Realism-based films view life as either an accident of evolution or a gift of God, and death as the inescapable end of life, barring resurrection. In short, the following reviews assume that if a 10-point score defines a perfect movie, the one that best tells the real truth gets the highest score. Romance, the idea that love conquors all, is a cheap diversion from the truth that either death is victor and all is shifting sand, or God is victor and there will someday be a judgment. Romance, therefore, generally rates fewer points on the scale. Unless the romantic love reflects the transcendent love of God, it is a phoney device used solely for escape from facing the truth, a kind of mental masturbation.
Thrillers have even less worldview or values content than romances.
They are a form of sport, simply diversion from having to face the realities of life and death. Thriller elements are often powerful devices to compel our attention in realism films, of course. But when a film is simply a bus ride over a cliff, it has no more to teach us than a roller coaster ride, a baseball game, or a pulp fiction romance or detective novel. This is the context of the reviews that follow. Ray Liotta is good in the lead as a doctor using Jeckyl and Hyde experiments to solve his wife's murder, but otherwise there's hardly anything worth watching or new here.