Someone to Die For (1995)

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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

I looked for other user comments to see if others thought the same as I did about this film. Nobody had written a comment!!(in 5+ years). Am I the only person to have seen this film, or just the only one to see it all the way through. Risible and cliched....you've seen all these characters before, a hundred times. Middle aged go-it-alone tough detective Jack is very stressed. You can tell by the way he shouts at his superiors, and the way he chain smokes, holding the cigarette between his thumb and first finger. He is divorced, and has fallen behind with his maintenance payments. He seems to be suspiciously over-affectionate towards his daughter. The plot is not worth attempting to describe, but there are parts of the story which make you think "did I doze off and miss something?" After his daughter is killed early in the film, Jack is committed to a hospital/mental home for a short period. His grief is noticed by an attractive twenty something,(Lydia), who just happens to be visiting her wheelchair bound grandmother. Within days, Lydia is cooking Jack a gourmet meal (at night, in the hospital!), and showing affection for the distraught cop. There is a brief appearance of a stereotyped psychologist/psychiatrist who has not had a haircut since the 70's. More love interest is provided by a magazine reporter, who happens to live next door to Jack, and is trying to advance her career by getting the lowdown on why Jack shot an 'unarmed' teenager (who was only pulling a knife from his jeans, not a gun!). Jack's colleagues start meeting violent deaths. Is Jack really the man responsible? One of his kitchen knives is missing, so the sergeant is suspicious. Several other red herrings swim into view before all is revealed. The one big plus about this film was that it did offer surprises in the plot, even though most of them were absurd. 3 stars out of 10.