Retro Film/Television Review: Split Images (1992)

The author of this review must admit somewhat embarrassing fact that he used to be (and sometimes still is) biased towards certain national cinema industries. For example, in 1980s I used to consider Australian movies superior to Hollywood. In this decade, I feel almost the same towards Canada and its booming film industry, both Anglophone and Francophone. I like Canadian movies because they almost always look different from Hollywood - and it doesn't matter whether they are made as an ambitious art films or commercial genre products. But, every now and then, I'm reminded that non Hollywood origin of a English- speaking film should never be the indicator of a movie's quality.

Such was the case with Split Images, 1992 television thriller made in Canada. The screenplay by Pete Hamill and Vera Appleyard is based on the novel by Elmore Leonard, whose fiction was used by numerous filmmakers in last few decades. The plot deals with an extremely rich man who had developed a rather strange and not very healthy hobby - he kills people and shoots their last moments on video. Of course, as is the case with such movies, he seems unstoppable in his murderous rampage until one pushy female reporter and one tough cop join forces in order to bring him down.

Perhaps the plot by Elmore Leonard, so useful to many film authors, was really promising. Perhaps something of that promise remained in the script. But the execution of those ideas was inept, with the director Sheldon Larry more eager to demonstrate new wonders of video technology than to tell a coherent story. The use of opera music in important scenes look even more irritating. The actors in this movie, on the other hand, seems generally disinterested in this project, and they mostly sleepwalk through their roles. Presence of such good actors like Nicholas Campbell and Maury Chaykin is almost unnoticeable. And so should be this film, condemned to well-deserved oblivion.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on September 17th 1999)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/328127-split-images
Critic: A