Recipe for Murder

I wish they'd make more films with these characters! A great rainy day popcorn movie-very entertaining! Gary Basaraba (one of the most prolific character actors who isn't a household name) is smart, funny, warm, charming and believable as a medical examiner with a unique gift for the culinary arts. (The fact that he cooks for his beautiful hairstylist girlfriend-who reciprocates with a turn at the shampoo bowl-won me over. Their natural chemistry plays as very real.) And the quirky cast of other characters make it fun to watch throughput. The juxtaposition of his medical knowledge and culinary skills skill comes into significant play elsewhere in the film. The twists and turns as he investigates the mystery (what he believes is the murder of his niece, a celebrated actress whose sudden death others believe to be accident or suicide) is well plotted. If you enjoy clever cozies (ala Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, or any of the new Hallmark mystery movies) you will love this film-if you can find it. Hasn't aired in a while.

I saw Recipe for Murder on cable in the UK. For a TV movie this production has excellent acting, dialogue, directing and sound. I'm not someone who gets excited by murder mysteries, especially of the non-nonsense New York tough-guy detective type, but I couldn't turn this off before seeing it to its conclusion. My criticism of the script is that the cast seems to be 80-90% male, with a lot of testosterone flying around in the investigation interviews. Plus perhaps too many New York accents -- there ARE people in NYC who don't have strong Brooklyn/Bronx accents but they don't show up in this film. I thought the lighting was good; interesting that the director was also the cinematographer.

The script is so so laughable... this in turn, makes the actors' lines sound stiff and unrealistic and not to be believed. There's repetition of phrases -- "my sweet little god daughter" and minor variations of that line which comes to mind... and it's just sloppy soap opera dialog.

Worse yet, the music is so WRONG! Plus, the main bluesy "theme" is horribly quaint and entirely wrong for this. And it feels overused mostly because the instrumentation, texture and arrangement of this theme never changes, even when the scene's emotional context does.

Subsequently, whenever it appears, it sticks out like a sore thumb as the main transition from one scene to another.

The music's corny, and it's as if the writer were writing music for a soap or a sitcom -- a low budget 80's Canadian sitcom at that -- and this makes it feel as if we're always on the brink of throwing to a commercial.

This is so miscast, there's a lot of overacting and it's a real stretch that so many of these characters are employing only ONE type of NY accent -- a thick Bronx accent. I don't know if it's a question of the actors' limited capacity in only knowing *one* NY accent -- or whether it's a question of the director's ability to notice such an glaring anomaly.

In the end, it's the amateur script with it's leaden lines which makes this entire "movie"... blow. When any foundation is shaky and unstable, it's impossible to build upon it without it's flaws revealing themselves in exponentially more damaging and unflattering ways.

New York City's chief medical examiner is informed by the police that his movie star god-daughter's body has been found in a crashed car, a possible suicide. Her godfather, not satisfied that her death was an either an accident or a suicide refuses to sign off on her death certificate and begins his own investigation.

Yes, I agree with some of the other comments made. The writing could have been better. The acting was not A-list. But believe me I have seen movies that were far, far worse than this one.

Some pluses: 1) There were several suspects with possible motives and though I have a fairly good record of picking out the villain I didn't see this one until the very end. 2) Some may laugh at me but it was so refreshing to watch a movie that wasn't full of sex. I get tired of having to switch channels. 3) I liked the lead actor Gary Basaraba,(m.e./godfather)but his character should have been more forceful, after all his beloved god-daughter had just been killed! Instead he was a bit too much of a marshmallow. The director should have told him to be more forceful but obviously didn't. 4) Most of the other actors were competent although a couple of the actors didn't reach the high standards set by the majority of the cast. 5) I though the actress who played the godfather's girlfriend was very natural, pity her part wasn't larger. And 6) as I said it was a pleasant little movie - and I stuck with it and didn't change the channel.

I don't remember seeing another murder/mystery movie as bad as this. This movie, about a medical examiner who investigates his friend's mysterious death in a car accident, has the complete receipt for a bad movie: bad acting, boring story, lack of suspense, poor humor and no drama. I remembered seeing this movie on PAX, a TV station notable for dishing out low-budgeted and campy made-for-TV movies such as this one. TV movies, of course, do not have the edge factor or the suspense as movies from the Big Screen. But, this movie sure hit all sour tastes. The makers of this movie have missed out on an opportunity to making "Receipe for Murder" a great TV movie; the title does offer some suspense.

So, if you want a good recipe, don't watch this movie. This movie alone can kill your TV appetite.

Grade F