Mind Prey (1999)

The late Lawrence Sanders created one of the most interesting characters and series of novels with Archie McNally, the witty, erudite and completely engaging playboy-investigator for his father's prestigious Palm Beach law firm. After his death, these novels were undertaken by Vincent Lardo, who has maintained the character/series (in my opinion) even better than Mr. Sanders.Stuart Woods has created a character, Stone Barrington, a well-to-do New York City lawyer and ex-police officer, who troubleshoots the important cases for a major law firm where intrigue and danger are involved.However, John Sandford's Lucas Davenport is a character equal to, and perhaps even a bit more interesting than these other two handsome, urbane and competent investigators. The "Prey" novels are all superb, and amount to the best efforts in this genre, ever. Lucas spends a great deal of his time up to his ass in snow and ice in the north country, in Minneapolis and other parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, etc. And he's a bit "rougher" than the other two fellows, but perhaps even a bit smarter, and like them, well-to-do and probably the richest of the three.All three authors have developed these key characters (along with their main cohorts) so that you have the most vivid pictures of them in your mind. Being the most prolific of the three, you'll see a bit more of Lucas than Stone or Archie. However, with characters like these, you never tire of them, and look forward eagerly to their next appearances. Since my first readings of all three, I haven't failed once to get every new offering at retail/hardcover, as soon as available.But ---- whoever thought-up this presentation should seek counseling, not just from a U.S. shrink, but should visit a team in Vienna. Eriq LaSalle is an excellent actor. But his resemblance of the character, and his presentation of the role in this flick, is farther afield than: (a) Mickey Roonery as Rhett Butler; (b) Woody Allen as Huey Long; (c) George Hamilton as Malcolm X; (d) or even Yakov Smirnoff as Abraham Lincoln.I'm just surprised than John Sandford allowed this presentation to be completed in this fashion, and with this casting and portrayal of the character who is the most significant aspect of an outstanding, diversified writing career. I cannot help but believed he and/or his agent and attorney somehow signed an agreement with some fine print they failed to read thoroughly.Some aspects of the story were presented in "O.K." fashion -- however, this film has to get only 1*, for the total failure to present a lead character even vaguely resembling the actual.

I just saw this movie for the first time last night. I was very disappointed. The storyline seemed to be very close to the book, but whoever did the casting, has no idea of what Davenport, Weather, Sloan or anyone else are like. Eriq La Salle as Davenport? Not even close. I have been reading the prey books for years and am a huge fan, I have always had a mental picture of Lucas in my head and La Salle is just not it, he is a little to mild-mannered. I have always wanted someone to make a movie of the prey books,and I knew it would be hard to cast Lucas, but they could have done better than that. La Salle wasn't cool enough to play Davenport. And Davenport has always driven a Porsche! That's like his trademark! All in all, I wasn't impressed with the movie and I don't think Sanford would be either.

But as one of the many fans of John Sanford out there, this film is probably the worst casting job I'd ever seen! I will agree with another 'critic' that the roles of Sloan (Bill MacDonald) and Marie Roux (Jayne Eastwood) were well cast, very believable characters, but Eric LaSalle as Lucas and Nicole Ari Parker as Weather just did NOT fit!! And Lucas drives a Porsche...not a PONTIAC!!! And when did he start working for the 'Minnesota PD'???I realize that there has to be a LITTLE 'artistic license' when it comes to making a movie like this, but they need get the casting a little closer to looking like they are described in the book, and maybe get the plot a little closer also. I'll give this one three stars simply because it DID show a little of the darker side of Lucas, but overall, they missed it!!

If you are a fan of John Sandford's awesome Prey novels, you will NOT like this movie. Even though I don't consider myself a purist, Eric LaSalle has taken way too many liberties in adapting this great novel to suit his needs/wants. (I thought I saw him name somewhere as a Producer).If you haven't read any of Sandford's books, start now. Don't let the disappointment of this Hollywood-ized version lead you to believe that Sandford is just another hack.The only two characters in the TV movie that even closely resembled the picture I had in my mind's eye are Bill MacDonald as Detective Sloan and Jayne Eastwood as Police Chief Roux and their characters were barely developed to the point where I could like them as much as their parchment-dwelling counterparts.One of the reasons I like the characters in the novels is that they are real. LaSalle's Lucas Davenport is just another TV cop who is Superman - doing everything himself, surrounded by cops who would be lost without him.In case you hadn't noticed, I didn't like this movie. Within the first five minutes, I was tempted to turn it off. Then, I decided that I wanted to write this review, so I struggled through it for the sake of 'knowing what I was writing about.' If you are tempted to see this as a re-run, don't. Get the book. Better yet, get Rules Of Prey (the first of nine Lucas Davenport novels by Sandford thus far) and start the journey the right way. Hmph.