Twisted Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Every murder has a mark.
An elusive killer. A brilliant detective. Maybe one and the same?
Jessica Shepard is an on the rise police officer of San Francisco's esteemed police department, after having solved a big case about a serial killer. Her mentor John Mills is proud of Jessica as a father would be of his daughter, since Mills was the partner of Jessica's late father. With a newly established promotion, Jessica finds that she might once again have to prove herself in a department that takes no prisoners. Not to mention a new partner named Mike Delmarco, who might be Jessica's next closest thing to a confidant. However, a man has been found dead and the two officers are brought into the investigation. What they find is a surprise when the dead in question was a man Jessica slept with, he being part of a list of one night stands that Jessica has engaged in. Now under suspicion and a terrible drinking problem gnawing at her, Jessica will have to prove to her superiors and to her skeptical partner that she's not the one behind the murders and Mills is one of the few people standing behind her. This is a story about a woman trying to find the perpetrator of these horrible crimes, before she herself might end as one of them.
| Ashley Judd | Jessica Shepard |
| Samuel L. Jackson | John Mills |
| Andy Garcia | Mike Delmarco |
| David Strathairn | Dr. Melvin Frank |
| Russell Wong | Lieutenant Tong |
| Camryn Manheim | Lisa |
| Mark Pellegrino | Jimmy Schmidt |
| Titus Welliver | Dale Becker |
| D.W. Moffett | Ray Porter |
| Richard T. Jones | Wilson Jefferson |
| Leland Orser | Edmund Cutler |
| James Oliver Bullock | John Flanagan |
| William Hall | Chip Marshall |
| Joe Duer | Larry Geber |
| Jim Hechim | Bob Sherman |
| Philip Kaufman |
4.80 out of 10 (7930 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Bad
posted on 11 Aug 2009Another bad Ashley Judd thriller, TWISTED is an unacknowledged remake of TIGHTROPE, an infinitely superior Clint Eastwood 'meller from the 1980s that had Eastwood playing a kinky cop on the trail of a kinky killer. Judd is terrible in the Eastwood role, and the plot is simplistic beyond belief. The identity of the killer is fairly obvious early on (for one thing, there aren't all that many characters to pick from). Not to SPOIL things, but how many times does Judd have to pass out after consuming a glass of wine before realizing she's being drugged??? Andy Garcia and Sam Jackson are thoroughly wasted as Judd's partner and mentor, respectively. Please skip this one and rent TIGHTROPE instead. I could tell 10 minutes into TWISTED that it was a glossy piece of Hollywood trash. But then again, I am a former film critic.
Only a Reasonable Entertertainment
posted on 28 Jul 2009In San Francisco, the promiscuous, but very efficient and violent Detective Jessica Shepard (Ashley Judd) is promoted to the Homicide Department with the support of his superior John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson). Jessica has a trauma, with the death of her parents in her childhood, and has a drinking problem, abusing of the use of alcohol. Her new partner is Detective Mark Delmarco (Andy Garcia), and when they start working together, they find that a serial killer is torturing and murdering all the one night stand lovers of Jessica, and she questions whether she might be the chased assassin. "Twisted" is a reasonable entertainment, with a great cast and magnificent photography in San Francisco. However, the screenplay is very weak, predictable and full of clichés, and the story is very short, being "stretched" to last 97 minutes running time. The character of Jessica is very inconsistent, and the story does not show her great features to be promoted, and in the end she looks more like a whore. "Twisted" looks like a TV movie and I feel that the great cast was wasted in a common plot. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "A Marca" ("The Mark")
Tense, moody, kinky, smart, compelling thriller
