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Movies / On DVD / Slow Burn
Slow Burn

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Slow Burn (2007)

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Reviews Counted:33

Fresh:4

Rotten:29

Average Rating:3.7/10

Consensus: With wooden acting and hammy, overheated dialogue, Slow Burn isn't so much a noir as it is a mediocre parody of one.

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: In director/writer Wayne Beach's neo-noir thriller, SLOW BURN, various characters on both sides of the law collide in an unnamed city. District Attorney Ford Cole (Ray Liotta) is campaigning to... In director/writer Wayne Beach's neo-noir thriller, SLOW BURN, various characters on both sides of the law collide in an unnamed city. District Attorney Ford Cole (Ray Liotta) is campaigning to become mayor, but his assistant D.A. and lover, Nora Timmer (a sultry Jolene Blalock, best known for her stint on the STAR TREK series ENTERPRISE), finds herself implicated in the murder of a record-store employee (Mekhi Phifer), seriously jeopardizing her boss's bid. As evidence about the incident comes to light, other suspects surface, including the mysterious Luther Pinks (LL Cool J, born James Todd Smith), along with a determined reporter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), creating a complex web of deceit. Filmed in 2003 but not officially released until 2007, SLOW BURN may have best been showcased as a TV movie, but its considerable star power (Liotta, Smith, etc.) helps to elevate it above similar small-screen fare. Beach is a veteran screenwriter (with THE ART OF WAR and MURDER AT 1600, both starring Wesley Snipes, on his resume), Beach clearly knows how to set up a suspenseful mystery, and his impressive cast (which includes always-outstanding character actors Ejiofor and Bruce McGill) gamely follows his twists and turns. Although the movie is heavily indebted to THE USUAL SUSPECTS it stands on its own as a decent, if convoluted, crime drama. [More]

Starring: Ray Liotta, Jolene Blalock, LL Cool J, Taye Diggs

Starring: Ray Liotta, Jolene Blalock, LL Cool J, Taye Diggs, Chjwetel Ejiofor, Mekhi Phifer, Bruce McGill, Robert Reynolds, Guy Torry

Director: Wayne Beach

Director: Wayne Beach
Screenwriter: Wayne Beach
Producer: Sidney Kimmel, Fisher Stevens, Bonnie Timmermann
Composer: Jeff Rona
Studio: Lions Gate Films

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Reviews for Slow Burn

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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Shelved for over a year, this incompetent mystery thriller stops periodically so some character or other can deliver an expository speech and pull the plot back on track, but by the end the story has turned into a hair ball.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/03/07
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

A slow death.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
08/29/07
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze

The screenplay is riddled with so many problems, clichés, cheats, and borrowed ideas that the movie never takes off on a story level.

Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | comment Comment
07/24/07
David Cornelius
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com

Barely flickers as a far-fetched urban tale of chameleon-like characters.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
04/28/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

...the story is intriguing enough to hold our interest through all the film noir pretensions...

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
04/20/07
Jim Lane
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

When a movie has been sitting around since 2003, why wouldn't you just throw it at the DVD shelf rather than subjecting big-screen audiences to it?

Full Review Source: Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) | comment Comment
04/18/07
Linda Cook
Linda Cook
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

A strange, sprained, but sprightly fusion of The Usual Suspects and the Tragic Mulatto, Slow Burn wants badly to turn its standard neo-noir into a nuanced racial chiaroscuro.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
04/18/07
Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Entertainment Weekly

Easy to understand why Slow Burn sat on the shelf for four years, but harder to understand why it didn't go straight to DVD or Showtime late night.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
04/18/07
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

One wonders why Slow Burn wasn't just dumped completely.

Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies | comment Comment
04/17/07
Mark Dujsik
Mark Dujsik
Mark Reviews Movies

Slow Burn tries to be smolder, but ultimately there's no heat.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
04/17/07
Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece
Film Journal International

The theme of racial confusion that attempts to underlie this would-be noirish murder mystery becomes just one more unintentionally hilarious aspect...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
04/16/07
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Deficiencies aside, Slow Burn is almost worth seeing.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
04/16/07
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

If you have not figured out the identity of Luden by the finale, it will only be because you do not care.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
04/16/07
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press

The bigger problem is that for all the plot turns and reversals and flashes of action that Beach has structured into his film, there's an elusive extra something that's missing.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
04/16/07
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle

John Grisham meets The Usual Suspects by way of late-night Cinemax in this derivative thriller.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
04/16/07
Frank Scheck
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Writer-director Wayne Beach figures if you liked Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie’s big climactic reversal, you’ll love four of them in a row!

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
04/16/07
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson
L.A. Weekly

Nothing is what it seems -- unless it seems cheesy.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
04/16/07
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
New York Post

A lesson in how not to make a multiple-viewpoint mystery.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
04/16/07
Michelle Kung
Michelle Kung
Boston Globe

Its cavalcade of 'twists' in the last 20 minutes come off the conveyor belt so quickly and haphazardly that they all wind up in a big pile on the floor, waiting to be snorted at by incredulous viewers.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
04/16/07
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

It's not a brilliant movie. It's certainly not worth canceling any appointments to catch at the theater. But it's more than worth a quick look on cable, or even an impulsive rental.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
04/16/07
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Slow Burn

April 28, 2007: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
More...

April 15, 2007: Box Office Guru Wrapup: "Disturbia" Scares Up #1 Opening
Paramount replaced itself at the top of the North American box office chart as its new teen thriller "Disturbia" opened ahead of expectations in first place bumping... More...

April 12, 2007: Box Office Guru Preview: "Perfect Stranger" Heads A Crowded Field
This weekend Hollywood just doesn't know its limits. Six new releases will jam into an already crowded marketplace on Friday trying to connect with spring moviegoers. More...

April 12, 2007: Critical Consensus: "Hoax" Shines; Force Is With "ATHF"; "Disturbia" Mixed; "Pathfinder," "Stranger" Not Perfect; "Redline," Slow Burn" Not Screened
This week at the movies, we've got snoops ("Disturbia," starring Shia LaBeouf), temps ("Perfect Stranger," starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis), Mooninites... More...

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