COLOR OF NIGHT
A film review by Raymond Johnston
Copyright 1994 Raymond Johnston
COLOR OF NIGHT is yet another derivative serial killer film. If you have seen PSYCHO, THE HEARSE, and TOOL BOX MURDERS there is absolutely nothing new here. What is unusual is the fact that a truly fine cast including Bruce Willis, Ruben Blades, Brad Dourif, and Lesley Anne Warren are trapped trying their best to breath life into the stillborn double entendres and tired plot cliches of the hackneyed "mystery." Even action star Lance Henriksen is left with nothing to do but talk in the endless and very unconvincing group therapy sessions that make up the bulk of the film. Willis, as the psychologist, does the same happy-go-lucky smart aleck tough guy turn he has become famous for. The problem is that a psychologist should be sensitive and understanding, at least professionally. Blades, Dourif, Warren, and Henriksen are thinly written cardboard characters. Blades, who in real life has a degree from Harvard, does another hot tempered, dim witted Chicano stereotype. Dourif, who is awesome in Wise Blood, plays a obsessive neurotic who keeps counting everything throughout the film. Some of this is supposed to be funny, but seeing a decent actor in truly bad make-up given so little to make a character from is merely sad.
The only actor who can count this film as a career plus is Jane March, whose last film was The Lover. Her character has some depth and she really does shine on the screen. The few scenes of her with Willis are the only ones in the film worth watching, although she is in relatively little of the film as a character named Rose.
Much of the plot, however relies on a transparent gimmick that is poorly executed. The obviousness of this gimmick destroys any sense of mystery early on. One simply waits for the characters on screen to notice what is painfully apparent.
Disney, who owns the company that released this film, has cut the film to an R rating. No amount of additional scenes, however, could make COLOR OF NIGHT into a good film.
.
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