Surprisingly incoherent and boring

good back-story, and good acting

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

I give this a movie a high rating for many of the reasons people have given it a low rating. As one reviewer stated, it's way way WAy over the top! To me this is a plus to what would otherwise be a pretty boring movie. I found much of it to be hilarious. This movie does echo the whole Lethal Weapon, Die Hard vibe, and is basically the same plot as Cape Fear. But where those movies seemed somewhat plausible, at least as movies, this one goes off the rails. Denzel and Lithgow are watchable even in this ridiculous movie. Here are some highlights:Spoiler Alert:A gladiator fight between Lithgow and Jesse Ventura in prison using phone books as armorA jockstrap with a holdout pistol holsterLindsay Wagner salivating over a nude DenzelA prison guard being killed with a circular sawIce TKevin Pollack doing Columbo and Captain Kirk impressionsA fight scene at the top of Watts TowersAn obligatory impaling of the antagonistA bar with a heavyset topless woman and a midget (little person) walking on the bar serving drinksAnd so much more as the dialog will make you cringe and laugh out loud. I honestly wasn't expecting the level of exploitative entertainment that was contained in this flick and liked in a so bad it's good way.

Smart and ambitious rookie cop Nick Styles (an excellent and engaging performance by Denzel Washington) launches his career and rises all the way to assistant district attorney after he arrests vicious and cunning psycho Earl Talbot Blake (splendidly played with deliciously wicked lip-smacking relish by John Lithgow). Blake breaks out of jail so he can exact a harsh and clever revenge on Styles. Director Russell Mulcahy, working from a tight and nasty script by Steven E. de Souza, relates the absorbing plot at a constant brisk pace, stages the savage action scenes with real flashy style and energy, maintains a properly hard and gritty tone throughout, builds a considerable amount of tension, and tosses in plenty of startling moments of brutal violence. This film further benefits from fine acting by an able cast: Washington and Lithgow do top-notch work in the leads (Lithgow in particular makes for a marvelously mean and ruthless villain), with sturdy support from Ice T as tough, but good-hearted drug kingpin Odessa, Kevin Pollack as Styles' affable partner Larry, Lindsay Wagner as cagey, hard-nosed district attorney Blimleigh, Mary Ellen Trainor as eager TV reporter Gail Wallens, Josh Evans as Blake's obsequious lackey Kim, and Victoria Dillard as Styles' loving wife Alice. Jesse Ventura has a cool bit as Chewalski, an antagonistic prison inmate who mixes it up with Blake in a fierce to-the-death fight. Peter Levy's glossy and agile cinematography gives the picture an attractive slick look. Alan Silvestri's stirring and dynamic score hits the rousing spot. The tense and exciting mano-a-mano climactic confrontation between Styles and Blake on a high tower seriously smokes in no uncertain terms. Granted, the story is pretty implausible, but overall this bang-up flick rates as a great deal of lively and entertaining over-the-top fun.

I don't know what other people were expecting. This was supposed to be a popcorn flick not a movie made to win Oscars. The story is simple enough Denzel Washington plays Nick Styles, a cop/attorney who busts a psychopath named Earl Talbot Blake(John Lithgow) at a drug ring gone sour. Earl Blake plots his revenge on Nick Styles in jail and escapes from prison. From then on, he systematically destroys Nick Styles life and has everyone questioning Nick's sanity.The storyline is not bad and Denzel does a great job as usual. John Lithgow is perfect as Earl Blake and its probably his best role since the scared flight attendant in Twilight Zone: The Movie. His villain is a throwback in the days when villains were villains and not these craven new age geeks who tap on laptops and run from confrontation as far away as possible. Kevin Pollak is decent enough as Nick's partner Harry. Ice-T plays Odessa(and who the hell names a man Odessa?), the man who helps Nick Styles take down Blake. If you are looking for Oscar material you are definitely in the wrong place but if you are looking for a pretty good thriller it wouldn't hurt if you tried this.

You know what they say about sex. Well, the same applies to Denzel Washington. Even a bad Denzel flick is better than no Denzel flick.I'm not saying this is a bad flick, but the story line is pretty predictable. The racial overtones, the rough language, the hard action - all in Denzel's films, but in others it is a little more polished.John Lithgow plays the criminal out to get revenge and boy, is he scary! I wouldn't want him after me. he makes Hannibal Lecter look saintly.And, for those fans out there that like having a rapper in their movies, we have Ice-T. Totally cool!