Heaven's Prisoners (1996)

Dave Robicheaux (played by Alec Baldwin) is an ex cop who decides after one too many shootings on the force to open up a fishing tackle and bait shop on the Bayou with his wife Annie, played by Kelly Lynch. While they are out on their boat they witness a single engine plane spiralling down from the sky barely missing their boat before it crashes in to the water. Robicheaux dives in to the water down to the planes cockpit where he sees a small child trying to survive in an air pocket amongst a few dead people. With his air supply quickly diminishing in his scuba gear he rescues the child from a near death experience and with his wife Annie in agreement they agree to raise the young girl as their own even though she does not speak a word of English.A Detective Minos Dautrieve, played by Vondie Curtis-Hall drops by the bait shop inquiring in to how many passengers Robicheaux witnessed on the sunken plane when it initially submerged in the water and he tells Robicheaux to forget about the big guy with the whale tattoo who floated to the waters surface. This gets Robichaux's curiosity up and he starts making inquiries that a few local criminals want him to stop inquiring about. One of these criminals is a guy named Bubba Rocque played very well by Eric Roberts who answers to some bosses higher up the criminal food chain. Bubba's wife Claudette, played by Teri Hatcher is a bit of a tramp who likes to sip cocktails most of the day and chase men.Eventually threats don't stop Robicheaux's inquiries and since he won't let up with his investigation, the mobsters decide to lay a beating on him to firmly tell him to stop his inquiries. Further threats are made and fulfilled as Robicheaux continues with his investigation with the quasi assistance of mobster Bubba's wife.The movie does run a bit long at around 132 minutes but I did not find the movies length composed with any filler time. There were twists and turns throughout, the bayou scenes were quite expansive and the acting was above par. Mary Stuart Masterson plays a stripper named Robin Gaddis who has a unique relationship with Alec Baldwin's character Dave Robicheaux which strengthens throughout the film. This is a good film for couples to watch together as it contains romance, heroism, action and suspense. Well worth the watch, and 132 minutes well spent!

Heaven's Prisoners (1996) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Former New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux is forced into retirement after accidentally killing three people. While all of this was going on Dave was also suffering from an alcohol problem, which nearly cost him his life. Two years after retirement he and his wife Annie (Kelly Lynch) move to the Bayou where they open up a bait shop and seem to be living the perfect life. One day while the couple are out on the Bayou a plane crashes nearby their boat. Dave grabs the scuba gear and goes to the sunken plane where he saves a young Mexican girl.Dave and Annie take the young girl to the hospital where they tell the officials that the child is there's and she was in a simple boating accident. The couple takes the young girl back to their place where they plan on raising her but one day Dave gets a visit from DEA officer. The officer informs Dave that the plane crash wasn't an accident but a murder plot, which Dave has messed up. For some unknown reason he goes to visit a former friend turned stripper (Mary Stuart Masterson) who in return leads him to another former friend turned gangster Bubba Rocque (Eric Roberts). Dave is also introduced to Bubba's former prostitute wife (Teri Hatcher) who seems to have plans outside of her husband's affairs. Not only this but we get another mob boss and three hit men all involved in this mystery, which must be solves by Dave so he can keep the child he rescued.Heaven's Prisoners is based on the novel by James Lee Burke and while I haven't read this I've heard it's a lot better than the actual movie. The film is an interesting mis-fire, which is so incredibly stupid that one will want to stick through the whole thing just to see how much dumber things can get. The plot is full of so many wholes it's really hard to know what the director or screenwriters were going for. At first it appears to be a political thriller and then we get a Charles Bronson wannabe side plot, which just adds to all the confusion. I mentioned a few of the characters involved in all of this but there are actually more that pop in and out of the movie.I knew the film was in a lot of trouble within the first ten minutes. After the plane crashes the couple leaves the accident with the child. Within minutes they are at the hospital where they tell everyone that this child is their daughter, although the kid doesn't speak a bit of English. The people in charge are stupid enough to buy all these excuses thrown at them but what I don't understand is why this couple would just take this girl. Perhaps had the screenplay shown them talking about it they could have convinced me but this doesn't happen. We go from a plane crash to them taking the child for no reason, which just leads to more mindless subplots.Alec Baldwin is an actor I've always enjoyed watching but this here has got to be the worst job in his career. This wannabe character drama is so badly acted by Baldwin that you can't help but laugh when the film is trying to make you feel sorry for him. We get a lot of scenes of him crying but It's so badly done we can't help but laugh. The tough guy cop attitude that Baldwin brings is also very laughable. Worst of all is that incredibly bad Southern accent, which goes in and out throughout the film. Eric Roberts gives a wonderful performance however and he's one of the few reasons to actually sit through this film. Teri Hatcher got a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress and I'm rather shocked she didn't win. Bad acting aside, her infamous full frontal nude scene is worth the price of a rental.Heaven's Prisoners is a very bad movie yet it thankfully gets laughable, which makes it easier to watch. Running over two hours the film certainly could have used some editing or a longer running time. There's just so many plot holes that I can't help but think the screenplay lost a few pages and the director simply forgot to film the scenes. Imagine reading a book yet only reading every other chapter. By the time you read the end of the book you'll have many unanswered questions and that's how the movie made me feel.

