Unforgettable

source: Unforgettable

Ray Liotta is great in this movie, he uses an experimental brain serum to find out who killed his wife. He goes to the morgue and steals dead peoples brain fluid, and then injects it in himself. This allows him to relive their last memories. A side-effect of the drugs causes him to have a heart problem, but he keeps on injecting himself anyway. The story is outrageous, but it's fun to watch.

"Unforgettable" has a great first first hour, as Ray Liotta tracks down the man he believes to be his wife's killer. He is greatly aided by Linda Fiorentino, playing against type as a slightly mousy scientist. Linda has developed a drug which, when mixed with another person's spinal fluid, enable Liotta to experience key traumatic experiences in that other person's life. Unfortunately "Unforgettable" becomes so convoluted in the second hour, a viewer may lose interest. I certainly did, though stuck it out for the fairly predictable conclusion. I give "Unforgettable" a "6".

There have been harsh words about this "unforgettable",probably exaggerated.This could be some kind of update of "spellbound"(1945) and it recalls sometimes" D.O.A. "with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan (1988) ,and even "Jennifer eight"(1992)with Andy Garcia (the latter for the murderer's identity).Except for Hitchcock's classic,of course , the movies I mention had disastrous reviews.And however,they have much more imaginative scripts than ,say,"die hard" (one,two or three,take your pick,they are interchangeable) Script for "unforgettable" is more polished than it has been given credit for.It's stunning when,in the end,the two stories come together,this time recalling "dead again" (K.Brannagh ,1991),another movie with an unfairly mediocre reputation;only 2 stars and a half on the Maltin!OK ,the plot for "unforgettable" is far-fetched,but it has an intern logic,and anyway,is it less credible than B.Willis singlehandedly taming a whole bunch of terrorists ?(Die Hard is rated 3 stars!) Ray Liotta is an actor whose parts are not always worthy of himself.He's convincing here:during the whole movie,his face remains sad,wistful,as if he were waging an almost lost war.He rarely smiles,except when he's with his daughters.Linda Fiorentino,once she's provided Liotta with her drug,is not very important for the action (definitely not Ingrid Bergman in "spellbound").And we will be very thankful to Dahl for sparing us the umpteenth love affair between the patient and his doctor.More,we have here a very original ending,marred by the syrupy eponymous song though.It might be a happy end,after all,and which justifies the title. All in all,it's an entertaining movie,mixing smartly sci-fi,thriller,and whodunit.It could become a sleeper.

I was surprised to like it as much as I did. I only saw it because I think the director, John Dahl, is outstanding in the field of creating a cozy, fun little caper. Now, Unforgettable hardly compares to Kill Me Again, The Last Seduction, or Rounders, but as a thriller yarn, it holds its own. Ray Liotta's hero, a notoriously edgy forensic investigator and ex-drunk haunted by his wife's unsolved murder and taunted by the fact that he'd passed out in the bushes when it was happening, is the perfect tortured soul of a protagonist for a dark, moody thriller like Unforgettable. To be admitted are that its title is not exactly catchy, or very many feet away from cheesy, its villains are Shane Black clichés, the inconsistencies of a few plot details---though it's a sci-fi film---are very questionable, and the coziness of Kill Me Again, Seduction, and Rounders is hardly anywhere to be found through the majority of the movie. I understand that you have to be careful with your choices when it comes to this kind of movie, the thriller, because a lot of them suck and almost all of them are page-by-page rehashes, and I'm very careful with the movies I see. Every so often, I stretch my boundaries a bit to see a cluster of slasher films or corny thrillers, just because you can get in those moods sometimes. The movie didn't turn me off. It has its flaws, but it doesn't give in to formula love interests or comic reliefs or deplorably mock-clever dialogue. Those are what turn me off.

This is a great movie with a great script. Ray Liotta gives an outstanding performance as the movie deserves. The film centers on Liotta who is a medical examiner and works with the police. He has got a bad reputation in town that everyone believes he murdered his wife. Linda Fiorentino heard about him and she wants to proof her research that the brain stores its memories in a spinal fluid. And as a university researcher who makes experiments about the brain, she tells Liotta that if she can transfer Liotta's wife fluid to him then he can also proof that he is innocent. But there is a risk of a heart attack in this experiment..... The film captured me with the story and will capture you too.

