AN INNOCENT MAN

AN INNOCENT MAN 

AN INNOCENT MAN: 8/10 B+

I love finding old movies from the 80's and early 90's that I've never heard of that end up being pretty good and this was one of them. 

A pretty good film over all. With solid performances out of Tom Selleck, Laila Robins and F. Murray Abraham. I really enjoy watching Selleck on screen and appreciate his style of performing. I think he was the right man for such a role. I can picture a few other people doing it, but not many.

David Rasche always does a great job performing as an all around jerk, and it was fun seeing M.C. Gainey in one of his early roles. Love anything with the late Dennis Burkely, and I swear every movie in the late 80's had Ernie Lively in it somewhere.

The directing was exceptionally good, as the scenes flowed well together and the dialog moved the story forward. The cuts were done well and the pace never slowed down, which I appreciated.

The score was rather exceptional and added to the suspense and action of the scenes.

I liked the story and it raised a lot of good questions. What would really happen in a scenario like this? How apparent is corruption in law enforcement? I think the idea of enemies in prison is fairly common, but how about friendship? How do bonds and friendships work in prison? Do people get that tight with one another? Is there true brotherhood and comradery in prison? It also points out how unarguably stupid our war on drugs has been.

I only have two real problems with the story. There is a sub-story that was added in that is very out of place and it seems that it serves no real purpose. Or that it was underutilized and perhaps some scenes were cut that would have made it serve more purpose. If anything it weakens an otherwise pretty strong story.

I also have to say that the ending seemed very rushed and thrown together last minute, whereas the rest of the film seems very well thought out and calculated.

Last thoughts........

I swear Tom Selleck won't do a movie unless there is a scene written where he can show off his basketball skills. I suppose if I played varsity ball for the USC Trojans I might too.