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something halfway DIFFERENT from Hollywood's usual fare; Denzel plays a rather straight-laced Chief of Police of a Jamaica-like island and must track down his free-spirit childhood friend, Maubee, suspected of murder. the best thing about this movie (to me) was its island locations and people, a great change of pace from the usual SoCal or New Yawk stuff. M. Emit Walsh is a scene stealer as a bemused corporate operative down to fix some loose ends. the numerous musical interludes are excellent (and its great to watch a movie without the usual hip-hop or angst-metal). many of the 'minor' characters--Ubu Pearl, Coco, Jose, Jump--are lots more interesting than the major ones. on the down side are some of the usual clichés--arrogant rich whites, the politician that browbeats the police so as not to alarm the tourists, the usual domestic strife, the precocious kid, a subplot involving the, gasp, CIA. watch this some night with 'Countryman' for a Caribbean Film Festival.
score 7/10
sailor7sam 1 February 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1011734/ |
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