D.O.A. (1988)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Directors:

Annabel Jankel
Rocky Morton

Writers:

Charles Edward Pogue (story) and
Russell Rouse (story) ...

Release Date:

18 March 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Someone poisoned Dexter Cornell. He's got to find out who. He's got to find out why. He's got to find out now. In 24 hours, he'll be Dead On Arrival.

Plot:

Dexter Cornell, an English Professor becomes embroiled in a series of murders involving people around him...

Plot Keywords:

English Professor | Professor | Murder | Austin Texas | Remake

Cast

Dennis Quaid	...	Dexter Cornell
Meg Ryan	...	Sydney Fuller
Charlotte Rampling	...	Mrs. Fitzwaring
Daniel Stern	...	Hal Petersham
Jane Kaczmarek	...	Gail Cornell
Christopher Neame	...	Bernard
Robin Johnson	...	Cookie Fitzwaring
Robert Knepper	...	Nicholas Lang (as Rob Knepper)
Jay Patterson	...	Graham Corey
Brion James	...	Detective Ulmer
Jack Kehoe	...	Detective Brockton
Elizabeth Arlen	...	Elaine Wells
Karen Radcliffe	...	Jane Corey
William Forward	...	Chief Resident
Lee Gideon	...	Mr. Fitzwaring

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Bigelow Productions

Trivia:

Throughout the story, the color in the film begins to drain to monochrome, thus representing the central character's deteriorating health as the poison steadily takes it's toll (until it is in black and white as in the opening - presumably showing the flashback catching up to the current time-line of the story).

Goofs:

Continuity: Dexter suddenly gains glasses when he first asks Sydney to join him for a date.

Quotes:

Dexter Cornell: Is that the best your petty, prosaic little mind can come up with?
Detective Ulmer: It's a petty, prosaic little world, Mr. Cornell.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Best of Film Noir (1999) (V)

Soundtrack:

IF YOU SEE ME LAUGHING

Remake of a classic which just doesn't even come close to the required standard.

D.O.A has a good premise, borrowed from a 1950 film of the same name and a 1969 film entitled Color Me Dead. But beyond the premise it fails to develop into anything worthwhile. The script mistakes ludicrousness for cleverness; the directors peculiarly seem to think they're making a pop video rather than a film; and Dennis Quaid puts on a weird grin and raises his eyebrows maniacally as if he's auditioning as a Jack Nicholson impersonator. It's good for a laugh but, since that wasn't the original intention, it's hard to rate this as a worthwhile film.

English lecturer Dexter Cornell (Quaid) is a bitter, bored shell of a man. Formerly a great author, he never recovered from the critical failure of his fourth and final novel and vowed never to write again. Without the drive of writing to fill his life, he gave up on everything else too, including his marriage and his dedication to the job. When pupil Nick Lang (Rob Knepper) apparently commits suicide after handing in an assignment, Cornell hits the booze to get over the shock. But soon thereafter, he learns that he has drunk a slow-acting poison, and that within 48 hours he will be dead. So close to death, he finally finds a renewed purpose in being alive.... as, aided by student Sydney Fuller (Meg Ryan), he desperately attempts to solve his own "murder".

It's such a good idea that one can hardly imagine how it could fail. But it does. It really, really does fail in a big way. All the pointlessly fancy camera angles, all the inappropriate musical scoring, and especially the jaw-droppingly stupid solution to the mystery, conspire to ruin the film. D.O.A stands for "Dead On Arrival", and that's the perfect adjectival phrase for the entire film. Some day, this wonderful idea for a film might be used once again to better effect, but for now you'd be best advised to stick with the 1950 version.