Double Jeopardy (R) *** Starring Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones Directed by Bruce Beresford A Review by Frankie Paiva
Now as much as I like independent movies, you know, all those movies that feature plausible storylines and actual ideas, I couldn't help liking this movie. Now this didn't just start with the movie, the first time I saw the trailer with Wild Wild West I was excited about it. While not legally accurate, this fun idea of a woman being framed and then trying to track down the man that framed her instantly caught my attention. This is no original film, mind you, but it is a whole lot of fun.
Libby Parsons (Judd, destined to become a great actress) is thrilled when her husband buys her a new sailboat, she loves it of course, and after a romantic evening they go to bed. But when she awakens she finds blood all over everything, and she finds a bloody knife on the deck, and picks it up right when the coastguard is coming to arrest her. Nick, (Bruce Greenwood) her husband, left her $2 million in insurance money, the jury sees this as a motive for killing him and she is put in prison.
It turns out Nick isn't dead at all, he's kidnapped her son and is now living in San Francisco with her best friend. But then someone gives her a holiday present, it's called double jeopardy. It says that any person cannot be brought to justice on the same crime twice. While this is not actually legally accurate, the crime would have to be commited in the same location for it to be legal, it's a great set up and the film has fun with it. When she's put on parole and commits a crime, her parole officer (Lee Jones) must track her down as she tries to kill the man that framed her. This begins a thrilling chase through the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans.
Double Jeopardy is too unbelieveable, even for a Hollywood film. Seriously, anyone who fires a gun that close to themselves (I'm making a point without giving away any plot points) would be deaf for the rest of the movie. But if you can push aside anything you know about law you should have a good time. Tommy Lee Jones doesn't do much for the film, and actually doesn't have that big of a role. Ashley Judd is great as Libby, an excellent casting choice, now if only there was a way to make a sequel. Fun, exciting, and suspenseful, Double Jeopardy gets *** stars.
The Young-Uns: Lots of tension, suspense, and gunfire plus a sex scene that doesn't show much nudity. Good Age 14 & Up
A Review by Frankie Paiva The 12 Year-Old Movie Reviewer E-Mail me at SwpStke@aol.com Visit my website at: http://expage.com/page/teenagemoviecritic
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews