Traces of Red

Someone was mentioning not 2 days before I saw Traces of Red that he or was it she who keeps confusing James Belushi with someone else (I cannot remember for the life of me who it was). And whaddya know. A couple of days later, I am sitting at home flipping channels and this movie pops up and it was the only one playing, that I had not seen before. And it seemed to have a decent story line. But then most movies seem to have a decent story line when u press the “i” button on your Tata Sky remote (makes mental note - must evaluate that as a possible side career option. I am quite certain I can do it extremely well :D). Movies made in the late 80s / early 90s have this really weird feeling about it right? And I have kind of come to the conclusion that it is totally due to the entire fashion disaster that this period actually was. I mean who really invented baggy pants must be rolling in his grave as of now and if not then I condemn him to roll in his grave :D – show of hands for how many people agree with me.

Anyways, moving on to the crappy movie that Andy Wolk – no prizes for guessing how many movies he has made and the reason for the number after he delivered Traces of Red. In parts, Traces of Red just seems like a soft porn movie. In fact it is just that – a soft porn detective flick where the lead role is of a police officer – Detective John Dobson (James Belushi) and his partner Detective Steve Frayn (Tony Goldwyn) are like 2 sides of a coin. Different but yet the best of friends. The latter is married and settled down with sort of hot wife who is willing to have sex with him in the patio of his house (now how many wives would you know who do that?). Which would kind of explain why he has been loyal to his wife – or has he? On the other hand, Dobson is this casanova of sorts who changes his women by the night if not the minute. Adding the element of mystery is Ellen Schofield (Lorraine Bracco) who is an extremely rich and influential woman and also promiscuous – a very lethal combination and Donson and Frayn are about to realize when they start investigating a series of murders that start plaguing the town. Is Schofield the killer or is it someone else?

Now I would not want to spoil the movie despite the fact that it is not the best made movies of all time. The element of mystery is definitely existent and kind of manages to keep you held to the screen. What is really bad is almost everything else. The acting is obnoxious and totally gets to you within a few minutes of starting. There is absolutely no semblance of direction or screenplay or dialogues or editing or anything else that one can associate with movie making. Thank goodness for the element of mystery else this 1992 flick would not have seen the light of the day for certain. That and of course the sleazy soft porn scenes are what would have got this movie a release. 3 on 10 is what I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUidYmbrl44