From: blake7@herahera.cc.bellcore.com (berardinelli,james)
Subject: REVIEW: KNIGHT MOVS
Reply-To: blake7@herahera.cc.bellcore.com (berardinelli,james)
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:39:46 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01719
Keywords: author=Berardinelli

				  KNIGHT MOVES
		       A film review by James Berardinelli
			Copyright 1993 James Berardinelli

Running Length:  1:51
Rated:  R (Language, violence, nudity)

Starring:  Christopher Lambert, Daniel Baldwin, Tom Skerritt, Diane Lane
Director:  Carl Schenkel
Producers:  Ziad el-Khoury and Jean Luc Defait
Screenplay:  Brad Mirman
Music:  Anne Dudley 
Released by Interstar

     Peter Sanderson (Christopher Lambert) is one the world's most
accomplished grandmasters of chess.  During the course of his latest
match, a victory at which would make him eligible to play for the
international title, someone decides to take the game one step further
and play it for real--with young female bodies representing the pieces.
Captain Frank Sedman (Tom Skerritt) and Detective Andy Wagner (Daniel
Baldwin) begin investigating the serial killings, and the trail leads
them to Sanderson.  Psychiatrist Kathy Sheppard (Diane Lane) is called
in to evaluate his sanity.  As the killings continue, the police must
decide whether Sanderson is the killer, or merely a pawn in someone
else's game.  

     KNIGHT MOVES is a walking cliche.  Plot elements have been borrowed
from almost every mystery and thriller since the genre was invented.
Red herrings, stupid characters, and false endings abound.  In all
one-hundred and eleven minutes, there is not a single original idea.
This complete bankruptcy of innovation leads to a movie-going
experience that is not only uninvolving, but somewhat tedious.

     One of the most annoying things that can happen in a
mystery/thriller is for the audience to be able to figure out puzzles
before the characters do.  This happens regularly in KNIGHT MOVES.
Each of the four main characters is given ample opportunity to commit a
number of inexplicably stupid mistakes.  With a police force headed by
idiots like Sedman and Wagner, it's no wonder so many people get killed
in their town.  They never even put a tail on their chief suspect.

     I don't enjoy movies that feature foolish people, and I like them
even less when those characters are one-dimensional.  Lambert's
Sanderson is cold and impassive.  He's supposed to be the protagonist,
but he inspires nothing more than apathy.  Baldwin's Wagner is so
belligerent that it's impossible not to find him offensive, and
Skerritt's Sedman isn't much better.  The only one who's remotely
likable is Diane Lane's Sheppard, and she's too often relegated to the
role of the impotent victim.  

     Another problem with KNIGHT MOVES is the atrocious dialogue.  It's
really bad--so bad, in fact, that it makes some of Madonna's lines in
BODY OF EVIDENCE sound believable, and that's difficult to do.  Someone
should clue writer Brad Mirman into how people really talk.  One scene
in particular, with Lane and Lambert on a beach, made me feel an acute
sense of embarrassment for the involved parties.  It was difficult to
keep from chuckling, and humor was definitely not the intention.

     The cinematography, which is credited to Dietrich Lohmann, is dark
and dreary.  Almost every scene, whether inside or out, is shot in dim
lighting, frequently making it difficult to identify characters or
their actions.  Lohmann was probably trying to establish a mood, but
for that to work, he needed a script worth making the attempt for.

     Did I guess the ending?  No, but a more apropos question might be
whether I cared.  The answer is the same.  By the time the tired climax
rolled around, I was more interested in which route to take on the
drive home than in how KNIGHT MOVES was going to be resolved.

     This film has not received national release, and such selective
distribution is usually indicative of a poor product.  Several large
metropolitan areas are being spared the indignity of having KNIGHT
MOVES use up theater screens.  If you're in one of those places,
consider yourself lucky.  If not, pretend that you are.  As far as this
film is concerned--to borrow a phrase from another game--the production
team has struck out.

                         Rating:  4.5 (D, *1/2)

- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)

Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews