| Criminal Law | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Martin Campbell |
| Written by | Mark Kasdan |
| Produced by | Hilary Heath Robert MacLean |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Distributed by | Hemdale Film Corporation |
Release dates | |
Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million [1] |
| Box office | $9,974,446 |
Criminal Law is a 1988 American legal thriller film directed by Martin Campbell and starring Gary Oldman and Kevin Bacon. It received generally negative reviews.
Gary Oldman plays Ben Chase, a brash young defense attorney whose success is built on his willingness to manipulate the judicial system for the benefit of his clients. In spite of his career success as an attorney, Ben is starting to show signs of serious alcoholism. When he successfully defends Martin Thiel, the scion of a wealthy, prominent family, against a murder charge, the game turns on him.
Martin lures Ben to the scene of another murder and retains Ben to defend him, even before he is charged. Knowing his client is guilty, Ben struggles at last with the reality of his ethics, until he resolves to oppose Martin secretly, hoping he will incriminate himself.
As Martin's ultimate plan unfolds, both he and Ben will be forced to reexamine everything they hold to be true.
Roger Ebert wrote: "Criminal Law is a textbook example of a movie going wrong before our very eyes, because of the curious failure of the filmmakers to realize that you can toy with an audience only so long before the audience grows resentful... It's a shame such good performances were lost by the runaway use of gimmicks." [2]
Variety commended the work of Oldman and Bacon, but criticized the story's "ill-defined pretensions as an essay on the American legal system and a herky-jerky continuity that's fatiguing instead of tingling". [3]
Kevin Thomas felt that Criminal Law "proceeds from one weakness to another", but described Oldman as "electrifying". [4]
Peter Travers was less impressed by Oldman's performance, writing: "Oldman is a powerhouse. Just catch him in Sid and Nancy or Prick Up Your Ears . But what's a British actor doing playing a Harvard attorney in a Boston-based movie shot in Montreal? Flailing about like a drowning man, that's what. Oldman's [accent is] laughably in-and-out." He had additional criticism for the film's "overwrought script" and lack of logic and subtlety. [5]
Slightly more favorable was Linda Rasmussen of AllMovie, who wrote that Oldman "gives an excellent performance", described Bacon as "intriguing and ambiguous", and praised the direction and action sequences. She concluded: "Criminal Law, if not taken very seriously and with more than a grain of salt, can be entertaining, but it fails miserably when compared to accurate, exciting legal thrillers such as Primal Fear . [6]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 33% based on reviews from 9 critics, with an average score of 4.6/10. [7]
Canadian serial killer Paul Bernardo, nicknamed “The Schoolgirl Killer” by the press and one of Canada's worst violent offenders, wanted to change his surname and that of his ex-wife and then-accomplice Karla Homolka to Thiel, after the film's primary antagonist.
Legal drama is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film's narrative. Legal dramas have also followed the lives of the fictional attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs, or other persons related to the practice of law present in television show or film. Legal drama is distinct from police crime drama or detective fiction, which typically focus on police officers or detectives investigating and solving crimes. The focal point of legal dramas, more often, are events occurring within a courtroom, but may include any phases of legal procedure, such as jury deliberations or work done at law firms. Some legal dramas fictionalize real cases that have been litigated, such as the play-turned-movie, Inherit the Wind, which fictionalized the Scopes Monkey Trial. As a genre, the term "legal drama" is typically applied to television shows and films, whereas legal thrillers typically refer to novels and plays.
Sid and Nancy is a 1986 British biographical film directed by Alex Cox, co-written with Abbe Wool, and starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb. The film portrays the life of Sid Vicious, bassist of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and his destructive relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen. The film also features supporting performances from David Hayman, Xander Berkeley, and Courtney Love.
Guilty as Sin is a 1993 American legal thriller film written by Larry Cohen, directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Martin Ransohoff. It stars Rebecca De Mornay and Don Johnson, and was produced by Hollywood Pictures.
Music Box is a 1989 film by Costa-Gavras that tells the story of a Hungarian-American immigrant who is accused of having been a war criminal. The plot revolves around his daughter, an attorney, who defends him, and her struggle to uncover the truth.
State of Grace is a 1990 American neo-noir crime drama film directed by Phil Joanou and starring Sean Penn, Ed Harris and Gary Oldman, also featuring Robin Wright, John Turturro, and John C. Reilly. Written by playwright Dennis McIntyre, the film was produced by Ned Dowd, Randy Ostrow, and Ron Rotholz, with a musical score by Ennio Morricone.
Prince of the City is a 1981 American neo-noir epic crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. It is based on the life of Robert Leuci, called ‘Daniel Ciello’ in the film, an officer of the New York Police Department who chooses, for idealistic reasons, to expose corruption in the force. The screenplay, written by Lumet and Jay Presson Allen, is based on a 1978 non-fiction book of the same title, by former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Robert Daley.
