Kiss the girls

Year of release : 1997

Run time : 1h56m

Genre : Psychological Thriller / Mystery

Cast : Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Tony Goldwyn, Brian Cox

The movie is based on the 1995 James Patterson novel of the same name.

Forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross, visits his sister, and finds out his niece has been missing for 4 days. He promises his sister who has health problems he’s going to find her.

He travels to Durham, North Carolina, and at the Research Triangle he finds out 8 young beautiful and talented women are missing, his niece being one of them. The man who takes them signs himself as Casanova.

At the same time we see a woman in the forest with her kidnapper, being dragged around.

The police tell Cross they have a homicide and that he can go with them. It’s the girl from before, tied with her hands behind her back to a tree.

Kate is a doctor who does kickboxing in her spare time. One night, she wakes up hearing noises around the house. When she comes back into her room, the serial k1ller catches her, and she wakes up in his dungeon.

Cross talks to his niece’s boyfriend, wanting to know if her violin is with him, seeing that it’s missing. He tells him her violin always stayed with her.

Kate wakes up with the kidnapper / serial k1ller who’s wearing a mask, on top of her, telling her she needs to follow his rules and that he doesn’t like to be disappointed, injecting her with something.

Cross finds dr. Wick Sachs, about whom he learns has certain proclivities. The man says he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

Kate wakes up in her cell, and tries to get out. She calls out, remembering the kidnapper told her not to do it, and finds out there are many more women trapped there.

Cross receives a note from Casanova, letting him know the women are alive. They find out all the women he took are strong willed and defiant.

Kate eats the sandwich the kidnapper made for her, and gets sick. When he comes in, trying to put her in her place for defying his order of not talking to the other girls, and asking for her arm, she pushes him and runs away. She manages to escape, by throwing herself in the water below, as he was about to catch her again.

Cross talks to Kate, while she’s in the hospital, after he saves her life, discovering the drug in her system, meant to slowly k1ll her or give her amnesia, and she tells him his niece is alive.

At the press conference she asks the kidnapper not to harm the other girls for her escaping.

Cross is working with Kate, trying to find out where did she escape from, so they could find the other girls and the kidnapper / serial k1ller.

Cross finds out a plastic surgeon ordered enough of the drug found in Kate’s system, “to treat a small country” (Cross’ words), so he thinks he might be it (it’s definitely his voice talking to the girls all the time). But what if it’s not just one serial k1ller, but more?

I personally enjoyed the movie, it’s one of the movies I enjoyed watching many years ago, and I think I can call my favorites, because its atmosphere pulls you in.

I liked Kate, they don’t make characters like her anymore, good and selfless. After she escapes she feels bad she left the other girls behind.

All the characters are smart, even the serial k1llers, they are all smart people.

The acting was good, especially from the girls who played the victims (as they had to act scared and crying),and Ashely Judd.

The soundtrack was good.

The movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic are under 50%, while the audiences gave ratings in the 60%. IMBD graded it a 6.6 out of 10.

The movie grossed 100 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 27 million dollars.

The movie has a sequel titled “Along came a spider”.

You can watch the movie on the Ok.Ru platform, in English and dubbed in other languages.

Rating : Worth a watch!