Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

lost-in-limbo Passable murder thriller that won't set the world alight, but it's the charismatic Kurt Russell who carries you throughout along with a well-oiled support cast (Richard Masur, Richard Jordan (a very uneasy performance as the killer), Andy Garcia, William Smith and Joe Pantoliano). Like everyone has already mentioned, Mariel Hemingway is one of the unconvincing factors and her performance did really grate away --- not helping was the character she was portraying too. What starts as off as provocatively stimulating (where the killer contacts Russell's newspaper reporter character to offer him the chance to become his link to the media -- informing him about the murders before anyone else knows about it) only goes on to be your normal, predictable run of the mill psycho thriller where revenge threats (for stealing the limelight away) and kidnapping becomes the focal point. Early on the phone calls between the reporter and the killer, drills out some suspense and it opens up the ambitious nature of the media and at what cost you would go to cement a story with the close ties that are formed. This is seen to be a big breakthrough for Russell's burnt-out character, until it starts to affect everything around him namely that with his fiancée (Hemingway) and instead of reporting it he eventually becomes the news. Set during the middle of Miami's storm-riddled summer, it's engulfed by a humid atmosphere and music scorer Lalo Schfrin cooks up one excellently saucy and characteristically unhinged score that blends right in. The standard material is given a lot more punch due to Schfrin's input.

lastliberal Like any good writer, I have no hesitation in admitting my biases. Any hero that drives around in a Mustang convertible gets extra points. Any film that occurs in the Florida hurricane season gets points for atmosphere.There, that's the biases, and they don't take away from a good crime story that also has a lot to say about the newspaper business. Like his boss says, "We're not manufacturing, we're retail." Sometimes, you forget that and become part of the process instead of just reporting the results. I like those blurry lines, as they really make you think about what you are watching.The story starts off really good, but it doesn't live up to the potential. "Seven" shows how it should be done. But, hey, this was way before that and it did a fair job of sucking you in and presenting some good surprises.And, we did after all, get to see Mariel's hemingways as she stepped out of the shower. Certainly, that's worth the price of admission. Richard Jordan as the serial killer was also excellent.

Ina_no_name A man writing for the newspaper get a phone call by a murderer that wants him to write about the murderer and make him famous with his killings. To make that happen, he gives the reporter clues about his next killings. The problem is the reporter turns out to be a bigger star than the murderer, and the murderer doesn't like that.It's suppose to be his big breakthrough. He has to do something about it to turn it the other way, by chasing the girlfriend of the reporter.This is nothing new. A killer chasing someone's girlfriend to get even. How many times haven't we seen that? You won't get surprised and you'll guess how the whole thing is gonna end. I'm sure the book is better.

Jonathon Dabell Kurt Russell has spent most of his career playing a big, dumb oaf (Overboard, Big Trouble In Little China, Tango & Cash, etc.), so it's refreshing to see him in a more serious role. The Mean Season is taken from a novel entitled In The Heat Of The Summer by John Katzenbach (whose other books include Just Cause, later filmed with Sean Connery). The film is a fairly engrossing, if familiar, serial killer story, set in Florida just as the summer ends and the stormy season begins.Miami Journal reporter Malcolm Anderson (Russell) writes a piece about the murder of a woman. Malcolm is getting bored of his job at the Journal and plans to move to pastures new with his girlfriend, teacher Christine Connelly (Mariel Hemingway). However, he receives a mysterious phone call from the murderer, congratulating him on his report and informing him of several more murders that he intends to carry out. Seems the killer wants to use Malcolm as his "conduit to the public". More murders follow, as promised, and each time Malcolm is given exclusive information from the killer. Soon, Malcolm is the toast of the journalistic world - every reporter wants his story, every TV station wants to interview him, and there's even talk of him being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. But the psycho at the centre of the whole business is enraged that his acts are being overlooked in favour of Malcolm's new-found celebrity status. And so he plans to teach Malcolm a lesson.....There's a little suspense in the story, especially when the unseen killer is on the phone to Malcolm. Also the gradual disintegration of Malcolm and Christine's relationship (he's seduced by the media spotlight; she wants him to end his liaisons with the murderer) adds a further layer to the story. The main problem with The Mean Season is that its second-half drifts into the kind of silliness that the first half is so careful to avoid. After setting up an exciting and intriguing premise, this comes as a disappointment. The killer, who has been ruthlessly efficient to this point, suddenly becomes sloppy and tries to make his murders ludicrously elaborate (even though the story has already made it obvious that he's supposed to be unswervingly cold-blooded). Also, the film can't resist one of those clichéd endings - a final frisson, if you like, which has been an overused device since Carrie (1976) - in which the killer "returns from the dead" to terrorise his victims one final time. The Mean Season is an OK thriller, but frustratingly it never quite becomes the first-rate movie that it might have been.