Kiss the Girls (1997)

Police hunting for a serial killer are helped when a victim manages to escape for the first time.

Director:

Gary Fleder

Writers:

James Patterson (novel), David Klass (screenplay)

Stars:

Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Morgan Freeman	...	Dr. Alex Cross
Ashley Judd	...	Dr. Kate McTiernan
Cary Elwes	...	Det. Nick Ruskin
Alex McArthur	...	Det. Davey Sikes
Tony Goldwyn	...	Dr. William 'Will' Rudolph
Jay O. Sanders	...	Agent Kyle Craig
Bill Nunn	...	Det. John Sampson
Brian Cox	...	Chief Hatfield, Durham P.D.
Richard T. Jones	...	Seth Samuel
Roma Maffia	...	Dr. Ruocco
Jeremy Piven	...	Henry Castillo, LAPD
Gina Ravera	...	Naomi Cross
William Converse-Roberts	...	Dr. Wick Sachs
Helen Martin	...	Nana Cross
Tatyana Ali	...	Janell Cross (as Tatyana M. Ali)

Storyline

Alex Cross, a Washington D.C. cop and forensic psychologist learns that his niece who is going to college in North Carolina is missing. So he goes there and learns that the police think she's among the victims of someone who kidnaps young girls and holds them captive and kills them who dubs himself Cassanova after the great lover. Later Kate, one of his victims, escapes and tries to help Cross find his niece.

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Plot Keywords:

escape | police | north carolina | serial killer | detective | 

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Taglines:

A detective is searching for a deadly collector. His only hope is the woman who got away.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for terror, violence and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

3 October 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Beijos Que Matam

Filming Locations:

McClure Tunnel, Santa Monica, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£832,646 (UK) (6 March 1998)

Gross:

£3,042,980 (UK) (10 April 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Rysher Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At one point, Denzel Washington was to star, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, and Morgan Freeman was brought into the project.

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Goofs

Naomi's boyfriend mentions that the river in Durham offers good trout fishing. The Eno River (which runs through northern Durham) offers no trout as do no other piedmont NC rivers. To find trout you'd have to go to the NC mountains. I found this to be a particularly bothersome error considering that when he said it, one could still suspect that he might have something to do with the girls' abduction, and that his error might be a clue that Alex Cross would later use.

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Quotes

Alex Cross: Got something for you.
[shows Naomi a violin]
Alex Cross: Ta-da!
Naomi Cross: What happened to the strings?
Alex Cross: New strings for new music.
Naomi Cross: Thank you.

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Connections

Followed by Along Came a Spider (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Dimples"
By John Lee Hooker & James Bracken
Performed by John Lee Hooker
Courtesy of Vee-Jay Ltd. Partnership

User Reviews

Still better than average.

This movie is not among the best but still has more to offer than the average thriller. This is mostly due to its cast and fine thriller concept, that however doesn't always gets handled well.

Not all plot-lines get handled and wrapped up properly and the movie leaves some loose ends. The movie also picks some not so likely approaches with each story sometimes, which goes at the expensive of the credibility- and therefore also the tension of the movie.

It's a movie that had the potential of becoming a real dark and eerie thriller, I mean the concept of the movie would definitely allow this but the movie gets somewhere stuck between its successful and not so successful thriller moments.

Guess Morgan Freeman wanted to make another "Se7en" like thriller. Well, it's not completely fair to compare this movie to "Se7en" but because Morgan Freeman is in it and it's from about the same period, it's easy and tempting to do so. Also with some imagination the plots and approaches of both movies show some similarities. But unfortunately "Kiss the Girls" is nowhere in the same league as "Se7en" but fans of the genre will still find plenty to enjoy in this movie.

The movie features all of the right required thriller ingredients. So a psychopath, a cop trying to solve the case and of course a couple of plot twists. It also has all the right looks for a thriller. The movie has the right sort of dark undertone and handles some of its moments effectively.

The movie truly benefits from its cast. Morgan Freeman is an experienced actor and always good in these sort of roles. The movie also among other features; Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Bill Nunn, Brian Cox and Jeremy Piven.

A better than average thriller.

7/10

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