Very very weak. Zero suspense, and tracing thrugh a Kandinsky is like identifying fake Vermeers. teehee.
Acting was flimsy, the scene where she's training on the track in the rain while in jail is so funny. In fact the movie is hilarious. Which would be a fabulous complement if it was intended to be a comedy. It wasn't.

C

Very fun and it keeps you at the edge of your seat the whole time, Ashlee Judd was great in it too!

8/10 (B+)

I really liked it. It has no suspense, true. But the interesting plot, and twists kept me interested throughout so I was willing to overlook that. Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones are both great in their roles. I really like this movie.

B+

Bland.

C

8/10 (B+)

A solid and well-made thriller.

Generic, formula film but fun in a hokey way. Didn't Ashley look really beautiful in prison? They must have some great hairdressers there. Does everyone remember Jodie Foster was cast in this but had to bow out because she was pregnant? That would have been interesting. My grade: C+.

Like your average TV movie. C-

What a load of garbage!


*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I should say " warning, contains spoilers " and I will do so to appease the IMDb staff, but this review contains no more spoilers than the trailer for the film.

I am not a lawyer. I am not a professor of law. I am not even a law student, but I can certainly tell you that there are huge problems with this film, and I am not just talking about the "double jeapordy" law. If that was all that was wrong with the film then perhaps you can overlook it. But every frame, every inch of film carries more questions than answers. For one, is it really that easy to fake your own death and then start a normal life with millions of dollars in your bank account? Can you just change your name and then get a new birth certificate, drivers license, social insurance number and passport? Don't they require you to show some proof of ID before you become someone else? The answer is obviously yes. Could you imagine if it wasn't a requirement to do so? Anyone with credit problems could walk into the store that gives you new identities in the movies and ask for a new name. The conversation must go something like this:

Person wanting to change name: " Hi, I'd like to change my name. "

Name changing clerk: "Okay. Can I have your current name?"

Person wanting to change name: " No, I don't want to give you that. "

Name change clerk: " Okay, can I have your old SIN or your passport ID number or drivers license number? "

Person wanting to change name: " No not that either. I don't want you to know that stuff because I just framed my wife for the murder of me and if I give you that information it will come up that I am legally dead and then I would have problems collecting the 2 million dollar insurance claim that I have and that would mess up my plans. "

Name change clerk: " Okay, just sign right here please. ( she says with a valley girl tone and a glistening smile )"

So seeing as that is not the case in real life, then logic dictates that they would have to ask for some form of ID in order for the name change to be legal, and if that is the case then this movie is impossible right from the get go. Simon or Johnny or Nick or whatever his name is in the film is a successful business man and he therefore has to fill out tax forms and that means that he has to have a SIN and he probably travels so he has to have a passport. Wouldn't the authorities then wonder why his other ID was that of a dead man? You would think they would. That is just a hunch. But again, all this is heresay as you can overlook tiny errors like this if the film is redeemable. Sadly this one not only isn't redeemable, it down right stinks. And I mean it stinks badly.

As everyone has mentioned before, the trailer for this film gives it all away. Why should anyone even see this film when you know that she is convicted of a crime that she didn't commit, you know she goes to jail, you know she is hell bent on revenge, you know she is going to have a confrontation with her husband and do the talking killer thing explaining to him that she can't be convicted of the same crime twice and you know that a resemblance or an ersatz Samuel Gerard is going to chase her around the country only to finally be the only one that believes her story. I was honestly waiting for Newman to go fetch him a chocolate donut, the ones with the little sprinkles on top. Or for him to say " do you know that Devlin and McGregor made 7 and one half billion dollars last year? That company's a monster." Or for him to say.... well you get the idea. Tommy Lee Jones has the same everything that he did in the fugitive, only in here he is one dimensional and he is pathetically boring. His character had a chance to be interesting because they briefly gave him a background and then they inexplicably forgot about that background. To the makers of the film, Tommy's chance at character development goes no further than showing him in a bar sipping a shot of whiskey. Just because his eyes are black like a doll's eyes, it doesn't exempt you from interesting dialogue. Sometimes a dark and frustrated stare can work wonders in the right place, but not when I know nothing nor will I ever know anything about what makes Jones tick in here. And that is the scripts fault for being so incredibly shallow and thin. Actually thin is complimentary. This script was anorexic. I actually forget what Jones' name was in the film!

Double Jeapordy is the kind of film that has nothing going for it. When you have a film that can't even utilize Jones properly then you have problems. He is in the class of actors like ( IMHO ) Bill Paxton, Sam Elliot, Kevin Spacey, Michael Rappaport and Omar Epps, guys that can keep you interested in a bad film just by their mere presence. But not in this one. Jones can do nothing to make his character work and consequently there is nothing that can make this film work. I mean please, are you going to tell me that when you stuff someone into a coffin, you are going to keep them alive and just let them die over a period of what? seven or ten days? If you were so concerned with this person, why not kill them first and then stuff them into the coffin? This is just one of the tiny discrepancies in the film. And as a reviewer and as a reader of reviews, you know it is a bad sign when you start cutting up tiny things like this. This film is awful and the saddest thing is, it had so much potential to be a great film. It had a good director ( Beresford ) and two really good leads ( Jones and Judd ) and a good supporting role by a vastly under appreciated actress (Gish) who is basically window dressing, she is given nothing to do. The only reason this film opened strongly is because of Jones and my bet is when American Beauty is released North American wide on October 1st, it will bury this piece of garbage in the same cemetery that they found this script. This is truly an awful film that leaves a stench so bad that it may be right outside your window right now. Can you smell it? I know I sure can. 1/10

C+


I am stunned at the fact that this movie was a big hit in the States with good legs. I didn't find anything great about it at all. It wasn't bad, but everything about it was so...average.

It's not that thrilling or anything, but I just really liked it.

B+

I recall loving this movie when I saw it. I'm not really...sure why, I guess it just kind of spoke to me. It's generic, but it's exciting and Ashley Judd was really good in this (this was before she became pigeonholed into roles exactly like this one after Double Jeopardy became a $120M+ hit).

B+

Definitely liked this. The twists are what really make it and both Ashley and Tommy are great.

B+

B

I liked it too much.

dp

I watched this for the first time in years today. It's a highly enjoyable thriller, if incredibly predictable. There isn't much tension in it (I swear I remember being on the edge of my seat the entire running time as a teenager). It's elevated by good performances from Judd and Jones. Other than that it is incredibly entertaining but very by the numbers.

B

This is a great thriller. B+

This is the very definition of what a knockoff is. Much like the generals daughter of the same year. An extremely weak an predictable genre film elevated by the people involved. Jones is sleepwalking through the Gerard character and Judd does her kiss the girls role. Plot is absurd, but it's not terrible, but average down to the bone

C

I found The General's Daughter much superior to this.

Me too, but I still don't find it anything special. Film's like this is probably the reason thrillers are mostly non existent and not as bankable anymore.