User Reviews

A defence attorney suffers a crisis of conscience when he recognises his own responsibility for enabling a serial killer to be set free but when he's presented with an opportunity to put matters right, he realises that taking the necessary action would require him to act unethically and unprofessionally.

This psychological thriller focuses on the lawyer's ethical dilemma, his gradual recognition that the legal system only has a limited ability to deliver justice and his personal struggle to avoid becoming the kind of monster that he's determined to bring to justice.

Ben Chase (Gary Oldman) is the defence attorney who's prepared to use any kind of cynical ploy to get a "not guilty" verdict for his clients and after using one such manoeuvre to discredit the value of eyewitnesses in a murder case, earns an acquittal for Martin Thiel (Kevin Bacon). After the trial, Thiel gives indications that he was actually guilty and a short time later telephones Chase to arrange a meeting at a nearby park. When Chase goes to the arranged meeting place, he's horrified to discover the body of a woman who'd been raped and murdered.

Police detectives Mesel (Joe Don Baker) and Stillwell (Tess Harper) attend the crime scene and are openly disdainful of Chase who they blame for returning the murderer back into society. When it seems that Thiel might need legal representation for a second time, Chase agrees to defend him so that he can make sure that he's held accountable for his crimes. This unethical approach isn't entirely feasible however, and so Chase tries to get Thiel to incriminate himself. In trying to do this, the two men become closer and Chase starts to recognise certain similarities between them that he finds disturbing.

In "Criminal Law" it's interesting to see the changes that the ultra-conceited Chase goes through as he becomes filled with doubt about what he's doing and takes advice from his mentor, Professor Clemens (Michael Sinelnikoff) who advises him about the shortcomings of the justice system by saying that "the law is the dark shadow of justice". Similarly, the significance of the first part of the Nietzsche quotation at the start of the movie ("Whosoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster") also becomes apparent in an interesting way as the relationship between the two men becomes closer and the mind games begin.

The main problem with this movie is that the interest that's established in the effective first act gradually dissipates as the whole undertaking loses coherence as it progresses. More pleasingly though, the issues it addresses do provide some good material for a thriller and Gary Oldman and Kevin Bacon are excellent in their roles

Here's a rule to live by: Bad Foley artist, bad film.

When you're watching the hunt for a psycho sex killer, you shouldn't be constantly distracted by the sound of footsteps. Obviously artificial footsteps. A lot of them: down marble courthouse hallways and up staircases. Or on a rainy sidewalk, where we hear the staccato tap of pumps with 3-inch heels, while the character was actually wearing Doc Martens.

We movie buffs know about the Foley artist, who adds the realistic snaps and pops and squeaks and thereby enhances the soundtrack of "real life," but we shouldn't have to think about him DURING the film. Unfortunately, "Criminal Law" breaks this essential rule. So I have no one to blame but myself for watching it from beginning to end. I wanted to like it...but I couldn't.

Gary Oldman plays a defense lawyer who helps a guilty man go free. When he discovers what he's done, Oldman spends the rest of the movie trying to get the killer. (The opening title is a quote about monster hunters becoming the monsters they hunt, an interesting idea that isn't really explored the way it could have been.)

The idea that a savvy former prosecutor—now defending the criminals he used to send to jail—is surprised to find that his client (Kevin Bacon) is guilty is just one of the silly conceits of this silly movie. Another is a lawyer who's willing to chuck his whole career to make sure justice is done, especially when it's not at all necessary. Can't the police catch this guy? He's not exactly keeping a low profile.

In the course of all this, we are treated to scenes of Gary Oldman in a wife-beater, whipping up a gourmet dinner for one in an immaculate architectural house; Gary Oldman in those painfully tiny '80s gym shorts, playing handball, or possibly squash; Gary Oldman naked, having truly embarrassing-to-watch sex with "Ellen" (a dreadful performance) interspersed with scenes of handball (or possibly squash); and generally a lot of Gary Oldman in a variety of GQ poses.

I'm not sure who to blame for the surfeit of uncomfortable and unconvincing raw emotion in this movie. Is it the writer's fault? The director's? Both Oldman and Bacon are usually wonderful actors. But I can't remember a movie with this much male-to-male crying.

"Criminal Law" takes itself far too seriously, and we can't take it seriously enough. I was sure Oldman and Bacon were co-producers; they weren't—but it was that kind of movie.

Terrible psychological thriller that is almost painful to sit through, every aspect being awful.

The combined talents of top actors Kevin Bacon and Gary Oldman are totally wasted, and though they give good performances, one wonders why they bothered. The script from Mark Kasdan is a complete mess, and Martin Campbell has the narrative jumping all over the place, but if you're unable to follow it, take it as a blessing. There are far too many pointless, crazy scenes that just don't make sense. Jerry Goldsmith's music is not much help either.

Even if there was potential in the plot, director Campbell's approach has utterly ruined it. Avoid at all costs!

