The Good: Alicia Silverstone was a good actress and is charismatic enough to be likeable and interesting. The mystery here is pretty decent and um..yeah, there's not much aside from technical competency to highlight.
The Bad: As the title suggests, this movie is a masterclass in how to ruin a movie via tonality. When the movie begins, the music, the editing, and the performances all imply a lighthearted, "we're not taking ourselves seriously" tone. Which is fine, but the movie oscillates so dramatically between "funny, lighthearted" and "extremely serious" so suddenly and frequently, that you might break your neck shaking your head.
This tonal inconsistency makes the relationship between Silverstone (who is supposed to be no older than 16) and Dillon is...disturbing, to say the least. Is it supposed to be a laughable trope? Is it supposed to be an illicit, inappropriate affair? Do they genuinely love each other? It's hard to say.
When it's revealed that (shocker), he's the killer, I personally figured this out about 45 minutes in. Because come on now, a 20 something year old cadet having a sexual relationship with a teenager wasn't okay, even back in 95, right? But we still have a good portion of the movie where they throw multiple obvious red herrings your way, and it just doesn't work.
I also want to highlight how stupid some of the characters in this movie are, especially Bill Nunn's Detective. He just sort of sits around and waits for someone to alert him the plot's happening.
The Ugly: This was a searching on Amazon Prime, wanting to watch something movie. Skip it.
The Bad: As the title suggests, this movie is a masterclass in how to ruin a movie via tonality. When the movie begins, the music, the editing, and the performances all imply a lighthearted, "we're not taking ourselves seriously" tone. Which is fine, but the movie oscillates so dramatically between "funny, lighthearted" and "extremely serious" so suddenly and frequently, that you might break your neck shaking your head.
This tonal inconsistency makes the relationship between Silverstone (who is supposed to be no older than 16) and Dillon is...disturbing, to say the least. Is it supposed to be a laughable trope? Is it supposed to be an illicit, inappropriate affair? Do they genuinely love each other? It's hard to say.
When it's revealed that (shocker), he's the killer, I personally figured this out about 45 minutes in. Because come on now, a 20 something year old cadet having a sexual relationship with a teenager wasn't okay, even back in 95, right? But we still have a good portion of the movie where they throw multiple obvious red herrings your way, and it just doesn't work.
I also want to highlight how stupid some of the characters in this movie are, especially Bill Nunn's Detective. He just sort of sits around and waits for someone to alert him the plot's happening.
The Ugly: This was a searching on Amazon Prime, wanting to watch something movie. Skip it.