posted on 22 Jun 2009Another case of the critics being wrong (and influencing the public mind as well). Actually, I already knew that a San Francisco-set murder mystery with Ashley Judd, Samuel Jackson and Andy Garcia could never be as bad as they said...and of course it wasn't. OK, it's not the most original story ever filmed, but it is distinguished by the tense, moody edge that director Kaufman gives to it. Judd is strong and compelling - she's the one who holds the movie together; Jackson is Jackson, an enjoyable actor, a commanding presence, a treat to watch; Garcia overacts at times, but his key scene (holding a gun over a sleeping Judd) is so superbly played that it redeems any possible shortcomings of his performance. To keep it short, and use one of the critics' favorite clichés, "Twisted" kept ME at least guessing to the last frame. (***)
cobra meets ashley judd
posted on 25 May 2009Crap, this movie is crap. Ashley Judd wears a leather jacket, drives a old mustang, beats up everyone and sleeps with everyone. She tries to be a Stallone/Cobra knock off. It just does not work, period. Ashley Judd's acting is the disease and her not acting anymore is the cure. Once you get away from the unbelievable character, the story is interesting to follow. The way the character acts would make one wonder where she would fit in at all. what is she trying to compensate for? Too cool is not cool at all. My wife liked this movie, but she likes Ashley Judd's movies.My wife also liked Kiss the Girls. Put the plunger on this one. 4/10
What a horrible, obvious film
posted on 17 May 2009"Twisted" is one of the most brainless, obvious films to come along in a long time. With a very good cast, a very good, wasted cast, this is one for the $1.00 bargain bin.Ashley Judd plays a newly promoted homicide investigator. She has plenty of skeletons in her closet, and she likes to go home, after a night of drinking with men that she's never met before. Well, everyone has to have a hobby.Lo and behold, the first case that she has to investigate is the brutal murder of a man that she slept with several nights earlier. Eventually, all of her one night stands start turning up dead. What is a girl to do? Andy Garcia plays her new partner. Garcia is passable in this film, but it's obvious that he has taken too many acting lessons from Al Pacino. He can barely make it through a scene without shouting the idiotic dialog at the top of his voice. He must think that if he's louder, the audience will never notice just how bad the script is.Samuel L. Jackson is very good as Judd's protector and adoptive father.This movie was so obvious it was embarrassing. During the film Judd's character is drugged several times with the date rape drug. Before she passes out she here's a particular sound ( I won't tell you what it is, but it's obvious once you here it). Then the idiot writer has a character play with a prop that makes this sound in the very next scene. And he is the only person who has this prop with him throughout the whole movie. Never mind the lame ending where the real killer is revealed, and you suddenly realize that he has absolutely no motive for committing the crimes.What a horrible waste. Don't even bother to rent it.
Dull and silly
posted on 11 May 2009Policewoman Jessica Shepard (Ashley Judd) has anger issues and alcohol problems. She's also dealing with a serial killer who is targeting all the guys she ever had sex with. Samuel L. Jackson plays one of her best friends and Andy Garcia is her partner. They try to help but the killings continue and she gets more depressed, confused and angry...This had the makings of a good film. It starts off with a interesting premise but slowly looses its way. The story is way too long (even at 90 minutes) and there are pointless side trips--WHY does Judd visit the killer from the beginning at his cell? He has nothing to do with anything in the film! The film thinks it's more deep and important than it really is. Also Judd and Garcia (both good actors) are TERRIBLE here. And the final resolution was pretty silly and--if you think of it--unlikely.There are a few good things here--Jackson is very good (even though he's hardly in the film); it's pretty well-directed; Camryn Manheim is amusing in a small role and drop dead handsome Joe Duer has a fairly explicit sex scene with Judd. But--that's not enough to make this film worth seeing. This came and went VERY quickly--it's easy to see why. Plays like an R rated made for TV movie. I give it a 5.
