1989·Drama·1h 54m
7.0
★
Ben Chase is an on-the-rise Boston attorney currently defending a wealthy client in a high-profile murder case. Martin Thiel is the wealthy young man on trial for a particularly brutal murder. The verdict sets Thiel free. Within 24 hours another grizzly and all-too-familiar murder has taken place with striking similarities to the first crime. Chase inexplicably agrees to act as his defense attorney; but this time it will be to gather evidence that will put away his client for good.
Directed by Martin Campbell
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Where to Watch
Cast
Gary Oldman
Ben Chase
Kevin Bacon
Martin Thiel
Tess Harper
Detective Stillwell
Karen Young
Ellen Faulkner
Joe Don Baker
Detective Mesel
Sean McCann
Jacob Fischer
Ron Lea
Gary Hull
Michael Sinelnikoff
Professor Clemens
Tyrone Benskin
Jackson
Johnny Cuthbert
Hal Keeler
Andrew Johnston
Cop Tony
James Rae
Reporter
Crew
Martin Campbell
Director
Jerry Goldsmith
Original Music Composer
Phil Meheux
Director of Photography
Ken Gord
Co-Producer
Hilary Dwyer
Producer
Jocelyne Bellemare
Makeup Artist
Mike Fenton
Casting
Tim Monich
Dialogue Coach
Popular Reviews
18 reviews
A
4.0★ · 05/05/26
Fairly awful. Good acting can’t save bad writing, directing, editing, and cinematography.
Fairly awful. Good acting can’t save bad writing, directing, editing, and cinematography.
ains
2.0★ · 04/20/26
Started out great, promising premise, a great acting duo, and then just never delivered. I obviously love Kevin Bacon, and he was also with Gary Oldman in Murder in the First which is a great movie that is super underrated, so I assumed they would be a good duo and I was correct. The first half an hour of this movie sets it up so well, and leads us into an incredibly boring last hour.
Would be interesting to see this remade today because it definitely could've been gayer and maybe that would make this story more interesting.
Would be interesting to see this remade today because it definitely could've been gayer and maybe that would make this story more interesting.
Started out great, promising premise, a great acting duo, and then just never delivered. I obviously love Kevin Bacon, and he was also with Gary Oldman in Murder in the First which is a great movie that is super underrated, so I assumed they would be a good duo and I was correct. The first half an hour of this movie sets it up so well, and leads us into an incredibly boring last hour.
Would be interesting to see this remade today because it definitely could've been gayer and maybe that would make this story more interesting.
Would be interesting to see this remade today because it definitely could've been gayer and maybe that would make this story more interesting.
emily
4.0★ · 08/31/25
another movie where a man doesn’t like abortions
another movie where a man doesn’t like abortions
Moose
5.0★ · 08/20/25
I've never been a fan of the trope of people getting so sanctimonious toward defence attorney's for 'putting murderers back on the street'... i mean its the prosecutors fault if they fail to get a guilty verdict for starters but i just always get so irritated by it, does this sort of thing happen in real life? I've never come across the sentiment from anyone... like what do you expect to happen to you if you ever get accused of a crime you didn't commit? Where do those principles go when you're clambering for that lawyer what got the murderer off?
Anyway. Yeah... its a movie. Oldman hasn't dialed in his American accent yet, it sounds completely different for all his ADR lines, it's kinda hilarious. He sounds like Cameron doing Mr. Peterson in Ferris Bueller's. And I've never been a Tess Harper fan. She's a bit of a big old wet fish here. I liked some of the cinematogs!
Anyway. Yeah... its a movie. Oldman hasn't dialed in his American accent yet, it sounds completely different for all his ADR lines, it's kinda hilarious. He sounds like Cameron doing Mr. Peterson in Ferris Bueller's. And I've never been a Tess Harper fan. She's a bit of a big old wet fish here. I liked some of the cinematogs!
I've never been a fan of the trope of people getting so sanctimonious toward defence attorney's for 'putting murderers back on the street'... i mean its the prosecutors fault if they fail to get a guilty verdict for starters but i just always get so irritated by it, does this sort of thing happen in real life? I've never come across the sentiment from anyone... like what do you expect to happen to you if you ever get accused of a crime you didn't commit? Where do those principles go when you're clambering for that lawyer what got the murderer off?
Anyway. Yeah... its a movie. Oldman hasn't dialed in his American accent yet, it sounds completely different for all his ADR lines, it's kinda hilarious. He sounds like Cameron doing Mr. Peterson in Ferris Bueller's. And I've never been a Tess Harper fan. She's a bit of a big old wet fish here. I liked some of the cinematogs!
Anyway. Yeah... its a movie. Oldman hasn't dialed in his American accent yet, it sounds completely different for all his ADR lines, it's kinda hilarious. He sounds like Cameron doing Mr. Peterson in Ferris Bueller's. And I've never been a Tess Harper fan. She's a bit of a big old wet fish here. I liked some of the cinematogs!
Mirriau
4.0★ · 08/19/25
Still can't wrap my head about what went wrong. You have good performances from Kevin Bacon and Gary Oldman (my beloved), and a really interesting story and concept about morality. Still don't know how or why I didn't like this as much as it sounds; why this wasn't straight up an amazing movie, you have every element to made it so.
Still can't wrap my head about what went wrong. You have good performances from Kevin Bacon and Gary Oldman (my beloved), and a really interesting story and concept about morality. Still don't know how or why I didn't like this as much as it sounds; why this wasn't straight up an amazing movie, you have every element to made it so.