John Dahl's Unforgettable plays around with a trippy high concept premise in which people's memories can be accessed by using an experimental, controversial drug. Ray Liotta plays the troubled Doctor whose wife has been recently murdered. He desperately reaches out to the scientist (Linda Fiorentino) who synthesized the compound, and the two set out to use it unofficially, in order to retain his wife's dying moments, see them for himself and establish who her killer is. The serum takes its toll on his already stressed mind though, and soon he's questioning his own reality, his trust levels towards those around him dropping considerably. Director Dahl is beyond proficient when it comes to thrillers, usually taking on crime pieces with a noirish vibe. Here he tries his hand at science fiction, coexisting with a classic whodunit narrative, and the result is quite good. Liotta relies on the information that his detective friend (Peter Coyote) gives him, and combines it with the knowledge he absorbs from his deceased wife's brain, beginning to piece the puzzle together. There's also a troublesome detective played by Christopher Mcdonald he must deal with, and a violent thug (Kim Coates) involved as well. Liotta is usually tough, capable and would normally be found playing one of the two cops, but the doctor on the run without a lot of tactical skill suits him and allows the guy some work other than just cops or psychos. Watch for work from David Paymer, Kim Cattrall, William B. Davis, Callum Keith Rennie and Garwin Sanford as well. The premise may be too far-fetched for some folks, but for others with imagination it'll be a blast. It's also fairly violent and graphic, which may seem gratuitous for such a cerebral outing, but I find it gives it a stylistic edge and raises the stakes, just like Total Recall. Great flick. Not Total Recall, I mean this one. Well Total Recall too, obviously. Yeesh.

I love Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino. Great actors. If not for them, this movie would have been completely unwatchable. I would have given this an average 5 stars, but could not do so, as this just dragged on and on and on. This movie was almost 2 hours long. And most of the scenes were dreary lab/hospital scenes, with needles and injections, and repetitive flashbacks of crimes having been committed. Very little in the way of cinematography, sound track, or witty dialog. The murder mystery was okay I guess. But again... it dragged. And, did I mention that I really do hate seeing people shoot themselves up with needles? I really love "atmospheric" type movies, and this was advertised as such on netflix. But, hospital rooms/labs/blurred crime scenes are not what I'm looking for in "atmospheric" movies.

Dr David Krane's world caves in when his wife is murdered and he is a major suspect. For legal reasons the case falls apart but the shadow hangs over him. When a colleague develops an experimental fluid that allows users to experience the memories of others Krane starts to use it to try and piece together what happened to his wife. However with the drug impacting on his heart he only has so long to uncover the truth. Some thrillers manage to have good ideas and spoil them with a bad film. Some turn bad ideas into good films, but many are spoilt by a bad idea. This thriller works well for much of the investigation by Krane – but when it relies totally on the memory drug to move things along it really is very weak indeed. The direction is good enough to give the illusion of pace and excitement but really it never manages to shake off this central terrible idea and the film suffers as a result. Liotta is always OK in most things but really hasn't much to work with. He does well despite the material. Fiorentino was great in The Last Seduction but only because she had a great character in a great story. Here she has no character in a dumb thriller and it shows. Support from McDonald, Coyote, Kim Cattrall and Kim Coates vary between average and good but really they are mainly all red herrings to try and sustain the interest. Overall this is enjoyable in most parts but where it relies on the memory drug heavily it falls down a bit. Goes to show that you can't make a purse out of a pig's ear and this film never manages to shake off the fact that it's central idea is just plain dumb.

By that I mean that bad movies fail at the box office. And, make no mistake about it, this is a bad movie. The basic premise is simply ludicrous and it would have been a better movie if the device employed was something simple and straightforward...like magic. As far as the actors, everyone is over the top. Liotta punches his way through the film like he's still a gangster. Peter Coyote starts out at a tolerably restrained level, but shifts into high gear by the third act. Everyone else is either non-existent, or in your face. The bad guys seem to know (and anticipate) everything. There's a major red herring, but you'll see through it immediately and identify the real bad guy, so there's no suspense to speak of. And the violations of law enforcement and investigative procedures are absolutely ludicrous. The real show-stopper for me was the deceased wife. SPOILERS AHEAD!! So, this guy is still terribly in love with his wife, even after she's murdered and he is tried for (and found innocent of) her murder. Turns out that she was having an affair with one of his co-workers, got knocked up by the co-worker, and decided to get back together with the cuckold when she started to show. She doesn't tell him she's pregnant before she's killed, but her helpful friends and family carry on the lie by telling the husband it's his kid she was carrying. How's that for a sympathetic character? Yeah, a real angel. END SPOILERS! So, basically, this movie is not good. FX are OK and photography is acceptable, but just a bad story, bad script, and bad acting.