Exiled: A Law & Order Movie

source: Exiled

I'm a fan of Law & Order (the original series anyway). I too liked Chris Noth's character a lot, so I was happy to see this. Unfortunately it was a hackneyed script with uninspired trite dialogue. It's still worth watching for L&O fans, but it's basically just a long episode. (except without the "order" part - which is usually what I like as they explore legal issues. The writing was cheesy, the plot was definitely nothing new. The usual characters of mobs, junkie/strippers, defensive woman cop, insensitive cops, stereotypical/over the top pimp portrayals were all present. Recurring characters like Briscoe, the Lieutenant & Rey were unfortunately underused. I agree with others that it was sad to see Profacci taken down (esp. for something as silly as fertility issues)- but I did at least respect that they chose someone we'd seen over the years - not just introduce some new "red shirt" (ala Star Trek) character just for the movie - so that they could set him up to be the bad guy.

***SPOILERS*** Having been exiled to far off and low crime Staten Island for slugging, in front of TV cameras no less, a New York City councilman Det. Mike Logan, Chris Noth, has been dying to get back where the action is. Logan want's to be transferred back to his old precinct the 27th, the Two Seven in police lingo, in midtown and high crime ridden Manhattan. Finagling a murder victim found floating in New York Bay Logan makes it look like the victim was dropped, or deep sixth, off Statan Island to get on the case. Back in the good old Two Seven, on a temporary basis, Logan soon finds out that the murder victim was an exotic dancer and part-time hooker named Suzan Taylor, Nicole Ari Parker. Checking the dead hooker out Logan not only finds that Suzan was working for Mafia Godfather Don Giancarlo Uzielli, Tony Musante, young hot-headed and a bit obnoxious son Glanni, Costas Mandylor, at his strip joint "The Catwalk" but that she had a twin sister Georgeanne, also played by Miss. Parker. Det. Logan finds Georganne studying ballet at an uptown Harlem dance school. Tracking the late Suzan Parkers movements before her brutal murder Det. Logan together with his partner woman detective Frankie Silvera, Dana Eskelson, finds that she was last seen alive at this hotel run by young Galanni Uzielli. Det. Logan also tracks down Suzan's pimp Seymour "Kingston" Stckton, Ice-T, who was at the hotel the night that she was murdered! As both Det. Logan and Silvera follow up the leads from the murder scene it becomes apparent that Suzan's murder was either covered up or in fact committed by a police officer at the Two Seven! The crooked cop it turned out was in the pocket of the Uzielli Mob who had him planted in the Two Seven to keep them updated to what's going on there. It's then that Det. Logan realized that his being transferred back to the Two Seven wasn't the Nirvana, or fun and games, that he thought that it at first would be. Det. Logan is now in danger of breaching the never talked about, by policemen, "Blue Wall of Silence" in arresting someone whom he works with. A cop who that in fact was Det. Logan's partner before he was sent into exile to Statan Island! Made for TV movie version of the top TV crime series "Law and Order" with it's top stars, besides Chris Noth, Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston, as Det. Lennie Brisco and D.A Jack McCoy, making cameo appearances in the film. Nothing really that different from the series the film is based on but spicier language and a number of violent, that you'll never see on commercial TV, scenes. P.S There's also very prominent in the film the now gone forever two World Trade Center Towers that give you a chill, in knowing what happened to them on the morning of September 11, 2001, every time that they pop up in the movie.

