Pavement (2002)

Best movie ever!

Absolutely brilliant

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Not that believable of a detective movie involving an Alaskan tracker of wolves and Kodiak bears using his expertise in the wild to track down a serial killer in San Francisco.Were given a hint to what were in store for in the very first moments of the movie with Dr. Orenbach,Andrew Brendt, refusing to abort a new born baby because he has "Conroddy Syndrome". Were told by Dr Orenbach's assistant Dr Green, Gerald Randolf,that a child with that illness never goes full term. How wrong Dr. Green turned out to be!The film starts out with a brutal murder in San Francisco that takes the life of Jenny Brown, Lynita Crofford, a nurse in one of the city's municipal hospitals. The word of Jenny's murder gets to her brother Sam, Robert Patrick, up in the wilds of Alaska and he shoots down to SF to help in finding his sister's killer. It's then that things get a bit entangled with the SFPD not wanting this outsider to get involved in the biggest murder case in it's history since the Zodiac Killer! Uncovering not only clues about the killer that the police missed Sam, ruggedly handsome devil that he is, also becomes very romantically involved with the top cop on the case Det. Buckley Clarke, Lauren Holly. Det. Clarke is not only turned on by Sam's ruggedly good looks and pioneering 19th century lifestyle, he doesn't believe in using modern bathroom facilities, but also his unique ability in digging up clues about the killer. It's that uncanny tracking ability-with a walking stick- on Sam's part that Det. Clarke, against the wishes of her superiors, in no time at all let's him take over, off the record, the entire investigation!As it turns out the killer had a deep grudge against those in the medical profession who were responsible from bringing him into the world. Were somehow made to feel that the doctor who in accordance to his upholding the Hippocratic Oath, as well as the child's mother's wishes, in his deciding to let the child, regardless of the condition that it finds itself in, to be born is some kind of crazed mad scientist or religious fanatic! Where in reality he was only doing what he was sworn to do as a man of medicine!Sam's ability to track the killer down leads to a brick wall as his trail seems to come to a sudden end every time he and his partner and now lover Det. Clarke get out of the dark woods, where the killer always makes his escape, and into civilization which for some reason it suddenly ends at a bus stop or shelter! Even though it should be obvious to someone like Sam who's especially good in tracking down fugitives, or wild animals, what the significance of the bus stop is it takes almost the entire movie for him to find that out! And it's not Sam but Det. Clarke, being more in touch with big city life, who ends up uncovering that great mystery!Once the cat, or serial killer, is out of the bag, or intensive care, the movie starts to get going into full toddle. The frail killer who's supposed to be a total invalid ends up taking on an entire unite of the SFPD with a squad of tough as nails SWAT personnel thrown in and ends up making mince meat out of them! So much in him being, according to Dr. Green, not fit or healthy enough to be allowed to be born!What the killer's real problems were turned out to be mental not physical which took years to manifest themselves and could not have been discovered at the time of his birth. This all made the assumption that his suffering from "Conroddy Syndrome", whatever that is, which was supposed to prevent from living past infancy, according to Dr.Green, turned out to be totally unfounded!

It's an interesting idea and it's well filmed, but there are so many little plot problems that it became almost comical. "Sam" is supposed to be an expert tracker, but just about everybody gets the drop on him. The "FBI" folks are predictably inept and [MINOR SPOILER]my wife and I figured out that the killer was using the handicap buses very early.[END SPOILER]The police seem to overlook the most basic of procedures (find out the connection between the victims?) until the 11th hour while they're extremely impressed with the most basic capabilities (they zoomed in on a photograph; wow, imagine that.)A few B-movie cinematic effects don't help matters. At least the acting is decent; I feel sorry for Robert Patrick who probably deserves better.

on a scale of 1-10 i give this movie a 5. robert patrick was great in this movie but it felt more like a big X-file, but without mulder and scully. i'm guessing it was a made for TV movie, it seemed to lack a full storyline. good action at times though and suspensefull. its worth a quick watch on tv, but ya, don't go rent it.

The plot, development and resolution of "Pavement" were excellent. The suspense kept my interest from start to finish. The characters were realistic and dimensional. The action was good too. I think the director was a little free with police officers as fodder for various occasions; but beyond that I liked what I saw. I enjoy those gritty, realistic, but not overblown cop films, and this is a good one. The element of the tracker as an imaginative addition to the plot was excellent.I am a total Lauren Holly fan; and I thought she played her role flawlessly as a determined and professional detective, who is still very much a woman. She pulled it off with great aplomb. She is always a great pleasure to watch in anything she does.If you like really exciting and suspense-filled cop movies, see this one. To say any more might spoil the impact of all the elements that come together in this intriguing film. Just sit back and enjoy it.