A first-rate detective story that never tries to exploit its situation for cheap thrills.
Along Came a Spider (2001)
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Reviews Counted:120
Fresh:38
Rotten:82
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: Derivative and contains too many implausible situations.
Theatrical Release:Apr 6, 2001 Wide
Box Office: $73,587,034
Synopsis: The redoubtable Morgan Freeman returns as Washington, DC police detective Alex Cross, the master profiler, in an exciting thriller based on James Patterson's novel, ALONG CAME A SPIDER. The film is... The redoubtable Morgan Freeman returns as Washington, DC police detective Alex Cross, the master profiler, in an exciting thriller based on James Patterson's novel, ALONG CAME A SPIDER. The film is actually a prequel to the box office blockbuster KISS THE GIRLS. Here, Cross is pursuing a brilliantly twisted kidnapper who's holding the daughter of a U.S. senator. When the kidnapper, Gary Soneji (the effectively sinister character actor, Michael Wincott), who had posed as a schoolteacher for two years before making his move, contacts Cross and taunts him, but makes no demands for money, Cross starts to piece together a psychological profile. With the help of a clever and beautiful Secret Service agent, Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), Cross begins his investigation of the bizarrely elaborate and ruthless crime. But as is usual with Patterson's work, just when Cross (and the audience) thinks everything is resolved, a stunning twist unfolds. Acclaimed director Lee Tamahori (THE EDGE, ONCE WERE WARRIORS) is adept at staging the action, including a tense chase through Union Station during rush hour, and Freeman's pensive presence lends an extra level of gravity to this darkly entertaining thriller. [More]
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, Penelope Ann Miller
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, Penelope Ann Miller, Michael Moriarty, Mika Boorem
Director: Lee Tamahori
Director: Lee Tamahori
Screenwriter: Marc Moss
Producer: David Brown, Joe Wizan
Studio: Paramount Pictures
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Reviews for Along Came a Spider
Just sort of slogs along with cable-movie competence, directed by Lee Tamahori without a sense of pace, or gathering suspense.
On some level, nearly every thriller asks viewers to suspend their disbelief. Along Came a Spider expects you to kick yours in the nuts, break both its legs, and not make hospital visits. You can't even send flowers.
A nail biter so meticulous in its plotting and so intoxicating in its marathon-like pacing that once it's over, you feel as psychologically taxed, yet emotionally relieved.
Potter doesn't resemble a Secret Service agent in any significant way, but so little in this movie rings true that it hardly matters.
Anyone with any knowledge of police procedure will have to start suspending disbelief in a big way.
The final twist is just plain dumb, and neither the performers nor the script's explanation of the characters' motivation have the panache to carry it off.
Where Kiss the Girls fell apart in the last ten minutes, Along Came a Spider unweaves in the entire third act.
Not only is it tedious and insipid ... but its very existence hinges upon a plot point so ludicrous, unexpected and ill conceived the movie probably makes sense if you see only the last eight minutes.
A mediocre widget stamped straight out of the mold of the popular police procedural, the kind featuring a master detective.
Along Came a Spider moves at a taut, well-metered pace, one that allows for scenes of psychological excavation.
A trick ending isn't enough to save Spider from a slow narrative death.
What this overly formulaic mystery never delivers is any insight into its characters or valid plot lines as to why they do what they do.
Sadly, it just falls apart under its own overbearing weight of irrationality.
Latest News for Along Came a Spider
April 26, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: Just What Moviegoers Want, Another Nic Cage Action Flick
For the fourth consecutive weekend, four or more new wide releases will cram into multiplexes trying to get at their piece of a dwindling box office pie. More...
February 02, 2006:
Director Lee Tamahori Charged With Solicitation
According to celeb-watching site TMZ.com, New Zealand-born director Lee Tamahori was arrested January 8 in Hollywood for solicitation of an undercover cop; furthermore, the... More...
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