The Guilty (2000)

Great Film overall

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

**SPOILERS** Extremely over-plotted made for TV movie that has at least a half dozen different storyline running concurrently through it at the same time.There's young and troubled Nate Corrigan, Devon Sawa, who' looking to turn his life around after serving six month behind bars on a stolen car conviction. There's also Nate's two muddled headed and criminally prone friends Leo & Dennis, Jaimz Wolvett & Darcy Belsher who are about the last people that Nate, being on parole, should associate with. It's these two noodnicks who pick Nate up from prison in a stolen SUV and almost end up getting killed in a wild ride where they almost ends up killing a number of carnival security guards who try to stop them from demolishing the place.The major plot in the film is the connection that Nate has with sleazy and oily defense lawyer Callum Crane, Bill Pullman. It's Crane who it turns out, through his birth certificate, is Nate's biological father. The father Nate never knew he had! It also turns out that Crane is somewhat of a ladies man cheating on his wife Natalie, Joanne Whalley, who in return is cheating on him by having an affair with Crane's law partner Brent Frazer, Kent Thembleh. The thing that really gets the movie, with all the confusion in it, going is Crane's rape of his first day on the job secretary Sophie Lennon, Gabrielle Anwar. Having Sophie fired from her job to keep her from giving him any trouble the very smart Crane showed just what an ignorant and overconfident jerk, despite his perfect recored as a defense attorney, he really is.It was Sophie on learning that her hot in the pants and unethical lawyer ex-boss was appointed to be a respected Federal Court Judge where he's sit and pass down judgment on rapists like himself that she started blackmailing him to either resign his post or she'll, by revealing just what a sleaze-ball he is, force him to do it. What in fact ties the Crane Sophie entanglement together in the movie is that Crane's illegitimate son Nate is also Sophie's roommate! Now how's that for a coincidence!Believe or not all this is just half of what's going on in the movie "The Guilty" the other half has to do with Crane trying to get Sophie knocked off by non-other then his, whom he at the time doesn't realize, son Nate! Nate not willing to do the job, he doesn't even ask his old man whom he's supposed to knock off, which has his good friend Leo, who's in debt to a gang of murderous bikers, do the hit-job instead.***SPOILER ALERT*** The last fifteen minutes of the film is packed with so many twists and turns that your left feeling dizzy just trying to follow it. When you and Crane finally get the pay-off to what the movie's ending is really all about you by then have been left so mind numbed and psychically exhausted that it takes you a while to figure just what the big surprise ending is really all about!

I saw this movie last night and was pleasantly surprised at what a good thriller it was.I won't give the plot away, but this film is full of twists and turns.At first I thought it was a long-lost son searching for his father, then I thought it was about a woman wronged. It had so many sub-plots, characters with agenda's and surprises galore.Devon Sawa (Final Destination) and Bll Pullman (Independance Day) are excellent in their roles, and add to the viewing pleasure.It starts out slowly, but gathers pace at an alarming rate.A buried treasure!

This was a sleeper, a no-name movie that might have gone straight-to-video and was pretty good. It's one of these crime movies that doesn't have a lot of action yet keeps your interest all the way through.Like a true film noir, none of the characters nor their morality in this are really good but what WAS good was a few things at the end of this story you rarely see in a Hollywood film.Bill Pullman, Devon Sawa, Gabrielle Anwar, Angela Featherstone and Joanne Whalley (Kilmer) make for a diverse cast of actors. This is worth a look if you can find it anywhere but not that good to go searching for it.

Freshly released from prison, young Nathan Corrigan discovers his father was not who his mother told him he was but is actually high-class lawyer Callum Crane. Crane is aiming to become a judge but is not above a bit of fun; but when a 'bit of fun' with secretary Sophie Lennon turns into rape, he has her fired to get rid of the reminder of what he did – days later he is offered the position of judge and he forgets all about it. However Sophie cannot stand that this man would sit in judgment over others and demands he turn the offer down or she will go to the papers and the police. Crane decides the only option is to have her killed and he thinks he has the solution when he bumps into Nathan in the city. However Nathan has also met Sophie and befriended her – making things very complex.If my plot summary sounds like it is convoluted or confused then you need to believe me when I tell you that it is not all down to my inability to write coherently (well – not totally). Actually I do the film a good deed by trying to summarise this messy plot in a manner that can be read simply because in reality it is very twisted and makes very little sense – relying on all sorts of coincidence, misunderstanding or sheer lazy plot jumps to create a sort of thriller. The downside of this is that the film is such a mess that it never hangs together; one or two thin connections maybe could have survived but the fact that very little of the plot actually stands up to even passing thought means that the film becomes far too silly to ever be tense.It's a shame because the names attached to the project were quite impressive but the writing is a mess. By the end of the film it was all over the place and I was waiting for the plug to be pulled – what little value the basic plot soon crumbles as the cracks in the plot all add up to a couple of big gaping holes that it is impossible to avoid. Pullman has done dark thrillers before and it is a shame that many viewers will be drawn to this on the back of his previous work. He is OK here and he tries to rise above the material even though he has nothing to really work with. Sawa is poor – his performance cannot save a rubbish character that is never believable. Anwar is gorgeous and I cannot understand why she has been in so many dogs over the past few years; here she looks good in short skirts but never convinces as a rape victim and the script pushes her character into some stupid form of blackmail that is just dumb. Featherstone and Whalley are both poor and the only other point of interest is a small role for Peter Kent, who is probably much better known for standing in for Arnie as stunt double than for his actual skills as an actor.Overall, my message is don't be fooled by the cast; this is a messy thriller that is far too silly to stand up. It is based on so many coincidences and loose connections that the cracks start to show from the very start. By the end the cracks dominate the film and it can do nothing to actually build any thrills, tension or excitement. As the film ended I must admit to have given up on it already and just wasn't in the mood for any more silliness.