Charlie Sheen's career has had many highs and lows and back in the late 90s he found himself out of favour with Hollywood's elite. Before resurrecting his career on television he was only able to exploit his star power in direct-to-video releases. In an effort to be taken more seriously, Sheen tried formalising his name for films such as Postmortem. Nobody noticed. Directed by Albert Pyun, the serial killer thriller was arguably a career low. Sheen plays a borderline alcoholic ex-cop drawn back into the field of serial killer profiling when a girl is found dead. Although this sounds fairly standard, the film's location is unique. Postmortem was made in Scotland! The sight of Charlie Sheen wandering around bars in Glasgow is pretty surreal. Featuring a supporting cast of local talent and various unknowns, what Postmortem lacks in Hollywood production qualities (it's cheaper looking than an episode of Taggart) it at least makes up for in curiosity value.

Albert Pyun's directing seems to be improving with age. This is a perfectly respectable thriller, a movie that you would hesitate to call "inept" in any way - unless of course you're a personal enemy of Pyun's. However, it's also a bit too long and sluggish, and not as exciting as it should be. It jumps to life only occasionally (mainly in the chase scenes). Charlie Sheen is not very convincing as a boozing, worn-out, depressed yet brilliant writer/ex-detective; he's both too young and too clean-cut for such a role. (*1/2)

If you don't expect too much from a serial killer thriller, this movie is nice entertainment. Directed by Albert Pyun, better known for trashy made science fiction/action/martial arts movies, it introduces a disillusioned and alcohol-addicted U.S. cop (played by ex-star Charlie Sheen) to a series of brutal girl murders in the Scottish countryside. The film is nothing special, just a cop losing his mind, being suspected of being the murderer, and finally tracking down the real killer and saving the last victim from its fate. The setting is outstanding, with the dark architecture of Scottish cities and the sinister atmosphere of Hammer-Horror-like countryside. Sit back and be thrilled for 105 minutes of nice serial killer entertainment!

This was a nice try at doing something different from the typical American serial killer flick but unfortunately it ended up being only the setting that changed. Its a pity that in true Hollywood tradition an American had to show the Scottish police how to solve the murder (yawn). Not only that but the makers of this drama had Scottish actors speaking in American idioms. This might go down well in the mid west but anyone from Scotland will probably squirm a few times.The acting is not too bad, but Sheen mumbles his lines and Ivana Milicevic's Scottish accent sometimes drifts into the mid Atlantic. Having said all that though I certainly enjoyed the film and was happy that in choice of actors and setting there had at least been an attempt to move away from the formula serial killer movie.