Cypher

So I came back after a fulfilling Thursday night, only to sit down for one of the best movies I've seen (regardless of the budget) in quite some time. Locklear fits the role to a tee...and this is coming from a guy whose mother tortured him by watching General Hospital after baseball practice EVERY SINGLE time! Rae demonstrates a keen role that made me shiver and relate at the same time. Even the cinematography was exceptional. A little over the edge at times with the one-liners, this mind-game of a flick still let's you laugh at the dark-humored, though deeply plotted, script. If you're going to watch this, watch it for the dialogue as much as you watch it for the action...and Heather, that's a really neat tatoo... <3

Stephen Rea is a philosophical gardener. Because gardening doesn't pay enough, I suppose, he's also a hit man with a signature of leaving a rabbit's foot next to his victims. Heather Locklear is in some law enforcement agency, although which is never quite clear. While she's trying to track him down, he's hired to kill her, so of course they fall in love which is never consummated.

It's a mildly ridiculous script, but director Greg Yaitanes manages some nice touches, like filming Miss Locklear in her group scenes so she is tiny. The leads underact, there are a few performers who will later become notable, like Mykelti Williamson, and the 90- minutes slid by before I noticed.

DOUBLE TAP features Heather Locklear in a much grittier than usual role. As FBI agent, Katherine Hanson, she finds herself up against a mysterious hitman whose signature is that of the title.

Hanson and her team must track this person, before every other criminal in town winds up dead! This gets complicated when Hanson gets a bit too close to her quarry.

This is a surprisingly effective thriller, and Ms. Locklear is far better than one might, at first, expect.

Actually, the only complaint is due to the lighting. The late 1990's ushered in the whole every-scene-must-be-dark phenomenon. This film is no exception. So, unless the characters are outside, in full sunlight, they're always cloaked in smoky, shadowy dimness! Even in the daytime! Ugh!

In spite of this, the movie is recommended...

This is an unbelievably stupid movie. How does an idiotic farrago of a script like this ever get made into a film? Nothing any of the characters says or does is for a moment credible... and yet the piece is apparently aiming to be a "gritty, realistic crime drama". The director sort of has a stab at some meaningful creative input, and I'd guess would probably be quite likely to produce something watchable with a real script... but nothing could save this nonsense. More believable characterisations and narrative would have been produced if the actors had been restricted to mouthing "Gaga. Googoo." for the entire length of the film. I'm really sick of being expected to accept this sort of rubbish as if it were a credible effort at film-making. Not recommended to anyone... if you have low enough standards to watch this, then you should be quite happy watching any flickering image without bothering to pay admission or rental. Well ok, the score is interesting, and Heather Locklear shows signs of a performance better than might have been expected from her record... but really *nothing* could defeat such an abysmal script.

Double Tap was a film relegated to HBO's cheesy Friday night premieres and that's a shame because it deserved so much more. It stars Heather Locklear (!), no I did not stutter, as a FBI agent involved in a sting operation who gets caught in the middle of a hitman's grocery list, seemingly he's taking down all the drug dealers in town. Along for the ride is Kevin Gage and Mykelti Williamson from Heat and the great Peter Greene. What distinguishes this effort is its terse dialogue, vivid characterizations, and stylish camera moves (loved the score by Moby). Double Tap should be held as a model for what a B movie low on cash but high on content can do. And Premiere magazine liked Montana, ha! This is the real deal folks.