Along Came a Spider

[Moviefreek]

Morgan Freeman(Kiss the girls) retruns as Alex Cross, let me say this, he is good at the role and starring along side of him is Monica Porter(Patch Adams, Con Air), i wasn't to impressed with her acting, but it was ok. Also the same young girl, who i think has a future ahead of her, Mika Boorem(Hearts in Atlantis, check my review) is great as the kidnapped girl also from Hearts in Atlantis is Anton Yelchin, which he was great in, is ok in this film. Now on to the story, i liked it, it flowed very well, had many twists, some expected some not so expected. But then the end dissapointed me, and really brought my rating down.MINOR SPOILER BEGINS: First of all, i think the ending came way to quick, and then the whole last sequence between Porter and Boorem was boring, and then i didn't even get to see Boorem meet her parents, so let's just say i didn't like the ending, but the rest of the movie was good :MINOR SPOILER END.

If your looking for an ok thriller, and have some time to spare to be dissapointed with the ending see Along Came a Spider, if your looking for something else, check out a different movie. The Book is closed, the movie ended, and so does this review.

5.5/10

[Bud_Fox]

Being a big fan of the suspense, thriller, mystery, serial killer/kidnapper, Genre I always take my movies very seriously. Unfortunately HollyWood does not. In the grandeur tradition of benchmark films, like Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, HollyWood had an oppurtunity to continue with a series of movies adapted from James Pattersons Novels. This series of books contained one constant, a great character named Detective Alex Cross. A young black Law Enforcer, divorced, with three young children. Methodically James Patterson introduced us to Alex Cross in his first book Along Came A Spider, followed by Kiss the Girls, followed by several other books who's titles are based on childrens nursery ryhmes and games.

So here we have a successful series of modern Detecive novels and all is fine....All was lovely in this Land until HolyWood arrived, meat cleaver in hand.

I am appalled at how the producers of this film butchered the hell out of the original James Patterson book in order to make a neater Hollywood version of this film and go for a big wham-bam twist surprise ending- which incidentally ends up failing miserably (see spoiler below).
Let me also say that I thoroughly enjoyed (the book and the movie) Kiss the Girls. Let me also interject and say that Monica Potter is No Ashley Judd. Aside from a pretty face and a Julia Roberts-like voice and nose, Monica Potter has all the fluidity and emotional range of a mannequin, and all the screen presence of an extra on a crowded Manhattan street. Let me just also say James Patterson wrote Along Came a Spider first and than Kiss the Girls! The relevance to this is that Along Came a Spider, being the first book, does a better job of introducing us to Detective Cross (who in the book is much younger) and allows us an opportunity to get to understand him better etc. Obviously the Hollywood producers of this film could give a shit. Also they obviously could give a shit in regard to following storylines. Unlike Kiss the Girls which pretty accurately (to my delight) mirrors the Novel, Along Came a Spider does the exact opposite. In the beginning of this film we see a lot of promise. We have a pretty faced supporting actress, one of The best Detective character actors with Morgan Freeman, and a pretty cool conflict; a young daughter of a Senator is kidnapped by her social studies teacher from a an exclusive private school where the security guards are Secret Service Agents. Pretty cool premise if you ask me

