Serial killer was one of the most over-used motives in 1990s Hollywood, both among major studio projects and B-movies. Naturally, after a while, all those films started becoming indistinguishable from each other. Some film makers nevertheless tried to bring some originality to the concept, including Jonathan Tydor and Larry Golin, writers of Dead Connection a.k.a. Final Combination, 1994 thriller directed by Nigel Dick.
This time the serial killer is really nasty piece of work whose modus operandi includes raping women not before but after beating them to death. Task of catching this maniac is given to police detective Matt Dickson (played by Michael Madsen). Method of killing and habit of using names of former boxing champions as alias lead Dickson to believe that the killer is great fan of that particular sport. The investigation gets complicated with the appearance of attractive reporter Catherine Biggs (played by Lisa Bonnet).
Michael Madsen is the one of those actors who looks like he was born to play roles in this kind of films - either as villain or, like in this particular case, the only kind of hero who could have realistic chance of beating villain. To say that Madsen eats this role for breakfast would be waste of time. However, Madsen is more or less the only memorable thing about Dead Connection. Everyone else sleepwalks through their roles, including such well- known actresses like Lisa Bonnet or Parker Posey, former independent cinema queen. The plot has interesting premise and the villain looks realistic and down to-earth compared with the traditional over-the-top monsters who tried to top Hannibal Lecter. But after the initial set-up Dead Connection sinks to usual quagmire of cliches and other deja vu plot solutions. General impression is slightly improved with the unusual, jazzy musical score by Rolfe Kent, but in the end Final Combination is hardly the winning one.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on November 27th 2002)
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