Deadly Pursuits (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Félix Enríquez Alcalá

Writers (WGA):

Ted Pushinsky (story) &
Robert Kraft (story) ...

Release Date:

8 January 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A former stripper befriends a young man looking for his father, all the while trying to avoid a hitman for the mob, to whom she is deeply in debt. |

Plot Keywords:

Hairy Chest | Mobster | Lap Dancer | On The Run | Murder

Cast

Tori Spelling	...	Meredith
Patrick Muldoon	...	Tim Faulkner
Richard Belzer	...	Mariano
Mitchell Laurance	...	Daniel Faulkner
Reginald VelJohnson	...	Ed Conroy
Ed Grady	...	Albert Chartrain
Leigh Murray	...	Donna Faulkner
Brittany Pressley	...	Melanie Faulkner (as Brittany Brooke Pressley)
Mary Lucy Bivins	...	Eleanor Steadman
Helen Baldwin	...	Colleen Daniels
Robert C. Treveiler	...	Ford (as Robert Treveiler)
Andrew Porter	...	Paulie
Wayne Caparas	...	Zuno
Alex Van	...	Jeffcoat
Bo Parham	...	Harris

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | UK:12

Company:

The Königsberg Company

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Mariano is blasted into the water, he can then be briefly seen walking out of the lake.

Competent Production, No Surprises, Belzer Shines

While Tori Spelling calmly carries this pedestrian tv movie about a woman who befriends a son searching for his father (who may be involved with, as one character puts it, "very bad people"), Richard Belzer leaps out and steals it from under her oft-displayed abs. He plays the heavy in an understated, but nicely shaded, departure from his recurring role as a detective on what seems like dozens of different shows.

Of course, you had better be a fan of Ms. Spelling, or at least find something interesting about her, to be willing to sit through this. She does a better job than you might expect, but the glossy look, her out-of-character high-fashion outfits, and the clean, preppy surroundings kept at least this viewer half-expecting that Jason Priestley or Jennie Garth would pop in for a bite at that 90210 diner. They could have found someone more lively than Patrick Muldoon to play the son, but that would have have ruined the mid-90s reunion feel: the leads are all from other shows of that period, when Melrose Place, Family Matters, Homicide and the like ruled the airwaves.

For the observant: watch Ms. Spelling flail her arms while walking down the street to hail a cab. Now that's acting!