe that night. She had contracted Farley to kill her powerful husband but changed her mind. He refused to pay her back but Joe somehow got the money for her. Jenny wants her to be Joe's alibi but Joe objects.Michael Crichton as an IP generator is beyond reproach but as a director, he is average at best. This does not raise his average. The narrative flow is lacking. Burt Reynolds is cold which is good for his possible guilt. His innocence is not really in doubt but twists are expected in this type of movies. Russell overacts in a couple of scenes. The pairing is not that appealing. None of the characters are rooting interest material. This is a forgettable thriller.

"Physical Evidence" has a gripping opening sequence, with a man trying to commit suicide on a bridge, only to find a corpse hidden there. What follows, however, is little different than a TV movie, albeit a well-made and somewhat violent one. Burt Reynolds' character is a walking cliché: he is a burnt-out, suspended cop who "plays by his own rules", has a bad temper, and of course doesn't remember anything about the night he is accused of murdering an old enemy of his. Theresa Russell gives a strangely stiff, buttoned-up performance (except for one cute scene, where she gives Ned Beatty's character the finger). The whodunit aspect is at least sustained until the end, though of course we know all along that Burt is not the killer. There are some funny lines (-"He has a police record longer than my d**k" -"Never been arrested, eh?"), and "Married With Children" fans will have fun spotting Ted McGinley as Russell's rich fiancé, aka "His Gucciness"! ** out of 4.

***SPOILERS*** Just one of the string of bombs that Burt Reynolds made in the late 1980's that dropped him from being one the top 3 Hollywood macho man, behind Stallone & Schwarzenegger, actors to the point where he was regulated to doing gust appearances, to get cash, on local TV talk shows about grooming one's mustache as well as his or her dogs & cats. In here Reynolds as the disgraced and on suspension Boston police detective Joe Paris is in hot water in being framed in the murder of one of his stoolies Jake Farley, Tom O'Brien, who's dead body ended up hanging or being grabbed by a local suicide jumper who's death plunge he interrupted. It was Farley who was found dead by Kenny Bates that prevented his attempt to jump , with a rope tied around his neck, to his death off Boston's Tobin Bridge. Already in deep trouble for punching out a police captain and with a score of police brutally charges against him it looks like an open and shut case to pin a murder charge, incredibly his first, against Paris.It's Paris' court appointed attorney Jenny Hudson, Theresa Russell, who takes his case even though Paris, in not impressed in having a woman defend him, is dead set against it. As it soon turns out Jenny does come up with a number of suspects in Farley's murder that can prove her client's innocence. As for Paris who seemed to have lost interest, in how badly the movie is going for him, in if he's found guilty or innocent yet is let out, on good behavior, on the street tracking down and working or beating up suspects as well as carrying a gun that could easily have his bail revoked. There's a number of murders on the side in the film including a star witness in Paris's defense his secret lover Deborah Quinn,Kay Lenz, and her mob connected husband Vincent,Don Grnberry,shows that the late Jake Farley's blackmailing created far more people then Paris who were out to ice him!***SPOILERS*** Confusing final with Paris, to his relief, shot and wounded as well as out of the picture and his lawyer Jenny Hudson being confronted by Farley's as well as some half dozen other people's murderer in a life and death struggle on a deserted and dark staircase. Even though the killer had no trouble at all taking care of a number of people, including 6 foot tall and 200 pounds policemen, he had far more difficulty taking care or killing the 5 foot 5 inch 120 pound Jenny Hudson who must have been practicing beside law judo and Kung Fu on the side! P.S Strange coincident in the film has the man Kenny Bates trying to kill himself by jumping off the Tobin Bridge and failed where almost a year to the date after the movie was released on January 27 1989 real life wife murderer Charles "Chuck" Stewart did-on Januaruy 4, 1990- and succeeded in him trying to avoid capture by the police!

Author Michael Crichton directed this crime mystery starring Burt Reynolds as suspended policeman Joe Paris, who is suspected of murdering an extortionist. With no alibi or money, Joe must use the services of public defender Jenny Hudson(played by Theresa Russell) who has her work cut out for her, since, even though the murdered man had many enemies, so does Joe, making her investigation difficult. Can she save Joe, and not fall in love with him too? Forgettable film was originally conceived as a sequel to "Jagged Edge". When that fell through, it was rewritten to its present form. Indifferently acted and utterly predictable film has little to recommend it.