such a rich acting crew for such a stupid film
posted on 01 May 2009most stupid film i ever saw with Samuel L. Jackson,and Andy Garcia, film was so stupid , that i stopped to watch after little bit over 2/3 of the movie , story is completely uninteresting, especially Ashley Judd who is sleeping with all the victims after the moment she saw them .....The movie starts out with about a half hour of boring dialogue and interactions as we are introduced to our characters, one as inconsequential as the next. The story is about that of patrolwoman, Jessica Shepard, (Judd) who gets promoted to investigator, thanks to her keen eye for detail. But, with her promotion follows a gruesome chain of murders of guys that she's been promiscuous with. We are briefly shown one murder after the next. This is not even a psychological tempter where the detectives get so insanely into their work as they try to figure out who the killer is and his moda operandi and all of that the way other serial killer/profiler movies do. It took Morgan Freeman quite a few murders in 'Seven' and a deep dig in the library before he could formulate some theory about the killer. In 'Taking Lives,' Angelina Jolie became so engrossed in the murders that she used to have the pictures spread all over her floor while she slept and bathed. We can see the nerve wracking positions of the detectives and it adds to our own assumptions as to who we think the killer is and why he does those brutal crimes.In one word describing "TOTALY STUPID"
Twisted is a nice twist of the expected.
posted on 01 May 2009This film had me guessing and doubting all along. Even though there are clues all along and I did pick up on them, I questioned them. Ashley Judd doesn't strike you as a tough cop inspector one-nightstand type of chic. Actually she still doesn't. I think she is best fit with the quirky chic flick love sappy movies. She sold me for the while; actually the movie storyline saved it. Sam Jackson and Andy Garcia meet up to their character just fine. Without delving into detail and risking a spoiler when you watch the film there will be a limited choice of possible suspects. The end is not surprising however getting there is with the ride. This was a definite entertaining rental.
standard thriller
posted on 29 Apr 2009SPOILERS THROUGH:Twisted Isn't really as bad as has been said but it isn't good either. One of the main problems that I had with it, is that there are so many movies similar to this. Twisted doesn't offer a lot as far as unpredictability goes and another problem is the casting. Ashly Judd has been in a lot of movies of this type and though I liked Double Jeapardy, after awhile one kind of wants to see her in other types of roles. Also Samuel Jackson is a great actor but I didn't buy him in this role either.Ashley Judd's acting is actually good and her Jessica is a tough talking, sassy cop who is rather interesting but the fact is the story is very predictable and it's to easy to watch the movie and think: Oh, saw that before in (insert one of many movie titles here.) Twisted has A list performers in a movie that's not bad so much as predictable and standard.The other curious thing I must mention is the amount of swearing. I noticed that in this movie much more then in other similar pictures. There was a lot of over the top dialog as well. But the swearing became almost unintentionally funny and there were a few times there I almost started counting the various curses. If more creativity, had gone into the story rather then some of the name calling, it might have been better. It did get a bit much at times and it wasn't just the cursing but some of the melodrama involved, particularly in the dialog. The "twist" wasn't that surprising when it actually happened(and did anyone buy Samuel Jackson as the killer anyway?). This movie needed to have more surprises.That being said, this type of stuff is a problem in a lot of thrillers and Twisted certainly isn't the worst of the genre. I'd give it a 4 or 5 of 10. It's easy enough to watch and kind of holds your attention but is not going to stand out as one of the great thrillers.
I tried to like it...
posted on 13 Apr 2009... really I did. Ashley Judd was actually not too bad in Heat, in Kiss the Girls, and even in Double Jeopardy (monstrous plot holes in the latter notwithstanding).But here... well, to be charitable, let's just say she's not given much to work with. But, having said that, I also have to add that she certainly doesn't maximize what she IS given. Sorry, but the bottom line is: this movie is just plain lousy, from the derivative storyline, to the embarrassingly lame dialog, to the cliché-a-minute plot devices, to Garcia's scene-chewing overacting, to Judd's near-complete unbelievability as a supposedly hard-nosed police detective (heroically fighting bad-guys on the street as well as rampant sexism on the force, naturally. Could we ram a few MORE clichés in here if we tried?) I actually purchased this movie on DVD (well, admittedly it WAS in the bargain bin) and I did in fact look forward to watching it, but it was pretty much an ordeal to sit through it to the end. I kept hoping that somehow, some way, something would happen to redeem the film before the climax. Sadly, this hope was cruelly dashed. Oh well. Maybe I can get a couple of bucks for it on trade...
