Slow Burn

Decent film, draws you in, good original story
I missed this one in the theaters, but now got the chance to get it on DVD. Not bad. Ray Liotta plays a District attourny Ford Cole in the middle of a campaign for mayor when crisis hits. His beautiful Assistant DA, Jolene Blalock, gets caught up in a "self defense" killing at her appartment. How is this going to reflect on the DA, will it hurt his Campaingn against crime, particularly organized crime. The film takes off from there, having plenty of twists and turns, but this DA finds himself in a struggle with time and in a confusing game tracking down what actually happened this night at his assistant DA's appartment...and it has connections to what he always wanted, the Kingpin crime lord.
It was entertaining, nice pace and action/drama. Nudity/sex scenes not really needed and overdone, and I caught on to what the ending would be about midway through, but the story was good enough to keep me drawn in just to make sure I was right. Check this one out, another overlooked...

[3.5]--"All you need is love, sex, pain, and the rain."
Filmed in 2003 but kept on the shelf until now, "Slow Burn" is a so-so film noir that includes plenty of bewildering twists. Screenwriter-director Wayne Beach directorial debut keeps things moving at a steady pace while managing to generate a reasonable amount of suspense every now and then. The story focuses on committed District Attorney Ford Cole (Ray Liotta), whose potential mayoral career is on the line after his assistant D.A. and lover Nora Timmer (Jolene Blalock) becomes involved in the murder of Isaac Duperde (Mekhi Phifer), a local CD vendor who she claims attempted to rape her. The case, however, grows more mysterious with the sudden appearance of Luther Pinks (LL Cool J), a close friend of the victim who assures Cole that Isaac and Nora were in fact lovers, and that she persuaded him to reveal the whereabouts of an elusive criminal gang lord. With time running out, it is now up to Cole to uncover the truth if he wants to save his career.

After watching this I...

pleasantly surprised at more twists than i predicted
it is a cop action movie that feels like a open ended mystery (the audience doesn't know who did it and has to figure it out as the main character does).
It has several interesting and, to me, unexpected twists. Worth watching as closely as you would to Columbo or Perry Mason, not shallowly like a strictly action genre.
I appreciated this, these twists and false rabbit holes, it not only kept the movie moving and interesting but were deep enough that i missed several, a real treat.

I hope that the world isn't like the movie, that our cities aren't built by people like this with such greedy motivations, but as i get older, i wonder more and hope less for the good to triumph.

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