This was the first version of DOA I saw. Mainly because cable beat it to death when I was a kid. I have since seen the original which was a straight up film noir mystery. About covering up the sale of stolen uranium. That is definitely a product of its time with atomic warfare on people's minds once the USSR stole how to make such a bomb. The story was going to need to be updated which it is but how ridiculous can it get?
Basically the plot is about a college student who all these women are in love with and his college assignment which is a 400 page novel every9ne except his professor read. The story instead of becoming more suspensful as the mystery unravels grows dull and very very boring and there is not much mystery either. In the original, the story becomes very involved following one plotline before it diverts at tue very end. This version wanders and focuses on someone else's death before reaching the big reveal in the end. Looking back, i think I watched this because Quaid played his character like he was offbeat funny. A drunken writer who lost his touch and never bothered to try and recover it. A common story of all creative people once they reach middle age and begin to doubt themselves after making some clunkers as life becomes more complicated with age. I like that the main character was someone more interesting than a notary with a love interest but the reason for his murder is no less trivial.
It is well acted and I imagine all the actors involved got a kick out of doing a film noir which got to be very common in the 80s. Several remakes like this and a few originals like Fatal Attraction and Grifters were popping up quite a bit. This era even produced the Chinatown sequel.
I suppose I just don't buy the plot or some college student generating so much interest without doing very much to prove it at that stage of his academic career. Why did who read the book bother reading it in the first place? That was too random and outlandlish to be believed. Why did this writer manage to have so many conveniently vital affairs to further the narrative? It tries to have a sort of Chinatown type plot twist in the middle. Maybe if the student's character were better developed it might be more interesting. Instead, the big surprise in the end doesn't make too much sense to me because it isn't believable.
Basically the plot is about a college student who all these women are in love with and his college assignment which is a 400 page novel every9ne except his professor read. The story instead of becoming more suspensful as the mystery unravels grows dull and very very boring and there is not much mystery either. In the original, the story becomes very involved following one plotline before it diverts at tue very end. This version wanders and focuses on someone else's death before reaching the big reveal in the end. Looking back, i think I watched this because Quaid played his character like he was offbeat funny. A drunken writer who lost his touch and never bothered to try and recover it. A common story of all creative people once they reach middle age and begin to doubt themselves after making some clunkers as life becomes more complicated with age. I like that the main character was someone more interesting than a notary with a love interest but the reason for his murder is no less trivial.
It is well acted and I imagine all the actors involved got a kick out of doing a film noir which got to be very common in the 80s. Several remakes like this and a few originals like Fatal Attraction and Grifters were popping up quite a bit. This era even produced the Chinatown sequel.
I suppose I just don't buy the plot or some college student generating so much interest without doing very much to prove it at that stage of his academic career. Why did who read the book bother reading it in the first place? That was too random and outlandlish to be believed. Why did this writer manage to have so many conveniently vital affairs to further the narrative? It tries to have a sort of Chinatown type plot twist in the middle. Maybe if the student's character were better developed it might be more interesting. Instead, the big surprise in the end doesn't make too much sense to me because it isn't believable.