To begin, apologies to fans of Chris Noth. He is and always will be the best junior detective to grace the original Law & Order series. That said, however, I can only call this film a disappointment. It may appeal to those viewers who are die-hard fans of Mr. Noth or seasons 1-5 of L & O, but as a longtime fan of the original show, I found this film rather flat. It came across as a showcase for Mike Logan, focusing on his desire to rejoin his old precinct, yet the ending ensured that Logan would never again be seen on L & O. The movie drove a stake into the hearts of those fans who wanted Mikey back, and was both cavalier and even cruel in its treatment of longtime characters. A junkie-prostitute was murdered and her body mutilated to prevent identification by the police. Logan used this homicide as a launching point to move back up the ranks after his demotion and exile (hence the clever title) to Staten Island following his punching out of an obnoxious city politician. He befriended the murdered girl's sister only to use her to help him rejoin homicide; he returned to his old stomping ground just to stomp on everyone's toes. Logan's confrontation with his old partner Briscoe was flat and pointless. Why on earth would Lennie stick his neck out when there wasn't a thing he could do for his former workmate? He was just a disgraced recovering alcoholic detective who had to start from the bottom up years ago, or had Mikey forgotten that? And the Van Buren hostility was lame, too; she and Logan often butted heads, but they also worked together to solve many crimes, and they at least seemed to mutually respect each other. Apparently, that was forgotten when this plot was written. As for McCoy, he didn't much like Logan but he worked with him the same as with any cop from the Manhattan area, but Mikey wasn't from there anymore and Jack owed him nothing. At least that was the feeling the movie gave, which seemed wrong, for McCoy wasn't a vicious or cold man; in fact, he was very passionate about his work but in Exiled he just seems icy and predatory. Rey Curtis was about blown off and Mikey treated him like he wanted to have a hosing-down contest with him to see who was the better man. Lennie laughed at an incredibly nasty joke about the deceased girl, which, given his own daughter was brutally murdered, seemed woefully tasteless and out of character. But then, no character was spared to make Logan look good. By the end of it, Profaci was revealed to be the perp for a truly contrived reason: FERTILITY TREATMENTS, which he couldn't afford on his cop's salary. (We all know that wanting those pesky kids leads to all manner of evils!) Poor Profaci had always been one of the most down-to-earth and professional cops from the original show, and to see him treated thus was heartbreaking. At the end of it all, Logan was left with nothing: no promotion, no girl, no friends except maybe for his current partner. It was an empty finish to a pointless movie that seemed only to serve as a finale---not a grand one, either---of Noth's L & O character. Maybe it was intended as a pilot but it didn't come across that way; it felt more like an end than a beginning. Exiled seemed like Noth's way of saying, "I am NOT Mike Logan anymore!", much in the same way Leonard Nimoy used to vehemently deny he was Mr. Spock after Star Trek was cancelled. In summary, this was a grim foray into the obsessive side of a character we used to admire but, by the end of this film, grew to dislike and even pity. We will most likely never watch it again.

My wife and I are rabid Law and Order fans, so when they reran this the other week on my day off, I was excited to see it for the first time. I think the series is generally as good as ever overall (some ups and downs), but I agree with several other reviewers here that the classic years were those with Chris Noth and Jill Hennessy. I have to say, having skipped it when it premiered, I really enjoyed the film. I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to see the familiar settings with a new pair of eyes (Noth's), to the point that I could forgive it some character inconsistencies (e.g., I had a hard time recognizing Lenny Briscoe). It also explained for me where Profaci went (other than over to the Sopranos). Some remarks on comments by other viewers: 1) The latina maid The numerous cast changes this series has undergone has given ample opportunity to show that cops don't like having to work with new partners. Logan didn't know there would be a spanish-speaking maid, and he didn't know Rey, so why would he bring him along? Also, I can't speak for New York, which I wouldn't be surprised to find has a realistic policy for dealing with multilingualism, but we must remember that the L&O franchise is overseen by Dick Wolf from Los Angeles. Here in Occupied Mexico, a shocking number of the non-latino minority (particularly cops) display what I can only describe as clueless pride in knowing NO spanish whatsoever. 2) Staten Island Having never been there, I can't speak to the endless disdain other New Yorkers express toward S.I. as a boring backwater. It's immaterial to the plot, however. From early on in the movie, it's made clear that the reason Logan is working petty crimes is that in his banishment, HE WAS NOT ASSIGNED TO HOMICIDE. 'Kay? If you are a huge Law & Order fan, I recommend catching this film when it comes around again. Otherwise, I don't know what your interest would be.

I quit watching "Law & Order" for awhile after they fired Noth, but this movie did not live up to my expectations. The character of Mike Logan may have been wild, but he was always by the book. Letting Miss Taylor get away with the murder of her sister was far too unbelievable, almost as unbelievable as Logan falling in love with her. While it was great to see Chris Noth back in the role he perfected from 1990 to 1995, this storyline really could have been better written. At least on the series Logan had redeeming qualities. In the movie, he bordered on obsessive compulsive with some sort of twin complex. Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt seemed to be in the movie only to show that yes, it was connected to the series in a way. It's infortunate that a movie viewer had to be a regular series viewer to get some of the nuances, since the series itself is now bottom-dwelling with "The X Files" and "NYPD Blue" for the "Weirdest Soap Opera of the Year" award. The movie had its plusses, with some of the well-used NBC guest stars such as Costas Mandylor and Ice-T (it was a wonder that Frank John Hughes didn't show up as well), but basically it was a cheap attempt to appease the L&O fans that screamed for justice after Noth's firing three years ago.

