First to Die (2003)

If you are a James Patterson fan you will probably not have a problem with the film; if you are more film and visual oriented, too many scenes will remind you of Hitchcock, and also "Basic Instinct"(even the soundtrack is exactly the same, and the initial camera angles over the San Francisco coast are TOO similar).Nicholas Jenks is possibly the narcissistic killer. Angie Everhart is surprisingly good as his wife.Tracy Pollan is not bad, trying a bit too hard; Megan Gallagher and Pam Grier are good, respectively, as the D.A. and County Medical Examiner. Carly Pope as a cub reporter is way over the top. Okay, they needed a younger cast member who could relate to the victims, but she is given way too much screen time. Also I seriously doubt that when there is a brutal homicide, a curious person can enter the hotel room, pretending to deliver flowers.Overall a little too contrived for audiences expecting more in this genre. 6/10

The word "1st" in the title has more ominous meaning for the viewers of this film than for its crime victims. At least they don't have to stick around and watch this interminable film reach its own demise.1st should refer to: 1st draft of a script; 1st takes used in each performance in the final film; 1st edit in post production; etcetera, etcetera.The movie is not cast too badly, it's just that everything about the film come off as worse than third rate, from the goofy script, to the wooden performances. And while suffering through this cobbled together film, by the 2 hour mark you want to be put out of your misery. At 160 minutes long it is readily apparent that it should have been edited to under 2 hours.Going into details concerning the lame script and acting serves little purposes. Even in the equally awful, Lake Placid, at least the performances Bill Pullman and Bridget Fonda constructed out of an extremely weak script, were nuanced enough to make you laugh at the movie. In 1st to Die, one ends up grieving only for the time lost in waiting to see what happens after the opening scene of the preparation of the female lead's suicide.The editing is so bad one is never introduced to one of the main characters, who I think (were never quite told) is a D.A. She just appears in one scene in the middle of a conversation. Obviously the scene where she is introduced to the viewer was dropped on the editor's floor. And no one realized that a character appearing out of nowhere was an unusual film ploy.In a word, don't waste your time with this one. My wife and I wish we didn't. But at least we created our own diversions by commenting in various places in the film like it was Mystery Science Theater. "Meanwhile, in Cleveland . . . ." !!!!

Okay, so I thought this movie would be interesting despite that it was made for TV. But, my God I have not seen a worse movie! The fact that it was entirely predictable throughout the entire thing made it much worse. I thought I was going to watch a movie that had plot twisters. Wrong again.Another thing was the horrible acting! Now, I am a huge fan of Robert Patrick because of his work in the Terminator and the X-Files. But his performance greatly disappointed me. Along with another X-Files mate of his, Mitch Pileggi, who didn't do much better. Tracy Pollan definitely can pull of the not so ditzy but nevertheless dumb blonde.I was glad when the disgustingly abrupt ending came, the final words being from one of the "girls"."It must have been terrible." Yeah, it was terrible. Let me give you some advice. Don't waste 3 hours on this movie. It's not worth it.

Let me just start off by saying that this made for TV movie was quite well done. I have seen a few movies made from novels, and we all know what screenwriters and movie directors do to our favourite novels don't we? If first saw Patterson's "Kiss the Girls" way before I even knew that there was a book. I have always been a fan of murder/thriller/whodunnit type movies, and when that movie came out, I was totally captivated by its energy and story. However after I found out that "Kiss the Girls" was actually a novel written by James Patterson, I had to pick up a copy. I thank my ex-girlfriend for getting me hooked onto Mr. Patterson's writing, because I haven't been able to miss any of his books since. Moving on...So I read "Kiss the Girls" and was completely surprised by how entirely different, and more entertaining than the theatrical movie was. Although I loved the movie, it just didn't draw me in like the book did afterwards. So by the time "Along Came a Spider" arrived in the movie theaters, I had already read it's novel counterpart. Again I was entertained, and still enjoy the movie from time to time, but I did not get the great indepth experience as I did with James Patterson's works of art.After reading "1st to Die" and "2nd Chance" before the TV movie came out, I couldn't wait till the movie with Markie Post hit the TV channels. Markie Post? Queen Latifah? Were they really suggested to play the roles of Lindsey Boxer and Claire Washburn? Yup... according to the IMDB, but when the previews came out of "1st to Die", sure enough the casting information had been wrong. From start to finish I found that the TV addaptation was quite well done. However there were quite a few rushed scenes, I felt that overall, this was the best attempt at bringing a Patterson book to the screen.The characters were well played, except that I felt Jill Burnhardt's name was only mentioned once, and when she made her first appearance on the screen, no one knew who the hell she was. At first I thought that she was another female cop thrown into the mess, but once she made a few more appearances, with no one even saying "hey Jill" I kinda figured that she was Seattle's(San Fran's) deputy DA. Thanks for letting the audience know that. Then there was Cindy. I think that she was thrown in just like Jill was, to keep the Murder Club true to the book.The relationship between the four women didn't seem as solid as it did in the novel, and like I said before, a lot of the meetings with them felt rushed like it didn't belong in the movie. Also Cindy (yes I know that she is a reporter) pops up everywhere like she's a freaking psychic. Also with Chris Raleigh, it never states in the movie that he's seperated and has children, but on his tombstone it says "beloved father and husband". With this little tidbit left out, as well as no mention of Lindsey's important father, one goes to wonder how or even if they'll make a "2nd Chance."Pam Grier plays a convincing Claire, as well as Tracy Polly playing Lindsey, but the best performance in the entire movie was done by Robert Patrick. He's always been a great 'evil' looking character. In the end... "1st to Die" moved along quite well, and did stick fairly pure to its novel counterpart. Some things were missing, and some things were rushed, but all in all I recommend a viewing by Patterson fans at least once in their life.