Newsbreak (2000) User Reviews

Not worth the time to watch.

[bj_jg · 3/10 · 23 December 2000]

This is a really bad movie, composed of one chase scene after another. The characters are so one dimensional that you don't care what happens to them. And apparently they don't either. At one point, a character disappears in the middle of a tussle & chase scene. None of h-is/-er fellow characters even question, let alone investigate the disappearance. And sometime later, they happen to run into one another on the street -- apparently just so this loose end would be taken care of.

Altogether a real disappointment, especially since I've always liked Judge Reinhold, and have also enjoyed Michael Rooker. I just don't know why they wasted their time, as well as my own.

20 years too late

[sashkga · 4/10 · 10 February 2002]

While I was sitting back watching this flick, it suddenly dawned on me how much this movie resembled an early 80s cop feature, from the overdone chase scenes to the cheesy dialog. But today even the "investigative reporter caught in intrigue" hook cannot save this film, considering that films like "I Love Trouble" have already pulled this off with much greater flair.

To top things off, Judge Reinhold delivers one of his worst performances ever, considering how well he has played clichéd roles in the past. Yet another aspect of this movie that would have been better 20 years ago.

Correction

[npcentral · 9 September 2001]

The supporting character referred above who disappears is played by Kim Darby, and there is a logical reason for her disappearance. It's established she knows the area better than the others and ditches them when the bad guys show up. The film is fast-paced, and it's hard to keep up at times. It's not a great movie by any means, but Darby provides a lot of humor, as does Noelle Parker.

Is anyone clean in the whole city ?

[Dr_Coulardeau · 8/10 · 11 August 2007]

A thriller about some embezzling and corruption in some kind of city in California. Nothing special indeed. And yet the film centers on some journalists, as a profession, but also on one particular journalist, as a s***t-raker. It states their function is to bring truth to the knowledge of the public, and eventually of the FBI. To thicken the film that would sicken a little bit otherwise the main journalist is the elder son of the local judge and his younger brother is entering politics. In other words the scandal that is being chased after by the journalists compromises the judge directly and many other people in all city departments. At the very beginning one journalist is captured with a film of pictures he has just taken of blueprints that were supposed to be private. In other words he had just been on a spying mission. End of the game. Three of his friends will pick up the story and try to get to the bottom of it. They will manage to get some evidence but the press will refuse to publish the story. End of the game. Then they have to face the criminals and they start running and escaping from lethal attempts on their lives. They will run very well, very long and very hard. But you cannot do anything against fate, though the film cannot end like that. So a miracle happens and one corrupted person has managed to be touched by divine grace and repent. He then can arrive with the FBI. End of the game, a happy end for the journalists.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne