The Poison Rose

Ignore the bad reviews. Solid performances all around. A bit predictable but If you enjoy old noir flicks this fits the bill. I was actual surprised I liked Travolta in this. He's so hit or miss but I enjoyed his performance as the grisled PI.

Don't normally review. But surprised that it's got so many negative reviews. It was quite enjoyable. Old fashioned with good acting from a fairly decent cast. Decent old fashioned storytelling.

This film tells the story of a private investigator who goes back to his hometown to investigate a case.

The story is actually quite engaging and suspenseful. The fear of the king of the small town is palpable. It is much better than the rating suggests. It's not that bad at all.

Starring an impressive cast including John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Famke Janssen, Brendan Fraser, and Robert Patrick. This want a be film noir tries too hard with its more wordy than usual voice over of John Travolta and the efforts to make this movie into some sort of Maltese Falcon (1941), The Long Goodbye (1973), China Town (1974), Fargo (1996), L. A. Confidential (1997), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), or Gone Baby Gone (2007). The script has too much thrown into the plot along with unconvincing gunfights. Instead a simplified script that allowed the actors to really shine would have been much better. Oddly enough Brendan Fraser, the Doc, gets the best character from which to show off his out of character star persona. The Poison Rose starts to show promise a third of the way in but then sort of collapses under its own weight to a more ambivalent but cliché ending. A more thoughtful script would have greater improved the movie and performances.

The film starts like a typical Chinatown syndrome. The locations r gorgeous with those plentiful awesome greenery all around. It has some violent shootout scenes but the best is Freeman's screen presence, Fraser's laughable body shape n Travolta's cool act.