Kiss the Girls 4K 1997 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Eight young, beautiful, and talented women have been kidnapped. All of them may die if police officer Alex Cross cannot track down the hideout of the elusive serial killer who calls himself Casanova. The manhunt unfolds from the small towns of the Deep South to the California coast. The feisty witness Kate McTairnan is the only one who manages to escape Casanova’s clutches, and now her goal is to help Alex free the rest of the victims.

Review 4K Movie

A mysterious psychopath who calls himself Casanova kidnaps beautiful young women, building a collection of sex slaves. Alex Cross, an experienced police psychologist, is on the maniac’s trail, driven by a personal stake in the case: one of the victims is Cross’s niece.

“Kiss the Girls” is a high-quality detective thriller that doesn’t claim to be a genre masterpiece, but is guaranteed to appeal to most fans of “serial killer” investigations. The film is based on a novel by James Patterson—one of the highest-paid and most popular writers of our time, author of a series of books featuring the detective-psychologist Alex Cross, played here by the magnificent Morgan Freeman. To the delight of readers and viewers alike, Cross always investigates particularly complex and dangerous cases in which he faces devilishly cunning and brutal villains. In “Kiss the Girls,” Cross’s adversary is a clever, ruthless monster—a rapist and murderer.

As a tense and gripping puzzle, the film is truly well-made. Director Gary Fleder has a keen sense of the thriller genre, skillfully builds suspense, and maintains a dynamic narrative pace. It’s commendable that, in making a strictly adult “R”-rated film dealing with violence and sex, Fleder strikes a balance between harsh realism and explicit naturalism. The scenes featuring the victims trapped in the maniac’s lair are filled with horror, even though there is virtually no graphic violence on screen. An atmosphere of tension and danger is palpable in almost every scene, and—allowing for artistic and cinematic conventions—you truly believe the story being told, which is a credit to both the author of the original novel and the director. The two hours fly by in one breath, and even if a particularly attentive and perceptive viewer figures out the ending, I think they’ll still appreciate the beauty of the detective plot and its powerful execution.

That said, when comparing “Kiss the Girls” to outstanding examples of the genre, such as “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Seven,” Fleeder’s film—despite its undeniably high-caliber direction and solid screenplay—is nothing more than an interesting thriller. The film lacks high drama, philosophical depth, auteur directorial touches, truly unique characters, and highly original plot twists—those attributes that are wholly or partly characteristic of “Films” with a capital “F,” rather than simply high-quality examples of genre entertainment. Therefore, Fleder’s film is destined both to please audiences and to fade quickly from their memory. You’ll enjoy watching it, but after a while, you’ll remember it only as one of many decent thrillers meant to liven up an evening.