D.O.A. (1988)

Like Body Heat before it, D.O.A. demonstrates why the noir thriller deserved to be brought back--if done well. This movie, inspired by the 1949 Edmund O'Brien version, begins powerfully. A man stumbles into a police station to report a murder: his own. Writer Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid), an unhappy English professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has been poisoned. He has 24 hours to unveil his killer. It's a complex plot of forgotten dreams, dysfunctional relationships, and primarily bitterness. But it's so effectively directed (by Max Headroom's Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton) and so powerfully acted, it draws its audience into its puzzling and dark, hopeless world. Meg Ryan, who teamed the previous year with her now-husband Quaid in Innerspace, demonstrates her range well. The year before she played a put-upon career woman, but here she is completely credible as sweetly youthful student Sydney Fuller, who has a crush on her professor and becomes embroiled in his tragedy, while falling in love. Other excellent performances include Rob Knepper as aspiring writer-student Nicholas Lang; Charlotte Rampling as Lang's creepy, powerful mother; Jane Kaczmarek as Cornell's ex-wife, and Wonder Years voice Daniel Stern as an ambitious fellow teacher. --N.F. Mendoza Amazon.com

Interesting remake

If you haven't seen the original version you will enjoy this one. The original one has better atmosphere but this one is not to be ignored. It has a good pace and keeps the viewer interested. February 17, 2007

NOT AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL

This is a remake of the 1949 movie of the same name that was superior in every way. It goes for a Hitchcockian style of mystery but the directors are not nearly as skilled. It does have a fairly fast pace to it which lifts it to a three star rating however.

The always likable Dennis Quaid is Dexter Cornell, an English Professor and author who is generally a beaten down wretch of a man. He's a borderline alcoholic, his wife is leaving him and one of his students apparently commits suicide by jumping from a window. He drinks himself into a stupor and when he feels especially terrible he learns that somehow he had been poisoned and has only 24 hours(give or take) to live and find out who poisoned him. He enlists the aid of one of his students, Sydney Fuller (Meg Ryan). Enlists isn't the right word. He puts superglue on his hand and grabs her wrist, locking them together. I guess the handcuffs of the original was a bit too mundane.

I like Dennis Quaid but found his portrayal just to be way too melodramatic in this film, far moreso than Edmund O'Brien's in the original. And Meg Ryan just comes off as ditzy and a little too old to be playing a college student. I know she has that young, fresh face but she was 27 at the time of this film and it strained credibility. Add to that this film has a very annoying musical score througout that seems wildy inappropriate for this type of film.

Some good things are the style in which it was filmed. There's some interesting angles and subtle things going on that makes it a cut above average. Not bad but not great. June 1, 2005

excellent film

This film rocks! it has a great story,great acting and a cool tone. Im not a fan of films that tell you how it ends at the start,but this is a sly @ stylish exception.It has fine camera work and direction.quaid and ryan are dynamite. April 18, 2004

not exactly hitch

Although I liked this film, it's probably because I was an early teen when I saw Quaid and Ryan together in Inner Space. This remake is NOT directed well; it's perhaps the sloppiest directing job I've ever seen. Chemistry is nice between Quaid and Ryan again, but it kind of creeps you out that there's supposed to be an age difference here (I really don't agree that Meg is convincing as a 19-22 year old), and Stern is as menacing here as he is in Home Alone. The script is fairly predictable even if you haven't seen the original, and in general the point of this movie was to showcase the two main stars, not to make a good remake of a good but weird old movie. July 26, 2003

A Parody of the Original

Unless you've seen the 1947 original, you can't appreciate this imitative parody. In the original film an ordinary man doing his ordinary job gets into a deadly situation. The original film is more credible in its events and characters. It may have been more believable to its audience.

This colorful version, whose everyday background contrasts with the original film, lacks the same credibility. While university professors may kill (Eichorn, Kaczynski), it is too much of a fantasy in this fictional example. Dennis Quaid has a little too much energy in him for a dying man.

One of the startling events in the original was to have the main character, the hero, die on screen. This was very unusual then, or now. This version could have been taken from MAD magazine. April 16, 2003

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