A good cast, James Woods in particular, and an intriguing premise were the main reasons for seeing 'Best Seller'. Seeing it a few days ago, 'Best Seller' turned out to be a good film with many great things with a few elements that bring it down somewhat.Woods himself is the film's best asset. Everything about him in 'Best Seller' is just mesmerising to watch, he epitomises cool, charisma and intensity. Brian Dennehy is dependably solid as rocks, a great performance that is more than up to Woods' level. Another reason why 'Best Seller' works as well as it does is the chemistry between Dennehy and Woods, which is electric. Paul Shenar has somewhat of a standard role but he brings an intimidating unscrupulousness that makes him effective in it. Victoria Tennant is good.'Best Seller' has a stylish and gritty visual look that makes it aesthetically pleasing. Larry Cohen takes a break from the quirky horror that he is better known for and shows that he is just as deft in thriller with a witty, intelligent and sharply observed script. John Flynn directs with the right amount of tension, keeping things at a brisk pace, not losing the effectiveness of the visual style and is pretty nifty with the action. The action is not tame, pretty hard-edged actually, neither is it gratuitous.For all 'Best Seller's' excellent things, there are short-comings. The music score is tacky and is stylistically at odds with the film. For a film that did such a good job with its atmosphere, 'Best Seller' was deserving of a much better ending than the rushed and too pat and safe one here.While a vast majority of the cast are fine, there is one exception...that exception is a rather annoying Alison Balson.Overall, a good film that sells well. 7/10 Bethany Cox

What would you do if a self-proclaimed hit man came to you and demanded you write an expose on his former employer? If you're like Brian Dennehy's Officer Dennis Meacham, naturally you would be suspicious of these claims. In this underrated action thriller, the unlikely partnership of Dennehy's Meacham to James Woods' brutal former hit man Cleve provides an unusual take on the traditional "buddy cop" film. Woods' performance as the brash, snarky and revenge-seeking Cleve contrasts with the methodical and ethical performance of Brian Dennehy as Dennis Meacham, keeping the polar opposite cliché of past buddy cop movies intact. However as the film carries on, the dynamics of the partnership between Meacham and Cleve begins to form a strange, almost symbiotic bond between the two men. Meacham still does not approve of Cleve's lethal tactics, but respects the necessity for offing the dangers that shadow them. The majority of the film's entertainment value belongs to the dynamic performance of James Woods, as he steals the scene in nearly film he is a part of. As Cleve, Woods mixes brutal unflinching violence with his trademark charm and sarcastic wit, but he does not make Cleve one dimensional instead he endows the hit man with emotion, an ability to reach out and attempt to connect with the cop he shot at years earlier. Cleve's most prime example of human emotion features prominently in the film's final act as Meacham and Cleve confront Cleve's former boss and Cleve has to choose whether to risk an innocent life or his own. His ultimate sacrifice in the end shows the former killer as a hero who does get the redemption he seeks; saving the innocent daughter of Meacham while giving up his own life.The story itself is pretty generic for an '80s thriller with shootouts and a bit of a body count. However there is enough humor thrown in to get the viewer to connect with the characters and if you're an action fan, the chase scenes and the gun battles will keep you in the game. So give this movie a shot if you want something different instead of your run of the mill action thriller.

Writer Larry Cohen concocts this interesting, entertaining movie that mainly hinges on the often antagonistic relationship between two strong personalities. Brian Dennehy stars as Dennis Meechum, a cop who also writes books based on true crime stories, who is approached by Cleve (James Woods), a professional hit-man for an unscrupulous businessman, David Madlock (Paul Shenar). The hit-man feels inadequately compensated for his years of service, and is now an incredibly disgruntled ex-employee, enough to approach the cop / author to propose writing a book that reveals all the ugly details of the businessman's rise to the top. Capably directed by action specialist John Flynn ("Rolling Thunder", "Lock Up", "Out for Justice"), "Best Seller" tells a pretty good story in slick enough fashion, with some effective moments of very nasty violence. It also has very strong subtext about portraying a dark side to capitalism and corporations, as well as Cleve's own very dark version of The American Dream. It's well paced, with some potent scenes that establish what kind of man Cleve is. Yet, for a man who most of the time comes off as pure scum, he has definite intelligence and a real presence, and in the end does have a redemptive quality; it's the kind of role meant for an actor of Woods's abilities, and he plays it for all it's worth. But Dennehy is equally his match as the dedicated cop both disgusted with and intrigued by his new associate. Appealing Allison Balson plays Dennis's daughter, although supporting players Shenar and Victoria Tennant ultimately end up with not that much to do, and Shenar's character is not what you'd call subtle. Other fine players in the movie include George Coe, Anne Pitoniak, Mary Carver, Sully Boyar, Kathleen Lloyd, and Charles Tyner, with a too brief, uncredited appearance by Seymour Cassel as one of the bodyguards. Reasonably engrossing, with an ending that at least isn't 100% predictable, although some viewers may not find it terribly satisfying. But the interplay between two experienced and reliable movie stars makes it all worthwhile. Seven out of 10.

Since the loss of his wife to cancer, cop-turned-author Dennis Meechum has been struggling to even get passed a chapter of any new project. So when the shadowy Cleve approaches him with an offer, he at least listens. Cleve suggests that he has been a hit-man for years on behalf of a large corporation and wants to use the book to hit back at his former employers. Dennis is convinced after an attempt on Cleve's life and begins to spend time with Cleve to interview him and get material for the book, however the relationship is never an easy one.Kudos to the film for trying to have a talky character driven script at its core but sadly it never really works. The central character dynamic is interesting but never really convincing because I didn't feel that the characters had sufficient drawn between them to counter the repulsion (and using Dennis' debts was a lazy device in my opinion). This leaves the following relationship on a level that is never much better than "solid" although as such I did still find it engaging. Not as interesting as I would have liked though, which did somewhat take away from the tension at the end of the film because I didn't get the feeling that there was a head of steam built up. The action sections also undermine it; they are not that well done but nor do they fit into the narrative that well and they just seem to be another force holding the film from being smarter than it was.The central performances don't really help much either, although they are both good enough to hold the interest. Woods occasionally suggests he will go deeper into his character but mostly he is happy with hit-man cool with a touch of twisted humanity in him. As per normal Dennehy gives a solid rock of a performance but never does anything that remarkable or interesting with it. Small supporting roles for Tennant and Shenar don't really do much and the film is carried in the safe hands of the lead pair.Overall then a solid enough film that is distracting. Occasionally it seems to have the chance to do more but then it never really does, settling instead just for an average approach that is OK but nothing that memorable.