{"id":5841,"date":"2008-11-08T11:43:54","date_gmt":"2008-11-08T18:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5841"},"modified":"2021-01-17T17:04:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T00:04:49","slug":"mikes-murder-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5841","title":{"rendered":"Mike&#8217;s Murder (1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You want to know everything? Well, believe me, you don&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Mikes-Murder-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Mikes-Murder-Poster-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Mikes-Murder-Poster-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Mikes-Murder-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/Mikes-Murder-Poster.jpg 493w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\n A bank teller (Debra Winger) investigates the murder of her lover (Mark Keyloun), a tennis coach turned petty drug dealer.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Amateur Sleuths<\/li>\n<li>Debra Winger Films<\/li>\n<li>Drug Dealers<\/li>\n<li>James Bridges Films<\/li>\n<li>Murder Mystery<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nWriter\/director <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0108745\/\">James Bridges<\/a> originally intended for <em>Mike&#8217;s Murder<\/em> to unfold in reverse chronological order (much like Christopher Nolan&#8217;s <em>Memento<\/em> would do to such critical acclaim 16 years later) but its nervous producers decided to recut it in a more conventional direction. Fortunately, the film &#8220;as is&#8221; remains an enjoyably edgy psychological thriller, one which effectively portrays the excitement &#8212; and potential danger &#8212; a mysterious new lover can bring to one&#8217;s life. Winger is excellent in an against-type role, making us believe that the somewhat introverted Betty would take the risks she does; we remain deeply engaged in her quest for answers to Mike&#8217;s murder, and fear for her safety. Mark Keyloun as her enigmatic lover is ultimately given too little screen time to make much of an impression (he&#8217;s killed off fairly quickly in the film, as indicated by its &#8220;spoiler&#8221; title), but the rest of the supporting cast is uniformly excellent &#8212; particularly Darrell Larson as Mike&#8217;s neurotic friend Pete, and caftan-wearing Paul Winfield as a gay music producer with (like many in the film) an enormous crush on Mike. <em>Mike&#8217;s Murder<\/em> qualifies as a genuine Sleeper &#8212; though it&#8217;s oddly not listed as such in Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Debra Winger as Betty<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-winger.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-winger.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5843\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Darrell Larson as Pete<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-larson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-larson.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5844\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Paul Winfield as Phillip<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-winfield.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-winfield.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5845\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Good use of authentic L.A. locales (such as the Venice canals, pictured below)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-los-angeles.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/mikes-murder-los-angeles.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5846\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but it&#8217;s recommended. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0087722\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1984\/03\/09\/movies\/film-mike-s-murder-with-debra-winger.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/mikes-murder\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You want to know everything? Well, believe me, you don&#8217;t.&#8221; Synopsis: A bank teller (Debra Winger) investigates the murder of her lover (Mark Keyloun), a tennis coach turned petty drug dealer. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Amateur Sleuths Debra Winger Films Drug Dealers James Bridges Films Murder Mystery Review: Writer\/director James Bridges originally intended for Mike&#8217;s Murder to unfold in reverse chronological order (much like Christopher Nolan&#8217;s Memento would do to such critical acclaim 16 years later) but its nervous&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5841\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5841"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63935,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841\/revisions\/63935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}