Should have kept twisting until it broke
posted on 12 Mar 2009I now know why there were only four people in the theater when I saw this piece of junk. I now know why this movie lasted exactly one week at the theater that I frequent. I now know that Ashley Judd owes me $9.50........the price of two matinee tickets. It was bad enough that the story line has been done to death but what was the reason for the terrible acting? I've seen Judd and Samuel L. Jackson in enough movies to know that they aren't bad actors but for some reason they chose to do nothing more than put in an appearance in this septic dweller. Andy Garcia I can understand; the guy could never act on his best day. That stupid look on his face at the movies end was classic.......it said, "I am a total idiot who has no clue."
Lack of continuity
posted on 28 Feb 2009Spoiler alert The lack of continuity when it came to Judd's hair, really bugged me. I know that this film scenario was to take place over a wee bit of time. But her changing length and style in a matter of hours was way too noticeable.I also felt the film was too predictable. The clicking of the lighter, the obvious drugging of her character. Nothing unexpected ever happened. Her parents history, her upbringing by her father's ex-partner. I don't know, the film could have been so much better, but it lacked substance and believability. I just wanted it to be over and have John Miller killed, because it was so obvious he was the demented one. I have always enjoyed the major actors in this film, but I think their time and mine was wasted.
Two'd! (out of 10)
posted on 20 Feb 2009This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, rivaling Bourne Supremacy and Attack of the Killer Bees. It was a stupid movie with an extremely annoying main character. She was always on edge and angry at everyone. More stupidly, it's insane to think someone like her would be so smart yet not realize her wine was making her fall asleep four consecutive times. The false accusations about who could be the killer were stupid, annoying, and wasted time. Personally, I was guessing it was her psychiatrist who was the killer, since he knew her and knew what she was doing because of the appointments. Which brings up another thing, that there were events unrelated to the story, like the neighbor through the window or the scene after Jessica is gone of Lisa sending the samples off and calling someone. Speaking of Jessica, THE HAIR! She looked like Lori Petty in Tank Girl, and it didn't suit her AT ALL! No woman not in a harsh desert climate should ever have hair that short, baring lice. It made her look manly. Lastly, the killer made no sense. John Mills was supposed to be all overly protective and killing every man she met, drugged her, kept her on the case, and almost put her in jail.It was a stupid movie, and I read a magazine through a lot of it.
I felt like I had some of the wine
posted on 14 Feb 2009Greetings again from the darkness. Philip Kaufman is a proven director ("The Right Stuff" "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" "Quills"). Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia are all talented actors with credentials. So why does this movie flop? Simply because the story is predictable and ridiculous. If you have ever seen a movie or read a book, you will know who the mystery killer is about 5 minutes into the film. I have said it so many times, a great cast does not make a movie good. A good story makes the movie good. A good cast can make a good story into a great movie. Bad story, bad movie. Period. Usually I can come up with a positive in even the worst movies. The best I can do for this one is say I like Ashley Judd's car. By the way, how much wine can one bottle hold anyway?
Not nearly as bad as reviewers say
posted on 31 Jan 2009Seeing one popular site with a verdict of 101 bad reviews to just 2 good ones, I almost didn't go, but my S.O. likes some pretty so-so movies if they are exciting or suspenseful, so I took her. I did not find the plot so obvious. I actually enjoyed it a lot--a bit raunchy of course, but "normal" for this kind of flick. I actually recommend it as a thriller. Reviewers are really a bunch of whole assets, arent they? They probably are not too good at acting, screenwriting, directing or producing (though they might do okay as continuity persons!). Jackson, Garcia, Judd and several lesser players are just fine. Reviewers write to keep themselves working for a living, and that requires them to diss a goodly percentage of the movies they review.
