I watched this last week on my new DVD player(Yahooo),beats video hands down. I'm a big fan of Tom Sizemore,Mary Elizabeth Mastriantonio and Forrest Whitaker. I was expecting a lot more from the movie and maybe my expections were too high!! It started out well with the attempted assasination on Bobby and his subsequent efforts to convince his bosses that he's clean and not on the take. I thought for a guy of his standing in the Mob his protestrations would be taken a little more seriously but no, no one believes him. Not even a sit down! I don't know, maybe I'm watching too much of the excellent Sopranos,but this smacked of lack of imagination or laziness on the filmmakers part. Then it's immediatly off to the witness protection programme, hence the imaginitive title?? Here we meet nice Steve played convincingly by Whitaker who's maybe a little too nice. We know he wants to help but he got more and more wholesome as the film progressed and I soon became irritated with Mr. Goody Two Shoes. Tom Sizemore was good but as the film progressed he looked as though he was just going through the motions.Mastriantonio tryed to give it here best but hysteria and melancholy are hard to portray in what was becoming a more and more soap opera style of film. Sizemore,after his pep talk with Whitaker,was just too quick too change his outlook and accept his new way of life. It seemed to me everybody wanted to wrap it up and pick up their paychecks. This might be unfair to the actors who did their best with a very dull script, lazy and unimaginative direction and a hokey ending,especially the son's decision not to posse outta Dodge at the earliest opportunity. You wouldn't have seen my heels for dust,especially as he had a crazy about him girlfriend and he's supposed to be 18. Did these guys ever hear of hormones? Good for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Review of Witness Protection
Witness Protection
(1999 TV Movie)
good acting, tedious,lacking suspense,predictable outcome
22 July 2003