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Best Seller\u00a0 <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, some strong violence, nudity, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Flynn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Larry Cohen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Ferguson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred Murphy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 2, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Brian Dennehy, James Woods, Victoria Tennant, Paul Shenar, Allison Balson, George Coe, Anne Pitoniak, Kathleen Lloyd, Sully Boyar, Mary Carver, Charles Tyner.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4.2 million (US)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating:<\/strong> ***<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I am a big fan of both leads in Best Seller<\/strong>, a nifty thriller about a hitman who approaches a cop\/author about writing his story. The hitman is played by James Woods (Against All Odds) in a departure from his usual hyper-caffeinated crazy guy type. The cop\/author is played by Brian Dennehy (F\/X) and based loosely on Joseph Wambaugh, the LAPD cop who authored best sellers like The Onion Field and The Choirboys. They\u2019re great together in Best Seller. Unfortunately and inexplicably, it died a quick death at the box office. To this day, I still can\u2019t understand why more people didn\u2019t go to see it. It\u2019s a damn good movie!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Directed by John Flynn (Out for Justice), the story opens in 1972 with the daring robbery of a police evidence storage unit by three men wearing Richard Nixon masks. When it\u2019s over, three cops are dead and one is critically wounded but survives. The surviving cop Dennis Meechum (Dennehy) goes on to write a best seller about the crime. Fifteen years later, he\u2019s having trouble writing a new book. He\u2019s still on the force working a case that almost costs him his life if not for the intervention of a mysterious man in sunglasses who saves his life. The man turns out to be Cleve (Woods), a hitman who works for a shady corporation run by David Madlock (Shenar, Scarface), a seriously bad guy who did a lot of bad stuff to get where he is today. Cleve intends to bring him down by telling his story to Meechum. Naturally, Madlock can\u2019t have that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0As they travel around the country to the scenes of Cleve\u2019s crimes, Meechum struggles with his own ethics. As a cop, he should really be arresting Cleve instead of buddying around with him. As a writer, he wants to hear his story. He needs another successful book and this could be it. As the story progresses, we learn of a previous connection between the two men, one that complicates matters further for Meechum.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I\u2019ll admit that Best Seller <\/strong>isn\u2019t perfect. It has some pacing issues and a rather disappointing ending. I can\u2019t elaborate on the latter except to say a character does something extremely stupid. Even the writer Larry Cohen (Maniac Cop) called Flynn out on it. To its credit, Best Seller is genuinely compelling and, at times, exciting. Dennehy, one of the most likable actors I\u2019ve ever come across, delivers his usual solid performance as Meechum. He\u2019s tough but tender as shown by his relationship with his teenage daughter Holly (Balson, Little House on the Prairie). He\u2019s been raising her on his own since the death of wife. She\u2019s all he has which means her life will be put in jeopardy before movie\u2019s end. All political BS aside, Woods is a phenomenal actor. I\u2019ve liked him since I saw him in Against All Odds. He brings it down a notch to play a cold but charismatic killer. He\u2019s not as vile a character as one would expect. Best Seller<\/strong> co-stars Victoria Tennant (All of Me) as Meechum\u2019s agent Roberta. Her character really serves no purpose other than to be threatened by Woods\u2019 character in one scene.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0<\/strong>Cohen proves he\u2019s capable of writing something other than schlock horror movies like It\u2019s Alive and Q. His screenplay is gripping and reasonably intelligent. Flynn stages some great scenes like the one where our two heroes are nearly blown up in a taxi cab. It\u2019s a well-made movie that tries to give audiences something different than the usual nonsense served up at theaters. It never ceases to amaze me that people avoid original movies like Best Seller<\/strong> in favor of recycled garbage like Beverly Hills Cop II which made a ton of money that summer. This is a movie that still doesn\u2019t get the attention it deserves. It has its flaws, no doubt, but it\u2019s still better than a lot of what passes for movie entertainment these days. If for no other reason, see it for the two great performances by its leads.<\/p>\r\n Best Seller\u00a0 (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, some strong violence, nudity, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Flynn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Larry Cohen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Ferguson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred Murphy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 2, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Starring: Brian Dennehy, James Woods, Victoria Tennant, Paul Shenar, Allison Balson, George Coe, Anne Pitoniak, Kathleen Lloyd, Sully Boyar, Mary Carver, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Best-Seller-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Best-Seller-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C942&ssl=1\")
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