Murder in the First is a 1995 American legal drama film, directed by Marc Rocco, written by Dan Gordon, and starring Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz, Brad Dourif, William H. Macy, and R. Lee Ermey. It tells the alternate history of a petty criminal named Henri Young who is sent to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary and later put on trial for murder in the first degree as the lawyer representing him recounts Henri's life and when he represented Henri. This film was described on the movie poster as "the case that took down Alcatraz". The film received a mixed critical response, although Bacon's performance was praised by critics.
A Stranger Among Us is a 1992 American crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Melanie Griffith. It tells the story of an undercover police officer's experiences in a Hasidic community. It was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. It is often cited as one of Lumet's two failures of the 1990s, the other being Guilty as Sin (1993). Despite the poor reviews suffered by both these films, Lumet received the 1993 D. W. Griffith Award of the Directors Guild of America. The film was also the first credited role for actor James Gandolfini. The shooting of the film was used as an example in Lumet's book Making Movies.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil is a 1989 American thriller comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller. The film stars Richard Pryor as a blind man and Gene Wilder as a deaf man who work together to thwart a trio of murderous thieves. This is the third film featuring Wilder and Pryor, who had appeared previously in the 1976 film Silver Streak and the 1980 film Stir Crazy. The film was released in the United States on May 12, 1989.
Ben is a 1972 American horror film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, and Arthur O'Connell. It is a sequel to the film Willard (1971). The film follows a lonely boy named Danny Garrison who befriends Willard's former pet rat named Ben. Ben becomes the boy's best friend, protecting him from bullying and keeping his spirits up in the face of a heart condition. However, Ben forms an army of deadly rodents while the police attempt to control it.
Romeo Is Bleeding is a 1993 neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Peter Medak, written and produced by Hilary Henkin, and starring Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis, and Roy Scheider. It follows a psychosexual cat-and-mouse game between a corrupt cop (Oldman), and a ruthless mob assassin (Olin) who begins to unravel his carefully constructed double life. The film's title was taken from a song by Tom Waits.
Mountains of the Moon is a 1990 American biographical film depicting the 1857–1858 journey of Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke in their expedition to Central Africa, which culminated in Speke's discovery of the source of the Nile River and led to a bitter rivalry between the two men. The film stars Patrick Bergin as Burton and Iain Glen as Speke. Delroy Lindo appears as an African whom the explorers meet.
Legal Eagles is a 1986 American legal romantic comedy thriller film directed by Ivan Reitman, written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. from a story by Reitman and the screenwriters, and starring Robert Redford, Debra Winger, and Daryl Hannah.
Final Analysis is a 1992 American neo-noir erotic thriller film directed by Phil Joanou and written by Wesley Strick from a concept by forensic psychiatrist Robert H. Berger. It stars Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Uma Thurman, Eric Roberts, Keith David, and Paul Guilfoyle. The executive producers were Gere and Maggie Wilde. The film received mixed critical reviews, but was positively compared to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, particularly Vertigo. It was the final film of director of photography Jordan Cronenweth.
Burglar is a 1987 heist comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson and distributed by Warner Bros.. The film stars Whoopi Goldberg and Bobcat Goldthwait.
Death Sentence is a 2007 American vigilante action thriller film directed by James Wan and starring Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a man who takes the law into his own hands after his son is murdered by a gang member as an initiation ritual; Hume must then protect his family from the gang's resulting vengeance. The film is loosely based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Brian Garfield; although the novel is a sequel to Garfield's Death Wish, the film is unconnected to the previous Death Wish film series.
Kiss or Kill is a 1997 Australian thriller film about two lovers and fugitives from the law who are pursued across the Australian Outback. The film was written and directed by Bill Bennett, and stars Frances O'Connor and Matt Day.
Law Abiding Citizen is a 2009 American vigilante action thriller film directed by F. Gary Gray, written by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. The film takes place in Philadelphia, telling the story of a man driven to seek justice while targeting not only his family's killer but also those who have supported a corrupt criminal justice system, intending to assassinate anyone supporting the system. Law Abiding Citizen was filmed on location in Philadelphia, and released theatrically by Overture Films in North America on October 16, 2009.
Faster is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by George Tillman Jr. The film stars Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Carla Gugino, Maggie Grace, Moon Bloodgood, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Tom Berenger.
Killers Anonymous is a 2019 American crime thriller film, directed by Martin Owen, from a screenplay by Owen, Elizabeth Morris and Seth Johnson. It stars Tommy Flanagan, Rhyon Nicole Brown, Jessica Alba, Gary Oldman, MyAnna Buring, Michael Socha, Tim McInnerny and Sam Hazeldine. It was released on June 28, 2019, by Lionsgate.
