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MTI Home Video presents

Crime Scene (aka Reasonable Doubt) (2003)

"That's your therapy? A $250 per hour phone sex line?"- Charlie (Amber Smith)

Stars: Amber Smith
Other Stars: John Henry, Billy Jean Kirkland, Orien Richman, Cortney Allen
Director: Eric DelaBarre

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (nudity, sexuality, language)
Run Time: 01h:29m:50s
Release Date: 2003-03-25
Genre: crime

Style
Grade
Substance
Grade
Image Transfer
Grade
Audio Transfer
Grade
Extras
Grade
D- D-B-B- F

 

DVD Review

Readers of Maxim magazine are probably familiar with model Amber Smith, at least by sight. I mean, who really remembers the names of all those long-legged and scantily-clad models? There are just so many of them, it all becomes a blur at some point. I suspect that is Smith on the cover art of this release from MTI, though it bears little resemblance to the Smith found in the film itself.

Crime Scene (aka Reasonable Doubt) is a tired 2001 cop film that stars Smith as a fashion-conscious police detective (she's described as a "lethal agent" on the backcover) named Charlie, investigating a series of murders that appear to have been committed by a serial killer known as The Baptist. Problem is, Charlie gunned down The Baptist a few years ago, so the current murders must logically be the work of a copycat. Or are they? More importantly, do we really care?

This is a film that wants us to immediately accept Smith (who is really a lingerie model) as a grizzled detective, and we are force fed the fact that she's unconventionally cool and against the grain because she drives a vintage blue convertible. That's about the extent of character soul-searching or development that's found here, other than some slapped together comments about her "emotional detachment" or her stereotypically gruff lieutenant telling her to cut out the "Lone Ranger bullsh**". Yep, she's a rebel. We get it. My perception is that her crime-solving skills seem to be based more on having photogenic sex with suspects than any form of deductive reasoning.

The only thing that remotely held my attention during Crime Scene were the frequent bouts of nudity and tepid soft-core sex, including a wonderful hot tub romp between Charlie and a sexy sex therapist, played by Billy Jean Kirkland. There's the requisite strip club scene, and a couple of nicely done "girls-stripping-for-a-video-camera" moments which, unfortunately, collectively have little to do with advancing the story or making me care for anything but for the scene to feature more skin; at least that way it was guaranteed the corny dialogue would stop temporarily.

Other than the sex and skin, Crime Scene is sadly rather pointless.

Rating for Style: D-
Rating for Substance: D-

 

Image Transfer

 One
Aspect Ratio1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Rationo
Anamorphicno


Image Transfer Review: A satisfactory 1.33:1 full-frame transfer awaits you on MTI's release of Crime Scene, full of pleasant and natural looking fleshtones. Colors are not especially bright, and have a made-for-television look to them. No noticeable source print flaws or compression issues.

Image Transfer Grade: B-
 

Audio Transfer

 LanguageRemote Access
DS 2.0Englishno


Audio Transfer Review: An uneventful 2.0 surround track in English is included as the sole audio option. Dialogue (bad as it is) is clear and understandable, with no hiss, crackle or apparent imaging to be found.

Adequate, but nothing special.

Audio Transfer Grade: B- 

Disc Extras

Full Motion menu with music
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extras Review: I only had a promotional copy to go on, but there were no chapter stops, no trailers, and no subtitles.

Thank you, MTI.

Extras Grade: F
 

Final Comments

Nudity, and a fair amount of it at that, can't even come close saving this horrendous time-waster.

In a word: awful.

Rich Rosell 2003-04-23