Monday, February 26, 1996 - Video

I picked this movie because I was in the mood for a crime thriller, and I love Gary Oldman and Kevin Bacon. I thought it was weird that I had never heard of this movie, but now I can see why.

Kevin Bacon actually delivers in his usual role as a creepy rapist, and Gary Oldman is not bad considering what he had to work with. I did have to snort at some of his overwrought intensity, but it did not really seem like that was his fault as much as the filmmakers.

I felt annoyed with the movie as soon as the Nietzsche quote appeared in the beginning, it struck me as pretty cliché. Then Oldman did his whole "clear" thing with the glass of water and I was like... OK that was a pointless prop, he's showing the jury that water is clear just like the facts? That's pretty dumb. But as dumb as the movie was presenting itself to be, it was truly I who was dumb, thinking that with Oldman and Bacon this was still going to be a good movie.

The dumbest thing about the movie is that the majority of scenes are completely pointless or make no sense. First of all, the entire premise is stupid. Why did rich attorney Oldman go wandering around in the woods in the rain looking for Bacon in the first place, just because he called him? Why did he run to find someone instead of just using the phone in his car? Why did he go to the extent of becoming his lawyer just to get a special "in" on him? The majority of the film is Oldman brooding and snooping around on his own, little time is actually focused on the relationship which is supposed to be the whole point of his scheme. Why wouldn't the police have figured out right away that all the victims had been treated by the prime suspect's mother, something that would have shown up in medical records? Even many small scenes had me going, wait, what? For example, Oldman goes to Bacon's house, presumably to meet him... snoops around the room until he gets caught by the mom and then he just leaves... so why was he there in the first place?? Why does he meet up with the cop lady in a playground with milk and cookies? Why does he imagine that he is having sex with Bacon's character, honestly?? And why does the mom try to protect the son who is raping and murdering her patients??? And what was the point of even having the old man character? And why does Oldman visit him randomly in the hospital??? That was so random... like, here's this old man you saw for two seconds in the beginning for no reason, and oh yeah he's in the hospital for a few more seconds, because why not.. And I had kind of zoned out by the end, but how did Bacon even get into the courtroom alone with Oldman with a gun just by firing a few shots??

I will say there was some interesting camera work and cool set design.

But the most unbearable thing is the amount of dialogue. The few minutes of Bacon being menacing are actually scary, but the majority of the movie is just people talking. Talking, talking, talking with no plot development. But whatever, it's not like film is a visual medium or anything.

I like how the film ended pointlessly with Oldman just walking out of the room... because I did not have the energy to sit through an attempt at an actual ending anyway. It was actually better with no ending because at least it was over sooner!!!

A serial killer who avenges aborted fetuses by strangling their mothers; a lawyer who agrees to defend a man he knows is guilty just to ensure he is convicted. Both of these would make solid premises for a thriller and a legal drama respectively. But combining them, as is done here, proves much less successful. The resulting film is neither suspenseful enough as a thriller, nor well-plotted enough as a legal drama. Neither strand of the story gets the attention it deserves, making it necessary for a legal luminary to reappear in the last quarter to explain, from his deathbed, what we can presume is the point: vigilantism is not the answer; the law may be an imperfect reflection of justice, but it's a close as we can get. Thematically, this is a well-intentioned film. But it's undermined by a disjointed (or perhaps over-edited) script, and some violently hammy acting, especially from the usually excellent Oldman. Martin Campbell's strong visual flair and Jerry Goldsmith's ominous music – though blatantly stolen from Peter Gabriel's song ‘Rhythm of the Heat' – compensate, but nowhere near enough.

Top notch performances for a legal drama that doesn't seem realistic in any manner, featuring a sexy killer (Kevin Bacon) who has gotten away with murder once and wants to get away with it again and again and again. Thanks to troubled attorney Gary Oldman, Bacon was able to get acquitted to what he joked about as the disposable diaper theory. Bacon continues to brutally torture and kill women, burning one to death so badly that there seems to be no way of even identifying her, and even goes after Oldman's troubled ex-girlfriend, Karen Young. A vicious killer must have a memorable overly possessive mother, and that comes in the form of British horror star Elizabeth Shephard ("The Tomb of Ligeia"/"Damien: Omen II") who absolutely resents Oldman's doubting of her precious baby boy.

I enjoyed this as a melodramatic psychological thriller, absurd in so many ways yet mesmerizing. Oldman has that rubbery face that can contort at will, and he's great in a drunk scene where he celebrates the victory that has saved his law career. Tess Harper is another plus as his police detective confidante/adviser, her determined character one of the better realistic elements of a screenplay that gets weirder and weirder thanks to convoluted direction and trying to outwit the audience who catches on quickly to how preposterous this all is. But I considered it fascinating to watch for all its glorious badness thanks to compelling stars and shear audacity to where all I could think was, "Oh no, they didn't."

