Spooked (2004)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Geoff Murphy

Writers:

Geoff Murphy (screenplay)
Ian Wishart (book)

Release Date:

3 February 2005 (New Zealand)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | Crime | Mystery

Tagline:

These people play by their own rules.

Plot:

A thriller loosely based on Ian Wishart's book The Paradise Conspiracy, about the mysterious death of a New Zealander who happened upon international banking records after purchasing a used computer.

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Cliff Curtis	...	Mort Whitman
Christopher Hobbs	...	Kevin Jones (as Chris Hobbs)
Andrea Kelland	...	Office Clearance Girl
Ian Mune	...	Dave Johnson
John Leigh	...	Jimmy Blick
Mark Ferguson	...	Bill Roberts
Greg Johnson	...	Jonah Levine
Kevin J. Wilson	...	Mike Taylor
Alison Bruce	...	Sheila Miller
Vincent Ward	...	Bill Thorpe
Raybon Kan	...	Lester Albright
Paul Barrett	...	George Drake
Geoff Murphy	...	Fred
Merata Mita	...	Fred's Wife
Miriama Smith	...	Ruby Elder

Runtime:

New Zealand:94 min

Country:

New Zealand

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

New Zealand:M

Filming Locations:

Auckland Central Business District, Auckland, New Zealand

Company:

Ora Digital

Trivia:

Inspired by the death of Paul White, who purchased some old Citibank computer hardware in June 1992 and was killed in unusual circumstances in September (as related in Ian Wishart's non-fiction bestseller "The Paradise Conspiracy").

a sad failure

All of the comments posted here are bang on the mark. I too went to see Spooked with high hopes and came away incredibly disappointed. I can't believe this screenplay received a greenlight, it reads like a rough draft. What is even worse is that Murphy was all over the media before the film's release lamenting on how difficult it is to obtain funding in this country. The staggering thing is that you can tell a reasonable amount of money has been spent on the film but that none of it makes any different, the film is still broken. A few things in particular irked me: the repeated and annoying cut aways to the jazz musician (a friend of Murphy's) and the reflection of the boom waving up and down in the TV screen in the shots taken at Silverscreen's Auckland headquarters. It was only in the action shots, during the scuffle on the staircase and the dramatic car crash that this movie flowed. That's testament to Murphy's grasp of action movie making, but the rest of Spooked is turgid. Quite possibly the worst NZ movie made in the last ten years.