Kiss the Girls (1997)

Director:

Gary Fleder

Writers (WGA):

James Patterson (novel)
David Klass (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 October 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

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

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Serial Killer | Casanova | Kidnapping | Police

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

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	...	FBI 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)

MPAA:

Rated R for terror, violence and language.

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #34956) | South Korea:18 | Philippines:PG-13 | Netherlands:12 (TV version) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Belgium:KNT | Brazil:14 | Chile:18 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Bell Tower, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The overhead shot of a football stadium that many may think of as Durham, North Carolina is actually Chapel Hill, NC. The football stadium you see is Kenan Stadium, home of The University of North Carolina Tar Heels. What makes this even more recognizable is just North of the stadium is the famed Bell Tower and Wilson Library dome. The next shot you see is the Duke Chapel Tower on the campus of Duke University in Durham.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: 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.

Quotes:

Casanova: Face it Will, I'm your mentor. And you're the bad seed.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Anatomy of a 'Homicide: Life on the Street' (1998) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Now You Do

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