A Murder of Crows
July. 06,1999 RIn the wake of a career-ending scandal, disgraced lawyer Lawson Russell moves to Key West, where he befriends aging novelist Christopher Marlowe. After letting Russell borrow his latest manuscript, Marlowe dies of a heart attack. When Russell publishes the dead man's manuscript under his own name, he makes the best-seller list—and unwittingly becomes the prime suspect in the investigation of a grisly multiple homicide.
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Reviews
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
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.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Louisiana defense lawyer Lawson Russell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) deliberately causes a mistrial in the trial of Thurman Parks III (Eric Stoltz). He gets disbarred and wants to write a book better than John Grisham. After 13 months in the Florida Keys, he has done a lot of drinking as a fishing tour guide. He's hired by a strange old man named Marlow. Marlow dies and Lawson keeps his manuscript. Lawson claims the book as his own and it becomes a best seller. Thurman is acquitted. Police detective Clifford Dubose (Tom Berenger) is investigating the real murders of five lawyers that is exactly as written in the book. He hires his old colleague Elizabeth Pope as his defense lawyer.I really like the premise. Cuba doesn't necessarily play the everyman character. He's too brash and could be seen as bringing this on himself. Nevertheless, there is a hard-boiled sense to this mystery except for Marlow and the other false identities. The makeup jobs look bad. They look like Halloween costumes and make the movie look cheesy. Eric Stoltz sounds awful in a southern accent. I don't know if the accent is accurate. Hollywood kid Stoltz is not the guy to do the accent. The movie needs to bring on a better makeup artist and somebody else to take on Stoltz's character.
This movie catches you from the beginning and keeps you guessing all the way to the very end. I think this is one of Cuba Gooding's best movies. It is great! The movie keeps you guessing and on your toes throughout the entire movie. I think Tom Berenger and Eric Stoltz both outperform themselves. The acting and dramatics were very well blended. This movie has great artistic directing as well. The costume changes and make-up were quite believable. The dramatics were amazing. The way the movie evolved from the beginning and tied in at the end was excellent. Never saw it coming. I feel this is a very well rounded movie that anyone would enjoy.
Really like this film, it's criminally overlooked as far as I'm concerned. Cuba Gooding plays a lawyer who gets disbarred shortly after he lets his conscience get the better of him and he moves to Key West Florida, hoping to start a writing career. Once there, he meets and old man who happens to have written a damn fine novel. Ahhh, I don't want to reveal more, but from that point on things get very interesting.This thriller has a genuinely original plot and is very well written. The plot twist isn't easily spotted and will definitely have viewers guessing for a long time. It's fast paced and well directed by Rowdy Herrington, who's really a director to look for (made another little known James Spader flick that's very good as well).I've always like Cuba Gooding and he does a good job in the lead, proving he can well handle dramatic parts as well (if not better) than comedic ones. Tom Berenger does well, as always, in a relatively small part as a tough detective.It's a rare thing these days that a film, particularly a thriller, comes up with a really fresh and original idea and executes it well. A Murder of Crows is a suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining thriller that deserves to be better known.
Just as the leading actors (Cuba Gooding and Tom Berenger) masquerade as A-list stars, the plot and its direction masquerade as a "thriller." If you aren't paying attention, you might be duped into thinking this is a good movie, but as the old myth about Chinese food goes, you'll be starving again an hour later.Gooding plays an attorney who is disbarred for snitching out a guilty client as in "And Justice For All," who is then framed for a murder and tormented by the killer and the cops throughout. If only the audience had been as fortunate.Those who enjoy seeing steroetypical racism on screen as a means for enlightening the audience will be proud.