The Mean Season (1985)

Lack of good storyline.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Richard Jordan who has played a number of really psychotic villains is the main reason to see The Mean Season. He quite steals the film from Kurt Russell a crime reporter and Mariel Hemingway who is Russell's girlfriend and the last woman Jordan stalks.Russell has truly grown to dislike his job on a big city paper in this case Miami where he's gotten a specialty in crime reporting, the more lurid the better. He's considering an offer from a small town Colorado paper to take over as editor.That's when things get interesting. Jordan is a serial killer who Russell has been writing about and in his twisted way considers Kurt to be some kind of personal publicist for him and his peers. Now he starts calling to give him heads up exclusives knowing that this will lead to Mariel's own abduction.That's the one thing about criminals of the psychotic mind. They don't reason like the rest of us. It sounds wild and improbable the notion that Jordan has, but that's the hard part for FBI and local profiler's jobs, getting in those sick minds to see how they work.Jordan is one sick and twisted puppy. The rest of the cast is fine, but he really stands out in The Mean Season.

Usually in crime related thrillers, the viewer is exposed to the killer quite early. Everyone is introduced to what they look like, the faces they make, and how they speak. And along with this key element, are the police. This is obviously one of the main materials that's needed for a "police" thriller, but even that is not the main substance in this film. But what makes this film different from the others is that the killer is NOT exposed until very late in the movie. In my opinion, this is a great psychological effect that heightens the senses of the viewer and makes them more intrigued about seeing the killer. I'm disappointed that this film wasn't critically acclaimed. The body of the plot is more or less the same as Law Abiding Citizen (2009): an individual with psychological issues makes calls to a contact and tells them whose next to be killed.Kurt Russell stars as a Miami news reporter who's tired of writing stories about the recently deceased/murdered. Unfortunately, his co- workers are not willing to let him go so easy. Co-starring with Russell is Mariel Hemingway who plays his girlfriend. Both of them want to move out of Miami to escape to a place that is less crowded. Unfortunately, Russell's character, Malcolm Anderson, is having a hard time convincing his boss that he's tired and wants to leave. Kurt Russell is great actor and he plays well at being a tired reporter. Mariel Hemingway is convincing as Russell's girlfriend and although we never see her actually doing her "job" as a teacher in this film, she is good at caring for her and her boyfriend's safety.The real problem arises when a person calls confessing that he killed one of the people Anderson reported about. The killer is played by Richard Jordan. I think Jordan is a very competent actor. I say this because of the way he portrays his character. The personality of the killer is very stealthy. Whenever his voice is heard on the phone, it has a very unpleasant sound. The way he talks isn't smooth; he pauses with his sentences. This can make the conversation sound even more uncomfortable. That is how good Richard Jordan is at his character. Every time I listen to his voice it still gives me the goose bumps. It's unfortunate that his career never took off to big heights. I know that he was cast in many movies, but very few were well known films.Lastly, what really makes this an effective thriller is the suspense, and the music. The suspense in this film is different from the regular action thriller. For every scene, the viewer must listen to what is going on. Without the conversations, the viewer will be lost on what is happening. I would suggest watching this film like it was regular horror flick. The difference is that the story is on a more personal level. It's very rare someone will have a spirit haunting him or her inside their house, but when serial killer is on the loose, one can never really feel safe. Adding to the suspense is the musical score provided Lalo Schifrin. There are two different tones that Schifrin puts in this movie: the first is when the film is focused more on the press. Schifrin has the music sound like everyone's busy and scrambling about. The other side to that is when Anderson talks to the killer. When the camera is focused on them, it has a very ominous feel, in a sense that something bad will happen in a couple minutes. All these factors of music, suspense, and character personalities add up to a strong thriller. I'm glad I was able to see it.The Mean Season is a gripping crime thriller that deserves more than what it has minimally achieved. The tension between scenes are really agitating thanks to a chilling performance by Richard Jordan.

Passable murder thriller that won't set the world alight, but it's the charismatic Kurt Russell who carries you throughout along with a well-oiled support cast (Richard Masur, Richard Jordan (a very uneasy performance as the killer), Andy Garcia, William Smith and Joe Pantoliano). Like everyone has already mentioned, Mariel Hemingway is one of the unconvincing factors and her performance did really grate away --- not helping was the character she was portraying too. What starts as off as provocatively stimulating (where the killer contacts Russell's newspaper reporter character to offer him the chance to become his link to the media -- informing him about the murders before anyone else knows about it) only goes on to be your normal, predictable run of the mill psycho thriller where revenge threats (for stealing the limelight away) and kidnapping becomes the focal point. Early on the phone calls between the reporter and the killer, drills out some suspense and it opens up the ambitious nature of the media and at what cost you would go to cement a story with the close ties that are formed. This is seen to be a big breakthrough for Russell's burnt-out character, until it starts to affect everything around him namely that with his fiancée (Hemingway) and instead of reporting it he eventually becomes the news. Set during the middle of Miami's storm-riddled summer, it's engulfed by a humid atmosphere and music scorer Lalo Schfrin cooks up one excellently saucy and characteristically unhinged score that blends right in. The standard material is given a lot more punch due to Schfrin's input.

Kurt Russell and Andy Garcia are good eye candy and pretty believable in their roles but this is a kind of run of the mill thriller. The issue of the reporter's complicity in the story he's writing about just isn't developed as well as it should be, probably because the plot twists in a direction it shouldn't have gone. You could easily put this film aside, except that Richard Jordan is so frightening, so intelligent, manipulative and totally psychotic as the killer that you can't look away. He puts more electricity in the film than the lightning does, and it's worth watching just to see him give acting lessons. Just make sure you leave the lights on while you're watching.