With a poll coming up on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best movies of 1984,I decided to take a look at Warner Archive titles on Amazon Uk,and I spotted an overlooked Neo-Noir,which led to me getting ready to meet Mike.The plot:Receiving a phone call from her boyfriend Mike, Betty Parrish discovers that Mike has messed around with some local drug dealers,which leads to Parrish having to sort out a safe house for Mike.Finding himself penniless,Mike continues to secretly deal cocaine with his pal Pete.Nearing the completion of a big deal,Mike & Pete take advantage of their customers being temporarily disturbed,by secretly cutting one of the bags open,so that they can re-sell some of the coke.Thrilled about having stolen right under their clients nose,Mike gets set to spend some time with his girlfriend Parrish.As Parrish waits for her boyfriend to arrive,Mike discovers that he has been sniffed out.View on the film:Whilst the DVD sadly does not contain the (infamously) deleted footage,Warner Archive give the film a good transfer,with the presentation capturing the mix of film & video stock,and the added bonus of the trailer giving a tease as to what the movie could have been.Hacked to bits by the studio, (who replaced Joe Jackson's score with a shivering one from John Barry,and changed the original design for the plot to be played chronologically backwards) the ripped from the headlines (with the film being loosely based on the murder of a man involved in a drug cartel with 2 UCLA football players)screenplay by writer/director James Bridges still offers an easy-going mix of twenty somethings teen Drama and sun-set Neo- Noir.Bridges gives Parrish's love story light & fluffy notes which are counted by a disturbing normality to the coke epidemic about to take place,with Bridges showing Mike being unable to stop himself from going down a line filled with ruthless drug barons and two faced friends.Reuniting with James Bridges,the pretty Debra Winger does very well at showing Parrish lose her girlie innocence,thanks to Winger giving Parrish's romance with Mike a breezy atmosphere,which is hardened as Parrish discovers the secret life that Mike has been living.Whilst the flick was forced by the studio to sit on the shelf for a year,director James Bridges and cinematographer Reynaldo Villalobos stylish on location filming is able to still shine,due to Bridges & Vallalobos giving the movie a sunny appearance to match Parrish dream romance with Mike,which gradually sinks into a dark Neo-Noir world,as Parrish meets the people behind Mike's Murder.

This movie is a must-see solely because it tackles the very issue that plagues some couples, the blurring line between infatuation and love. At the first part of the film, Betty and Mike have a wonderful time together, playing tennis, flirting. But then reality hits both of them, the incapability of Mike to stay dormant and immobile affects what they feel for each other (if ever it was love). He flees to his drug-dealing self knowing that it is the only way to satisfy both his need to earn and his desire to stay "fluid" and unchained to the norms of the society. (e.g. stable job) Inspite of that, they stay in touch, he, promising her that they would see each other again. They do, but it was all in vain because all they did was drive around and bring him to a place where he can hide for awhile (because of his troubles with drug-dealing). In this way, it kept the movie fresh, unknown and mysterious, making us yearn for more of their brief encounters. The film, in its entirety, leaves the audience in a state of "longingness". It strives to make us wait for the last moment of impact wherein Mike and Betty meet again face-a-face. It also pushes us to ask the question, "Are they going to meet again?", "Is it worth it to see each other?". For those who haven't yet watched the film, go and see it, it's worth seeing.

Spoilers, if anyone cares!I really gave this movie a try. I heard only bad things about it and thought I'd give it a look to see for myself if it's that bad. Well, the critics were right. MIKE'S MURDER is dull. No, it's not just dull, it's beyond dull! Not since RAISE THE TITANIC have I seen such a boring movie (ironically, both films' scores were made by the great John Barry, who should have chosen his projects a little bit better!). I can't believe the script was greenlighted. There's nothing in it. Zip. Nada. Nothing! The first half of the movie, we basically see Debra Winger, single woman: she plays tennis; has sex with tennis instructor; drives around; listens to her answering machine; works; drives around some more. Then she hears that the tennis instruction called Mike was killed. She reluctantly tries to know why he was killed. So we see her driving around L.A. for what seems to be an endless amount of time. Eventually she goes to a mansion where Mike used to live. The owner of the mansion is played by Paul Winfield. She learns a few things about Mike. Then one night, after going to a performance art thingy, she returns home and the story suddenly becomes a claustrophobic hostage-like situation, with Mike's psychotic friend forces his way into her house because the killers who killed Mike are after him after he and Mike stole some drugs during an exchange. The friend eventually gets killed from inside Winger's house. End of story. That's it. WTF?!?!The people who wrote the script and grennlighted this project must have been high on drugs or something because there's nothing worthwhile in the entire film. Except for Paul Winfield, the acting from everyone else is terrible, including Winger, who seems to be completely bored out of her mind. The dialogue is painful to listen to. And the story is slooooow. Scenes of Debra Winger alone, talking on the phone for almost 5 minutes, with the camera on her face for almost that entire 5 minutes, do not make for compelling viewing. Things aren't made any better by the script's humongous improbabilities, like Winger being affected by his death. She didn't seem to care about him one bit. Or Winger going to see the apartment where Mike was killed. Sure. Or the whole videotaped moment Winger was shown, for no apparent reasons, by that male stripper at Winfield's house. Who was behind the video camera when the argument took place? Why did the person behind the camera kept on filming the argument or why didn't anyone around, like Winfield, ask the person to stop recording the moment? Or the flimsy plot point of when Mike's psychotic friend decides to go to Winger's place. Moments like this made my eyes roll. The film tried to be edgy and current but only ends up looking poky and trivial. For instance, the whole film is populated by characters who are obviously gay or bisexual but the producers were so afraid to deal with the subject that every time they showed some homoeroticism, they always showed some girls in bikinis or something else to detract the underlying subtext. If you're going to make a movie about a hustler, who does everything, including selling his body, don't fidget about it. But the worst thing about this ill-conceived project is Mike himself: the character is ugly and totally unappealing. It's impossible to care for the loser. And the actor who played him was terrible AND unappealing. If you're going to build a film around the unfortunate murder of a tragic character, make him interesting or worthwhile. In this case, when Mike is murdered, no one really cares!

Last night, Debra Winger spoke about this film at UCLA. The campus theatre that shows films to the general public was renamed the James Bridges Theatre in honor of the writer and director of Mike's Murder. Debra said that Bridges was an actor's director. The scene in the film where Debra's character checks her phone messages and we hear a voice say it's mom-that was Debra's real life mother Ruth-Debra didn't know she would hear that voice until the moment the scene was shot!That example really highlights the strength of the film, the acting. All of the performances are first-rate. I was touched by Debra's quiet strength in the face of some sad and even bizarre discoveries by her character about her dead lover. A very underrated film!