The River Murders (2011)

Why so much hype?

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

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Ray Liotta plays Jack Verdon, a Seattle cop investigating a string of brutal murders, with all the targets being women he's slept with in the past. Immediately a suspect, Jack has to tangle with FBI Agent Vuckovitch (Slater) work outside his job to catch the killer.The script seems fairly straight-forward but it has a very compelling religious aspect that comes in when we meet the killer. I'm not spoiling anything by saying that we meet the killer fairly early on. His character is written in a way that kept me interested as to his intentions. I had a hard time believing Liotta's character would remember all the "100's" of women he'd slept with, but whatever. Verdon and the killer are definitely the strongest characters, though, with the Vuckovitch character being a constant strain.Liotta, Slater, and Ving Rhames are the bankable stars advertised on the cover, but all three men could have switched roles and you would have had the same movie. For instance, if Slater played Verdon, Liotta the Police Captain, and Rhames the FBI Agent, or so on. All three do an adeqaute job, though Slater served more as comic relief than anything else. Liotta's wife is played by the gorgeous Giselle Fraga, whose beauty just about saves her flat acting. Michael Rodrick shows some real potential as the killer, his cold performance stood out from the supporting cast.Cinematography caught the drizzly Washington weather perfectly, though as someone not a Seattle native, I was confused as why it was never really brought to light which river the title alluded to."The River Murders" makes for a nice day off or rainy day mystery movie to watch with some popcorn. I'd recommend it.

A dog turd would be insulted by this flick. I can only blame myself for sitting through the entire movie... slowly developing a brain aneurysm from watching some of the worst acting I have ever seen. I can honestly say that I have never witnessed so many "known" celebrities tied to one giant ball of ass.I could go into more specifics (the list is long)... but that would have me spending more time discussing this piece of garbage. And that's way more than it deserves. If I could get away with punching the kid who rented this to me I would.You have been warned.

This is the kind of low budget movie offering a mix of seasoned actors, who do a great job with the material and their screen time, and not so seasoned ones who fill in the blanks.Liotta is top notch and Slater is his usual enjoyable self.Michael Rodrick has got game and Sarah Ann Schultz creates a very hot detective.With a handful of surprising twists and few glaring errors, it managed to tell a really interesting story by avoiding the usual pitfalls of guns and sexploitation.This had the look and feeling of those B-movies of the eighties where you could sit in front of the picture and be just captivated by the storytelling and the performance of thespians who don't need big bucks for them to show they can act.A good effort.As for the whiners? Well, 2 species have sprung on IMDb in the last few years: those who like nothing and those who hate everything.As for the rest: you'll probably enjoy the surprises as well as I did.

Homicide detective Jack Verdon's (Ray Liotta) sex life has been robust over the past 40 years. Unmarried until just recently, Jack played the field and enjoyed every minute of his promiscuous adventures. That is until his former female partners start showing up murdered thus leaving Jack as the prime suspect of an F.B.I. investigation.This is the central plot line for The River Murders, a new direct to VOD and DVD title staring Liotta, Ving Rhames and Christian Slater that is much better than is should be for reasons that we won't be able to fully scope to any reasonable conclusion.The movie begins sharply with the discovery of a female victim that has been found in a local river. Jack arrives at the scene and immediately identifies the girl as someone to which he had prior relations. When the body is taken back to the morgue, a ring is discovered in the dead woman's vagina. Before Jack can come to grips with his connection to the victim, he receives word that his mother has died mysteriously. And then, another murder of a former female acquaintance is found with the same M.O. as the first girl.This prompts an F.B.I. investigation lead by Agent Vuckovitch (Slater) who is an obnoxious and not entirely believable agent who spends more time trying to provoke detective Verdon than he does on the exploration of the killer.The River Murders soon slides into conventional thriller mode and more bodies are found while we are introduced to the killer and we get the two destined story lines of Verdon's confusion and struggles with the F.B.I. and the killer's relentless mission to continue a personal vendetta against jack that will be revealed before the final credits roll.The River Murders is not overly graphic, it's not particularly believable and it has a killer whose motivations are something that can only come out of the Hollywood machine. Yet, we liked it. Maybe it was the always reliable acting by Rhames (who plays Jack's boss) and Liotta. Maybe it was the no nonsense direction by Rich Cowan (Shadow of Fear) that kept things moving without convoluting the plot line or stretching the brisk 92-minute runtime with unnecessary subplots or dialogue traps. Whatever the reason, we thought The River Murders worked and was far better than the average made-for-television fare that the story would suggest suited.The heavy weight of the broad motive of the killer is the only thing that keeps The River Murders away from a better grade and acceptance. But that shouldn't deter you from giving this VOD effort a shot. It is better than most and hardly deserving of a complete ignore.wwww.killerreviews.com