Has the right look, but ultimately falls short of the mark.
posted on 27 Jan 2009I was perhaps hoping against hope that I might like 'Twisted.' On the surface, the only real negative I could see was Ashley Judd. She's done a lot of good work but I've never been a fan. On the positive side this film had neo-noir aspirations, Samuel L Jackson, Andy Garcia, Leland Orser and was directed by Phillip Kaufman. How could it be bad? By the end of the film I changed that question to how could it be SO bad.I love film noir and always keep my eye open for modern neo-noir versions. 'Twisted,' at least initially, looked like it might hit all the right notes: a young female detective with a troubled past finds that her ex-lovers are being murdered. Could she somehow be responsible for their deaths? As the investigation goes on, the evidence points more strongly at her.The premise is engaging but the execution is not. Though not a fan of Ashley Judd, she's fairly competent here. The performances of the entire cast are adequate although nobody really leaps out. I found myself not really caring about what happens to any of the characters or caring WHY things happen to any of the characters. The problem seems to be a combination of script and editing. Many things about the script seem to be red herrings: Judd submits her own blood for DNA testing and we never hear about it again. Camryn Manheim makes a cryptic phone call (to the killer perhaps?) and we never hear about it again. David Strathairn and Ashley Judd are devoted a sizable portion of plot and screen time. He plays her psychiatrist and is uncovering not only her back story but exploring the dark edges of her character (and thereby allowing credibility for the entire premise that she could be the killer). Before the end of the film this whole sub-plot is dropped and we never hear about it again.I think one of the problems was the need to deliver back story but not lose the tension of the main plot. Perhaps the scenes with Strathairn were part of the problem. It seems like they were all filmed at the same time and then broken up into chunks and crunched into the main movie. It is an awkward fit that kills off the momentum and tension that builds up in each scene preceding it. Maybe the back story could have been delivered through exchanges between Andy Garcia and Ashley Judd instead. I realize that she's keeping him away (1. Creepy ex-boyfriend who is a cop 2. Lovers are dying; keep Andy away to protect him) but that may have been the best vehicle. We're not supposed to know who the killer is until the end -- though you may, unfortunately, figure it out too soon like me -- but making Andy Garcia so obviously suspicious and creepy by keeping him at a forced distance does nothing to help the story. Also, consider the possibility that if he turns out to be the killer the drama is far more intense! He's closer to her, knows all of her secrets and has betrayed her! That's good cinema. The current ending is ludicrous, but sadly not unpredictable.'Twisted' has the look of film-noir down pat but is more of a thriller that never really fires. It was a good attempt but for me it was ultimately unsatisfying. I saw the promise of a much better film that never really seemed to be realized. It isn't awful or even bad, but is also isn't really worth your time.
Uninspired and generic
posted on 09 Jan 2009Jessica Shepard is a San Francisco homicide detective. Ironically, her father was a serial killer. Then when men that Jessica has been with start turning up dead, she finds herself suspect number one in her own investigation.Some twists and potentially interesting character angles are hopelessly ruined with the film's lack of inspiration. The film is so by-the-numbers and so generic that it seems that the writers just took a basic mystery plot framework and added names and locations. There are twists and turns and you might even be somewhat surprised with the results. However, it is like driving on a twisty mountain road - you don't know what is beyond the next turn, but you know that you're going to take one. Also, as a serial killer mystery there is surprising lack of potential suspects so veteran mystery viewers will most likely have the plot figured out in a breeze.And it is not just the plot, but all the look and feel of the whole film. it's just one cliché after another made to look good with it's all-star cast. --- 4/10Rated R: violence and profanity
much better than people think!
posted on 03 Jan 2009i saw Twisted yesterday and i thought it was going to be just another stupid generic thriller and i was proved wrong. the film has a somewhat original plot and is directed by Philip Kaufman, an accomplished director, who also directed Quills, another great film. i thought the acting in Twisted was quite good and it exceeded my expectations. Ashley Judd, who has become a somewhat veteren to this genre of movies was excellent as the alcoholic cop, Jessica Sheppard and Andy Garcia was also very good as her partner, Mike. Samuel L. Jackson, who was not in the movie very much, only towards the end, and played his role very well and gave a thrilling performance. Twisted kept me guessing until the last minute and i thought it was an awesome thriller! 10/10
Red Herrings in the Fog.
