Reviewed by Nick Nunziata on May 6th, 2002
Directed by Jan De Bont
Starring Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones, Patrick Bergin, Sean Patrick Flanery, Metallica
After the success of the first one, and the decline in IQ in America they decided to have another go at Double Jeopardy. This first was rather bland and basic but the bottom line needs to be fed, so here it is. Ashley Judd plays a lady who marries again even though her last marriage ended in jail time, murder, stress, mayhem, and athlete’s foot. Patrick Bergin plays her mate, and the audience first becomes suspicious when he goes through the video store erasing copies of SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY which had a lot in common with the first film and starred Bergin in a similar role.
Her husband is an astronaut, and when he burns alive upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere she is convicted for his murder.
Implausible? A bit.
She serves her time, this time learning legal matters from a quadriplegic inmate named Mike (Ellen Degeneres) and realizes that if her husband is alive, she cannot be tried for his murder. She escapes prison and goes cross country looking up people with the same name as her husband (Larry Johnson) and killing them. Soon the bodies pile up and Tommy Lee Jones sleepwalks across the country after her.
An expensive climax happens on top of the Empire State Building with Judd, Larry Johnson number 211, and Tommy Lee Jones all dangling while sharing tense words. Of course I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that both Ashley Judd, Harry Dean Stanton, and Chow Yun-Fat perish. It isn’t art, but it’s braindead and people seem to like it in favor of GOOD movies. Not unlike the original.
3.9 out of 10