Believe It Or Not

Roger Ebert has a regular feature where he reviews classic films. He's even published two collections of these essays. Most of the movies he discusses are worthy, but maybe he's running out of titles.

His latest pick is the little-seen Ripley's Game (2002). The film, starring John Malkovich as Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley, was not considered commericially viable and went straight to cable. I'm guessing this is some sort of orphan syndrome pick--if the film had a normal release, Ebert couldn't be its champion and he'd see it for what it is.

I finally caught the film (on cable) last week. John Malkovich is good, but we've seen him play the psycho role before. The plot, where Ripley gets a regular guy involved in murder, is a bit hard to buy. And the action sequences have some awkwardly staged moments.

I'm not sure who made the decision not to release the film theatrically. Perhaps they thought the film too ordinary and Malkovich not a big enough star. In any case, it's a decent piece of work, but it shouldn't have a chapter in a book about great movies.