Newsbreak (2000)

Too much running and not enough police work !

A thriller about some embezzling and corruption in some kind of city in California. Nothing special indeed. And yet the film centers on some journalists, as a profession, but also on one particular journalist, as a s***traker. It states their function is to bring truth to the knowledge of the public, and eventually of the FBI. To thicken the film that would sicken a little bit otherwise the main journalist is the elder son of the local judge and his younger brother is entering politics. In other words the scandal that is being chased after by the journalists compromises the judge directly and many other people in all city departments. At the very beginning one journalist is captured with a film of pictures he has just taken of blueprints that were supposed to be private. In other words he had just been on a spying mission. End of the game. Three of his friends will pick up the story and try to get to the bottom of it. They will manage to get some evidence but the press will refuse to publish the story. End of the game. Then they have to face the criminals and they start running and escaping from lethal attempts on their lives. They will run very well, very long and very hard. But you cannot do anything against fate, though the film cannot end like that. So a miracle happens and one corrupted person has managed to be touched by divine grace and repent. He then can arrive with the FBI. End of the game, a happy end for the journalists.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
August 11, 2007

actors' talent wasted

Cheap production values, hokey plotting & dialogue, and weak actor in the lead undercut efforts of a talented but poorly used supporting cast. April 23, 2007

A Gripping Thriller about uncovering the thuths

With his reckless and arrogant style of reporting, John McNamara (Michael Roocker) has made one too many enemies with the Metro Examiner. When a fellow reporter turns up missing, McNamara is thrust into a treacherous investigation that exposes a powerful force of citywide corruption led by the president of a construction company (Judge Reinhold) and involving his own father (Robert Culp) a judge with an impeccable reputation. But as he digs deeper, he follows a twisted road of lies and deception which leads him to a deadly game where someone wants to silence his investigation...forever November 28, 2002

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