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The Story
Morgan Freeman stars as Alex Cross, a Washington D.C. police
detective who is famous and well-respected for his books on profiling serial
killers. Alex is mulling over the
sudden loss of his
partner in an undercover sting operation eight months before. He finds
himself unable to resume his law enforcement work. Meanwhile, Gary
Soneji (Michael Wincott),
a
teacher in a special grade school for children of diplomats and politicians,
kidnaps the daughter of Congressman Rose.
When Soneji makes a personal call to Alex, Alex immediately snaps out
of his depressed state and springs to action to help the FBI in their
attempts to
recover the girl. He is joined by Jezzie Flannigan
(Monica Potter),
a secret service agent who has assigned to protect the congressman's
daughter and failed to stop the kidnapping. Alex tries to encourage
Jezzie, amidst her frustration:
"You do what you are... You're born with a gift.
If not that then you get good at something along the way.
And what you're good at, you don't take for granted.
You don't betray it.
[If you do] then you betray yourself.
That's a sad thing."
Unlike many detective stories involving cooperation
between various local and national law enforcement agencies, like the
Washington D.C. police department and the FBI in this film, there are no
inter-agency politics and conflict. That's refreshing. So much
so that it seems to be an original concept. 
With that commentary aside, "Along Came A Spider" is a gripping
psychological thriller. The plot is smart and well thought out, with
some unexpected twists and turns to keep the audience on guard.
Morgan Freeman's performance is as strong as usual in a
stereotypical role with which he should be very comfortable. Michael
Wincott gave a solid performance as the schoolteacher-turned-kidnapper. The
most brilliant performance came from Mika Boorem, who played
the kidnapped congressman's young daughter. However, the acting performances
of other cast members aren't as consistently solid as you would expect from
a film of this caliber. No, I won't name names. It's obvious who
they are. Fortunately, the smart and highly polished screenplay made up for much of a few
actor's less-than-convincing performances. All in all, I strongly recommend this film to those who
enjoy a good mystery or psychological thriller.
The Extras
The "Along A Came Spider" DVD contains a very minimal
set of bonus
material:
A disappointing set of bonus features, to say the
least.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is very good. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is very good. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced and the surround channels are effectively
employed, though not used aggressively. The dialog
consistently comes across crystal clear.
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United We Stand
