After the heaviness of Jakob The Liar, I needed a pick-me-up; and what better way than to see a Slasher Chick Flick? Yeehaa!
THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
If you've seen the trailers, this won't be a spoiler for you: Elizabeth Parsons (Ashley Judd) finds her Perfect Life turned upside down when she's convicted for killing her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) after a cruise on their boat; heartbroken, she asks her friend Angie (Annabeth Gish) to adopt her son Matty while she does her stretch in the joint. She's too through when she finds out that her so-called friend and husband played her like a fool - it seems he's not dead after all, and they're making the beast-with-two-backs together. Libby has Other Plans for them once she's paroled: a fellow inmate tells her that, revenge being a dish best served cold, she has carte blanche to kill Nick when she gets out, because she cannot be convicted twice for the same crime under double jeopardy rules, see...
THE UPSHOT
Ok, let me just get this outta the way: NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, PICK UP A BLOODY KNIFE WHEN YOU WAKE UP AND SEE BLOOD 'N GUTS ALL OVER THE PLACE, DUH!
Sorry for the shouting; I feel better now. Hold up; one more thing: there is NO WAY IN BLOODY HELL that I'd "ride out" a prison term for murder, just to get revenge on the punk who put me in the slam in the first place by faking his death. I'ont care what it'd take, I'd be working every day, telling as many people as I could get to hear me, to get my BBA outta there!
That said, you've just read the entire set of Issues I had with this flick (not specific to the movie itself, but my only other gripe is that almost all of the good scenes were shown in the trailers. But what's new?). And minor they were; because other than that, I enjoyed the movie. To be sure, Double Jeopardy was no The Red Violin - Oscar won't be making any visitations to anyone involved with this one - but, so what? Yes, it's been Done before (shades of Thelma and Louise, and especially The Fugitive, abound), and Judd seemed overpowered by the always-enjoyable Tommy Lee Jones as her parole officer, but it delivered an action-packed wallop, something I needed right about the time I went to watch it.
One thing that pleasantly surprised me in this movie was the proper use of technology; I can't recall ever seeing computers that looked nearly as authentic as the ones used in this movie. Time after time, we geeks technology-enhanced persons of good breeding and high moral fibre, are left to moan and groan at the screen when totally unrealistic output is shown (the scenes in "Mission: Implausible", where Tom Cruise receives pseudo-email, come quickly to mind). I tip my hat to whomever was the tech consultant on this movie for showing the web as it actually might look on a typical personal computer of the day.
No need to go into great detail to describe this one - as I said, it's been Done before - but you could do much worse with your Movie Dollar this Fall; the coffin scene alone was worth the price of admission. Bammer sez check it out.
THE "BLACK FACTOR" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]
We non-Monolithic Black Folk like a good action flick as much as anybody, but We seem to have a...special way of showing it. You guessed it: there was much yellin' at the screen! ("Don't pick up that knife, fool!"; "Don't trust her, she's gonna steal your kid!"; "Why you waitin' so long to shoot him, duh?!?"); but it was good-natured clowning, and everyone in the theater - Black, White, and otherwise - got in on the act.
I'm just glad they didn't kick me out.
BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
You've seen it before, sure, but this treatment is enjoyable, and nobody plays Pissed Off Official quite like Tommy Lee does.
But they bet' not make a "Double Jeopardy 2"...
DOUBLE JEOPARDY:
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