Unstylistic homage to better noir films, or Old wine in new cheap bottle

Rating: 1/10 (19 April 2001)

This glossy, unimpressive film has a made-for-TV feel, and as such few viewers will probably be aware to look in the past for it's inspiration: Hitchcock's "Stagefright," with his typical falsely-accused hero on the run narrates his story which we believe until the end when it turns out to be false and he really is the murderer(sound familiar?); a nice twist on Hitch's own movies. Spacey's gnarled hand in the form of the devil's horns or evil eye, was used symbolically in "The Dark Past" with evil gangster William Holden being psychoanalysed by a hostage psychiatrist (sounds crazy but the film works). Holden's hand is paralysed in the same way to represent his evil id until the end. The gullible detective who believes Spacey's innocence foreshadows the film's twist-end since all we see is one long flashback. Like the "Bladerunner" scene of Ford instructing a computer enhancement of a photo (this had become such a cliche in detective films that they stopped using it) younger audiences will ooh and ahh over old wine in plastic bottles.