The character of Dave Robicheaux would have been a fascinating one to follow in follow-up features, which is what Alex Baldwin at one time had in mind. But to date, Heaven's Prisoners is the only one made. Having read the James Lee Burke novels, there were a tremendous opportunity to have seen the New Orleans underworld in a way that had both an eerie attraction and a noir aspect that could have translated into a very powerful set of features. There is still something there that could be tapped, because a setting in the Crescent City is a natural for this type of movie. Heaven's Prisoners just scratched the surface. It certainly helped having one of my favorite nasty guys playing Bubba Rocque, in Eric Roberts, and Teri Hatcher showing off her butterfly, pre-Desperate Housewives. But then, Burke's novels have some of the weirdest evil-doers twisting Robicheaus every which way and Prisoners had its share. Makes for a great show.

Stereotypical man-with-a-vengeance story set in the Mississippi delta. Ex-cop and ex-alcoholic Dave Robicheaux is witness to a plane crash, saves a kid from drowning and before he can say "Gin Ricky", gets involved in a largely obscure drug ring scheme. Heaven's Prisoners is a priceless example of pretty much everything that's annoying you (well, at least me) in mainstream US cinema. Like so many Hollywood action films, it celebrates core American values; that is, family values, abstinence, and doing yourself justice by shooting other people's encephalon out. It is clearly one of those intrinsically fraudulous stories where the whole plot is geared towards a vengeful killing spree, with the inciting incident being the murder, for no apparent reason, of the man's wife somewhere in mid-film (snore). The rest is accordingly shallow. Bubba Rocque, the film's bad boy character, is a pedantic and faggy Latino type straight from the gym. This ridiculous characterisation is only worsened by the fact that Eric Roberts's antics are at best a subliminal impersonation of Karl Lagerfeld gone gumbo. And the big boss man Didi Giancano is, how else could it be, a fat Italian mafioso who speaka no nonsense. The dialogues are as predictable as this year's flood, the pace lamer than a saltwater croc, and the intrigue just muddy waters. Fitting in with that picture, Heaven's Prisoners has inconsistencies and continuity goofs galore. A plane with drug smugglers goes down yet no-one, least something called "the police", seems to care except a (soloist and big-mouthed) FBI agent. After his wife gets murdered, Robicheaux drowns his sorrow in the bar owned by one of the killers (who, as we find out, were actually after him). Protagonists walk into other people's homes as if they were theirs, guys pull their guns in bars without so much as a glimpse by the patrons, men sweat their pants wet but the ladies are invariably spotless, all the joints in the area (a grand total of 2) run the same blues record etc etc. New Orleans could have made for a great atmospheric flick (as, for instance, Parker's depiction of Louisiana in Angel Heart) but it all remains sketchy here. Like the title, come to think of it. Bye-bye, blue Bayou.