A woman police officer, Tess Harper, shoots a running man square through the head at a distance of fifty feet with a short-barreled revolver. Now, if you can believe that, you will get more out of this movie than I did.

It's not an especially BAD movie, in the sense that at least it's not insulting. And in fact the story had real potential. Gary Oldman of the droopy face is a high-end Boston attorney hired by filthy rich Kevin Bacon, who has been accused of serial murders involving diapers stuffed in the victims' mouths. (Don't ask.) Oldman is a Harvard graduate and therefore brilliant. He saves Bacon's bacon, to general rejoicing.

Without too much further ado, he finds that Bacon was guilty after all when the murders begin all over again and Bacon practically confesses. The problem is that there is no way to convict Bacon, and Oldman, out of an excess of chagrin, takes it upon himself to investigate the new cases and try to find inculpatory evidence.

The acting is pretty good on everyone's part. The dialog has some startlingly effective lines. The performers look and speak as one would expect such characters to -- except that the murderer, Kevin Bacon, stares ghoulishly at every dramatic moment. If he blinked his eyes AT ALL during the movie, I must have been blinking myself.

I don't know if that unblinking, murderous stare was Bacon's idea. I hope not. I suspect it was at the least encouraged by the director, Martin Campbell, because the fiend who is unable to nictitate is a cliché -- and the movie is full of clichés.

That life-saving miraculous shot by Tess Harper is only the climactic example. One of the most overused stings has an innocent person creeping about in a dark room, searching for something he or, more often she, shouldn't be looking for. All is quiet. We tremble along with the intruder. Then a clash of dissonance in the score, and a hand reaches in from out of the frame and grabs the person's shoulder, or she bumps into a figure standing in the shadows, or she hears a noise and whirls her flashlight around to reveal the face of a threatening intruder, or a pair of arms wrap around her neck from behind. I counted at least four uses of this hoary device before I stopped looking for them.

I'll mention just one other. A terrified man stumbles through a public park during a downpour, trips over some brush, rolls helplessly down the side of a hill, and comes to rest on a mutilated human body.

Enough.

It's too bad, because there are signs of intelligence glimmering through this hackneyed murk. Your Honor -- ladies and gentleman of the jury -- I direct your attention to the anecdote told by the dying librarian in the hospital, the little parable about Justice Brandeis and the shadow of the law. Corroborating evidence, which I now introduce as Exhibit Number Two, is provided by Kevin Bacon's fable, the one in the punt, of the man caught whipping God's dog. Nobody brings up Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism versus Kant's categorical imperatives, although they might have, but thank God they didn't.

A shame it was all thrown away in the service of titillating the audience through the use of commercial tricks.

**SPOILERS**

A serial killer who avenges aborted fetuses by strangling their mothers; a lawyer who agrees to defend a man he knows is guilty to ensure he is convicted. Both of these would make solid premises for a thriller and a legal drama respectively. But combining them, as is done here, proves much less successful. The resulting film is neither suspenseful enough as a thriller, nor well-plotted enough as a legal drama. Neither strand of the story gets the attention it deserves, making it necessary for a legal luminary to reappear in the last quarter to explain, from his deathbed, what we can presume is the point: vigilantism is not the answer; the law may be an imperfect reflection of justice, but it's a close as we can get. Thematically, this is a well-intentioned film. But it's undermined by a disjointed (or perhaps over-edited) script, and some violently hammy acting, especially from the usually excellent Oldman. Martin Campbell's strong visual flair and Jerry Goldsmith's ominous music – though blatantly stolen from Peter Gabriel's song 'Rhythm of the Heat' – compensate, but nowhere near enough.

Gary Oldman is in top form as an attorney obsessed with winning, but toes the unethical line after doing his job too good and regrettably getting his rich arrogant client, played by a sexy slithering Kevin Bacon, acquitted for a sexual violation and murder, who's later revealed to be a prolife serial killer toying with said attorney, which sends his attorney over the edge. From this movie to another movie where he terrorizes a Wife (played by Charlize Theron) and her family to Hollow Man to City on a Hill, Bacon always nails the charming creep role! If you split Criminal Law into three acts: Beginning, middle and end, the first two acts work while the final act spirals out of control and ruined any rewatch value. Bacon's character for example is smooth, methodical and confident his riches will always bail him out of anything. Then, suddenly he's erratic and going off the rails in the final act and I hated the cliche ending. The blonde love interest for Oldman's attorney character added nothing for me except one rough, passionate sex scene that illustrated Oldman's increasingly maddening state of mind. Well played and acted by both actors. Despite Criminal Law's shortcomings, you can't tell me The Lincoln Lawyer author and screenwriter didn't draw from this movie as its premise and just tweaked it. I bet The Devil's Advocate took some "inspiration" too when it comes to blurred morals of thoroughly representing an obviously guilty monster to score a win. And yes, I do believe in innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and everyone deserving legal representation, which reminds me there's some quick great dialogue in this movie about the defense attorney's role, ethics and justice.