posted on 01 Jan 2009In some ways the best touch in this movie, efficiently directed by Philip Kaufman, comes at the climax. (Caution: spoilers ahead) Ashley Judd as the chief suspect is a serial murder case is forced to watch her avuncular mentor, Samuel Jackson, blow his brains out at the end of a foggy San Francisco pier and flop into the nightime water of the bay. As the sound of the shot fades, we hear the barking of distant sea lions roused from their sleep.That's just about it for the good touches, except to say that the performances are good, as we might expect from such a cast. The location shooting isn't bad either, avoiding many of the clichés found in San Francisco movies. (No car chases down Vermont St.) Frankly it's the plot that well and truly sucks. Ashley Judd is a decent actress but the part calls for her to be a casually and aggressively promiscuous police officer who always dresses in black, right down to her underwear. Don't get me wrong. She looks just fine in leather jackets, and in black underwear too for that matter. But she seems tiny, chubbily childlike, innocent, and this macho stuff doesn't come easily to her.And the role itself is almost an impossibility. It's one of those deals in which the investigator keeps coming up with more and more evidence that he or she is the criminal. Not too much effort is put into explaining this. Something to do with "bad blood." And there are plenty of red herrings in San Francisco Bay. There are a couple of ex-boy friends who know all her habits and might be responsible. Then there's Andy Garcia as a potentially new boy friend. Is he killing all her ex-lovers out of jealousy? Is it someone whom she does not know but has been studying her habits? Is it a complete stranger? Is it really serial suicide in which several unrelated men first torture themselves with cigarettes and then pound their own faces to a pulp with some kind of martial arts wooden instrument that looks like a dildo? And how ABOUT those sea lions? I've made it sound kind of silly, but that's okay because it is. I like it as much as I do because it's more of a mystery than another boring action flick. There's a bit of the old ultra violence but only one shot is fired on film and, in fact, there aren't showers of gore and exploding fireballs as somebody's car rolls off the road.I wish more effort had been put into pruning the mystery, into making it more logical, into filling in plot holes. Well -- two examples. One: Can a completely loony serial murderer turn his rage off for 15 or 20 years and then decide to turn it on again? How does he manage to keep his job at the post office or wherever if he's so bonkers? Why doesn't his explanation of the murders make sense? (That was all in the way of one example.) Example Two: We find out that Ashley Judd couldn't have committed the murders because she'd been rendered unconscious by a drug someone put into her wine. Okay. Then how come she wakes up one morning after another victim has just been pounded to death and she finds she has a black eye and some blood on her? How do you commit self-echymosis, especially when you're asleep? And why does the drug turn out to be a "date-rape" drug with a long name? And why is such emphasis placed on the fact? Why not just a plain old safe chloral hydrate cocktail? End of example two.I could go on but won't bother. Man, this is a muddled story. I don't know how such a talented cast and director became involved in it -- or why Veronica Cartwright is reduced to a featured bit part so small that she is uncredited. But then this movie leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
Dating Jessica will get you killed
posted on 23 Aug 2009Police officer Jessica Shepard (Ashley Judd) has just been transferred to homicide and promoted to detective inspector. Her first big case is a murder investigation of a man she had dated. The next day, another man shows up dead with the same cigarette burn on his hand, and he had also dated Jessica. The police are now looking for a serial killer who has the propensity to kill men Jessica has dated. Jessica begins to have dreams about her past, and she opens a box that belonged to her father. Jessica's father was a police officer who went crazy and killed his wife and her lovers, and then himself. His partner and later police commissioner (Samuel L. Jackson) raised Jessica, and taught her everything about police work. When a third murder occurs, her partner, Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia) begins to watch and protect Jessica. Jessica goes to jail after the fourth victim ends up in her bed. She has no memory of any of the murders, because she blacks out before each murder. The story's twist is the identity of the real murder. You should be able to figure it out before the end, just look for the clues. (Paramount Pictures, Run Time 1:37, Rated R) (7/10)