In addition we have great cinematography viewed on a stellar widescreen format, a good score, and a series of events which unfolded carefully and methodically, and more importantly true to the book! But then we reach our climax and this is when I imagine one of the writer/producer types walking into the studio haven been on a two week bender snorting, injecting or drinking God knows what, and comes up with the brilliant Idea that they should throw the second half of the story, including the ending, in the trash. And give us, the ignorant sheep of an audience (bahhhhh! ) a wham bam surprise ending. With total disregard to the fact that the original story has already sold two trillion books these Hollywood Mental fucking Midgets decide to reinvent the wheel, fix that which is not broken, and basically fuck this movie up beyond recognition! So what do they do you ask. (Major Spoilers. This will ruin the entire movie) The most unoriginal, "quick change the ending. The test audience thought the Sixth Sense ending was better!" We'll take the main character and Make Her the bad guy! Whooooa Hold the fucking phone. That wasn't in the book! And you mean to tell me the character we have been watching all movie long, whose emotions over losing the girl were all fake, who is throwing away a career in the Secret Service, one of the cornerstones of the entirte plot has just crumbled because the Character we were watching was all along the Real Bad guy with an ulterior motive! Well Fuck You Tamahori for ruining what could have been a nice string of movies to come based on Pattersons other books. We were inches from a franchise (for lack of a better word) Detective that appeared in the first movie, and then we are only two movies in and You Fucked it up already. (This is a prime example of why we don't have any of the same Detectives in Movies Today!) Anyone who has read the books is wondering were is the side kick Sampson (who incidentally was in the first movie). Where was the love scene between Jezzie and Detective Cross? Maybe you should have originally cast a younger Alex Cross, as he really is in the books- with two young children I might add, or bite the bullet and cast an older Jezzie so we can have a love affair and have it believable. But I am sure Hollywood is not ready for a steamy love scene between two fifty years olds. Well Fuck You Hollywood and thanks for ruining the beginning of a great series by killing it without the chance of revival. And let me make it clear that I completely understand and can agree that when a book is brought to the big screen certain adaptations and changes must be made due to budget, time constraints, etc. But what has been done here is an Absolute Crime and I wouldn't be surprised if Patterson never approves another adaptation of one of his books. He should be ashamed for having let the producers do what they did to this move.
We can thank the producers for really fucking up what started out as, and could have ended up being a solid movie. And can we also thank them for fucking up what could have been a nice string of movies all because they tried to insure a big box-office take on this movie. When the hell will Hollwood stop sucking dick for a quick dollar to get a drug fix and clean itself up, gets its act together and start looking at the "real big picture." When will the madness End!

[urbanlegend23]

Along Came a Spider

I’m a big fan of James Patterson novels. I enjoy the mystery and intelligence he puts into his books. I also highly enjoyed the adaptation of his book Kiss the Girls, which was put on the screen in 1997. Along Came a Spider is one of Patterson’s most acclaimed novels, and it would be a hard job putting it on screen without some criticism. I agree with many critics that the movie could’ve been improved, but I still enjoyed this thrill ride.

Morgan Freeman returns as Alex Cross, and yet again he embodies this fantastic detective with a style so strong and cool, and this is especially impressive for Freeman’s age. Ashley Judd from Kiss the Girls is replaced by Monica Potter, who does nowhere as good as Judd’s Oscar-worthy breakthrough, but Potter does make for an impressive and interestingly played sidekick to Freeman’s Cross. The rest of the actors are merely okay, and pretty much there just to black up Freeman and Potter.

The movie kick starts to an impressive and intriguing first half. In particular the first five minutes are amazingly action-packed (especially for such a small amount of time!) and get the movie on a good action feel. This movie actually moves a lot quicker than Kiss the Girls, but unfortunately doesn’t build up as much atmosphere or have enough character development. Unfortunately as the movie brings a fabulous first half, the second half is not nearly as believable or interesting, unlike Kiss the Girls (yes, I know there are too many comparisons in this review) which went the opposite way around, and worked much better. The actual finale you don’t see coming at all throughout the movie and is very clever, but the stuff in between the first half and final few shots is frankly pretty crappy.

The movie is also let down by some inexcusably silly scenes (Soneji parks the boat, tries to get this Dimitri kid, Potter and Freeman see him, don’t shoot, and then just let him go? Is that what a real detective would do in this situation?). The kids in this movie weren’t as annoying as I thought they would be (the young girl who is kidnapped is actually a very good actress, despite her horrible performance in Riding in Cars With Boys), but they are just way too smart. I didn’t believe for one second that they could decode computers, make a fire burn with something electronic, or figure out completely mind-boggling puzzles.

Another thing that got on my nerves was the usage of cell phones in the film! In one sequence, there are about 7 different conversations all used over different cell phones. The sequence in which I am talking about, is when Soneji (the kidnapper) plays his cat-and-mouse game with Cross, and makes him run here, there and everywhere. If I was a detective in his situation, I wouldn’t exactly do everything the kidnapper was telling me (Cross, of course, does this, which provies a tense atmosphere, but an unrealistic backbone). Especially when the kidnapper can’t see him?

There is no lack of suspense in the film, the performances are good, the opening use of CGI is fabulous and the direction is spot-on excellent. I did find too many flaws to give this an above-average rating and fans of Patterson may be disappointed, but I can recommend Along Came a Spider for a late night suspense thriller.

6/10