Product Description

A young small-town reporter begins investigating a killer stalking victims making videotapes. When she becomes a target and suddenly disappears the case attracts a colleague from the nationally syndicated show america crime. Together with her camerman and producer he tries to solve the mysterious case. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/06/2007 Starring: Anna Sciorra Kip Purdue Run time: 94 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97594 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2005-02-08
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Customer Reviews

Not your average thriller
This movie has been royally panned by most of the reviewers. It is not the sort of movie that appeals to the average person looking for a slasher film or murder mystery. It will not appeal to someone who looks for a simple linear development and pat ending. The people reviewing it were most likely looking for that kind of movie, and did not get what they anticipated. So it makes sense they would be dissatisfied.

I am not a fan of your traditional action style slasher flicks. I will confess that I picked it up because I wanted to gawk at Rachael Leigh Cook. However, I found it to be very interesting. It is an amalgum--a parody of the sleazy(typical)television reporting we get today as well as a murder mystery/horror film.

One reviewer comments that you couldn't recognize Cary Elwes for all the make up. I must say that is one of the major things I loved about the film. Throughout the film I was especially impressed with the actor portraying the British television personality. It must have been close to the end of the film that I wondered when Cary Elwes was going to show up. I was floored when it dawned on me that Elwes was the British journalist. His quirky, against-type performance was outstanding. In Hollywood lore the quickest way to an Oscar is playing against type

On a visceral level there were times when I was a little frightened. But what got me was the various themes presented that provided food for thought. There were parts of the film that were confusing and the ending did not let you see the killer, but tying all the strings together is not something I require in a movie or novel.

I am more than pleased that the divine Miss Cook led me to a thoughtful, off-beat viewing experience.

"American Crime" Is Criminally Bad (Sometimes The Simple Pun Is Adequately Descriptive)
In theory, there is an entertaining, and perhaps campy, satiric crime drama buried in "American Crime." At a very minimum, the film setup leaves you expecting a clever narrative device. This would, at least, have distinguished the film from the thousands of other movies that go directly to DVD. But any cleverness is soon forgotten in this blustery, overacted piece of nonsense. Too serious to be real "dumb" fun, too ridiculous to be taken as a straight thriller, and too silly to be seen as a media savvy satire--there really isn't much that works in "American Crime." It's a bit of a shame, too. With this cast and concept, a more focused screenplay and tighter direction could have made an effective little picture.

I thoroughly enjoyed the premise of "American Crime." Shot in the documentary style of "true crime" TV expose shows, the film tracks a possible serial killer. Seeing the film footage being reported on an actual TV program is a great idea and an interesting approach, you are lured into thinking that the film might really have a novel point of view. However, we soon step away from this concept and into "real life" scenarios. What is interesting, though, is that these scenes are also being filmed by characters within them. This movie, then, might have been unique had all the footage used been shot from a camera within the story (ALA the clever filmic technique of "The Blair Witch Project"). This seems to have been too much work, too, and any notions of the interesting narrative device enhancing the story are abandoned when regular camerawork soon takes over everything.

The story itself is a rather overheated bit of fluff. Rachael Leigh Cook, Kip Pardue and Annabella Sciorra play a local TV news crew on the track of a big story--a serial killer no one believes is real. Battling ineffective law enforcement and each other, they start to attract the attention of the killer. Cook becomes so freaked out that she may be targeted, she promptly abandons her job and life and moves away. In steps Cary Elwes as an "American Crime" correspondent to cover the story for national broadcast. Playing somewhat comically (which may or may not be intentional), these three spend the rest of the film seeking the truth and possibly putting themselves into harm's way. Seriously, several times I hoped the professional and intelligent combo of Scooby and Shaggy would help these morons investigate the crime more effectively. That's how silly it is!

Through it all, Elwes overacts (a common trait)--but, at least, it can be amusing at times. And I'll take my amusement where I can in this film. Like I said, the film seems to aspire to comment on the hypocrisy and complicity of TV programs in creating fame-seeking murderers--but the link is not well established (even though it's an easy target). So the film fails at satire, in addition to everything else. A silly disappointment that had the potential to be clever, but was too lazy to follow through with anything original. KGHarris, 02/07.

Ignore this review?
Normally I don't write reviews but after reading all the horrible reviews for this movie( the highest being only 3 stars), I feel I should express my opnion, perhaps? I watched this movie on StarMovies, and I really really enjoyed it.
It's true that the script was very weird and not put together properly, so at the end I couldn't really get what form the movie was in.. and it's also true that the film does not have a proper ending and is extremely unsatisfying in that department.
However, in some weird way, I enjoyed it immensly. It wasn't boring. Atleast, I didn't think it was. There was good suspense. The actors were not doing a bad job! they were perfectly good to me. It was different. That was what I liked about it most. It was not predictable, there was a nice mysterious atmosphere to it. Some cheesy but satisfying ideas.It might not have been a great movie, but I felt it was very entertaining! And it was scary! Isn't that all that matters? The choice of material for the "crime" was very interesting. the film was enough to make me terrified of flashing red lights on camcorders for a long time.'
And you might say that's just because I get scared easily. Or just that I don't know anything about movies and I'm by no means an expert. You'd be right, though.But I liked it, and if I need to be an expert to dislike this movie, then that means this movie isn't really as bad as it's made out to be. I'll just say this: either this movie really deserves different opinions, or I'm stupid and the movie sucked. If it's the latter, you should just ignore this review.
That's all, and a good day. >_<