"Exiled" could be thought of as a vanity project for Chris Noth, who co-wrote the story and was present as Detective Mike Logan in almost every scene. The results are uneven and not up to the usual "Law & Order" standards, although this would have been an above-average crime drama 10 or more years ago. The story has a 'spur-of-the-moment' feel (the detectives fail to wear gloves when examining a bloody crime scene) which at times makes the film look like an old episode of "Hunter" or "T.J. Hooker". Dabney Coleman is almost wasted as Logan's boss, being barely a notch above the stereotypical antagonistic superior. Noth is wooden in some scenes, good in others (especially when his Mike Logan is with old colleagues). The denouement rings true, as Logan leaves his old precinct in sorrow after exposing a corrupt buddy (well played by John Fiore) and later sees the murder victim's sister (who he appeared to be romancing) for the last time . Noth the actor/storyteller, like Logan the cop, wasn't perfect, but ended up getting jobs done. Tony

It's possible that when Chris Noth did Exiled he might have had some hopes of making Mike Logan the lead character of another police detective series maybe based in Staten Island. Of course his motivation for making a thorough going investigation of a prostitute murder which I can tell you most cops anywhere let alone New York City wouldn't have given five seconds of attention to that kind of homicide, was to get back to New York. And no doubt he feels the work will get him back to Manhattan where the action is. Anyway the Law And Order cast of 1998 all got into the made for TV film including Dann Florek working the organized crime division before going to sex crimes for Law And Order: Special Victims. Even Ice-T gets into this film playing a pimp who looks real good for the prostitute murder until he gets killed. This all being way before he became better known as Detective Finn Tutuola in Special Victims. Noth is doing his commuter thing on his way to work in Staten Island when he notices a female body wash up where the ferry is docking. It's a homicide and he asks his supervisor Dabney Coleman for the case. Anything better than breaking up bar fights which they do a lot of on Staten Island. He even gets Detective Dana Eskelson to help him out. Exiled is a nicely constructed film, maybe too nicely constructed. By coincidence the story takes us to his old precinct which brings in all the familiar Law And Order regulars. It also serendipitously does go back to Staten Island to a noted crime family with Don Tony Musante and his mutant son Costas Mandylor. And as it turns out Eskelson happens to know the family, she and Mandylor grew up together. It could have been a pilot for another Law And Order spin off, but things didn't work out that way for Chris Noth. He had to wait several more years to get back to Manhattan in Law And Order: Criminal Intent. Noth is now retired from the NYPD, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Logan surfaces as a private eye in another film or TV series. Noth goes back to him like Yul Brynner went back to The King And I. If you can buy all the coincidences Exiled is not a bad film and it sure has a built in audience with all the Law And Order fans.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Exiled--A Law & Order Movie" (NBC, 11/08/98). Detective Mike Logan was one of the main reasons Law & Order had 5 golden years in its early history. Actor Chris Noth portrayed Logan from 1990-95 as a complex character with a number of admirable qualities mixed with a few interesting flaws. Logan was intelligent, determined and intensely passionate. He also displayed a sense of humor that made gritty homicide work easier to cope with for himself and his fellow officers. The intention of the movie was to provide a vehicle for Logan's return to homicide after being put on domestic cases. He was sent to work on Staten Island after he understandably punched a council-man on the courthouse steps following a murder trial. Whether he will return to Manhattan remains to be seen. Actor Chris Noth has been interviewed by many publications since his contract was not renewed in 1995 by the show's producer, Dick Wolf. Perceptive readers were able to gain some insight into Noth's resilience during that time and his involvement in various other projects. Interviews published in 1998 have revealed his reasons for filming "Exiled," and his hopes for a few more films about Det. Mike Logan since a large number of fans continue to be vocal about his untimely departure from the weekly drama on NBC. Remembering Mr. Noth's goals for the film helped me understand and appreciate it even more. I watched it to see Det. Logan's character developed the way Chris Noth felt it should. Many facets of Logan were ignored during 1990-95 by "Law & Order's" producer. Even so, Mr. Noth was still able to skillfully flesh out the one-dimensional role he was given into a likable, complex, interesting man that would prove to be a drawing card for the drama during its first 5 years. "Exiled" further developed Logan during its 2-hour format. Credit for the consistent popularity of Detective Mike Logan belongs to Chris Noth. I'll watch Chris Noth's version of what a skilled homicide detective is like over Dick Wolf's any day.

On the surface this has all the ingredients of being a fairly impressive TVM since it's directed by Jean De Segonzac who's best known for his work on gritty TV dramas like OZ and HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET and does contain several well known names in the cast like Sam Waterston , Ice-T and Tony Musante . The basic bones of the story featuring a dead prostitute along with a subplot involving a bent cop on the inside does sound interesting but to be blunt EXILED is very disappointing Much of the blame lies at the feet of the director De Segonzac . This type of story should mirror his previous work , it should be dark and bleak but for whatever reason everything is filmed in broad daylight which means there's a lack of atmosphere . Mind you night filming is expensive so perhaps the director didn't have much of a budget to work with in which case it's someone Else's's fault . I should also point out that despite the premise the story plays out in an entirely boring manner which could cure mild insomnia It's not the fault of anyone from this movie but when EXILED was broadcast on my regional ITV station this morning we had to endure superimposed sign language ! I kid you not and I hope to never see this kind of distraction ever again