I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Powerful

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Nelson Crowe (Laurence Fishburne) is a CIA operative who was downsized after a dispute over a missing bribe of $50k in gold. Vic Grimes (Frank Langella) hires him for his company "The Toolshed" which blackmails and bribes for their corporate clients. Grimes and Margaret Wells (Ellen Barkin) are working to bribe State Supreme Court Judge Beach for their client Walter Curl. Wells comes to Crowe with a scheme to take over The Toolshed from Crowe.It's a lot of noir moody style. There is not much attention paid to provide any rooting interesting for the characters. It's a lot of cold distant characters and loads of dark hard-boiled cool style. It's so cool that there is no heat in it even with the sizzling Barkin. There is not enough excitement or tension. These are great actors and they almost make this work. The schemes, blackmail, brides and double-cross do get to be questionable. The problem is that I stop caring about halfway through.

[Possible spoilers]Ellen Barkin is one of the most radiantly sexy women that Hollywood has seen (but has not always used well!). This film, unfortunately, is another example where she is not used well. The production designer did a superb job, and costumes, apartments, offices, and outdoors scenes are strikingly gorgeous. But the scriptwriter evidently put in no effort into this production. The plot concerns a chemical company sued for causing pollution-related injuries, yet evidently they were so naive as to not carry liability insurance. A person who has never used a gun before outguns two ex-CIA operatives. A corrupt Washington State judge is a character out of some 19th century morality play. The film is set in Seattle but filmed in Vancouver. It was deemed sufficient to put up a "Seattle Hot Dogs" stand to create that illusion...fat chance.The "romance" between Barkin and Fishburne is a joke--they seem to share as much in common as fish and fowl. In addition, Barkin does not get to show any skin in her sex scenes in this prudish movie. For that matter, I'm not even sure these scenes were not optical overlays--there is that little interaction between characters. But the basic problem is that there are no sympathetic characters, nor even any good guys that later go bad. Everyone is just triple-crossing everyone else. Why should we care?Go see Siesta, Big Easy, Sea of Love, or Mercy to see Barkin in good roles, instead.

Underrated, gripping thriller was a big box-office failure but it deserves a second chance on home video. Tightly plotted (there's always something happening, but the complications never get too confusing) and smoothly directed, it's a movie that knows how to keep you absorbed, even though its nihilistic ending is slightly cliched. Give it a try. (***)

If you want your films to have sympathetic characters, you probably shouldn't go near this one. This is a very tough and cynical thriller, one that has no good guys, only a whole lotta bad guys and a couple of not quite as bad guys. But that's what I enjoyed about this film. It was great to see the plot unfold in unexpected ways, and to see these characters mess with one another, motivated only by greed, lust, and fear. Another aspect is the film's sleek and cold style. From the wardrobes to the apartments these characters occupy, the film is pretty stylin'. And the acting is very good. Laurence Fishburne is excellent as the amoral Crowe, Frank Langella is elegantly nasty as Grimes, and Michael Beach has a deceptively quiet role as one of Fishburne's "co-workers". A very dark film that resolves itself quite nicely in the end, and well worth seeing. But if you need a good guy to root for, this isn't the film to check out.