Rainbow Drive (1990 TV Movie) User Reviews

Too much chit-chat, not enough action to this cat-and-mouse cop thriller. (spoilers)

[vertigo_14 · 4/10 · 31 July 2005]

'Rainbow Drive' is a somewhat confusing cop thriller because it involves a lot of characters and several different crimes. Peter Weller plays a detective who, while sleeping with another man's wife, discovers a house full of murdered people in what looks like a gang killing. But, although he discovered the crime scene which rightfully makes it his case, he is told by his superiors to back off. That the case is already being taken care of. Except, they're saying a gang is responsible when clearly it isn't. And, as the detective is trying to find out from partners and others he works with why he's not being allowed to investigate this one particular case, he obviously has to be extremely careful because those who are involved in the corruption are watching closely.

The problem with movies like this, which has numerous culprits (both minions and high-level villains) is that when the villains reveal their motives and intentions, they do so in such an uninteresting manner. Star cop, who's investigations dangerously lead him to his suspects, simply forces them to confess. Or, the villain will choose to confess thinking he has the upper hand and will eventually defeat this last loose end. Well, when you have several people doing that in the finale of one film, the results are very uninteresting if done only through dialog. Here, it was one low-level minion who confesses what could've better been made evident to the viewer through actions and dialog or action alone. His confessions unveil too much of the corruption, and it's hard for the viewer to keep track of this. Meanwhile, the finale, most powerful and most corrupt villain explains just a bit more much later. It's told in such a droll fashion what should've been revealed either through a longer film, or through clever action of some sort.

I was surprised, however, that this movie does not permit the viewer his usual happy ending expectations wherein everything is resolved so perfectly, and often too quickly or unrealistically. Instead, the viewer is in for a rather nice, abrupt surprise.

Those in the mood for a mild, made-for-TV cop thriller might give this one. But, I would recommend it more to fans of the cast.

So-So Cop Noir in LA-LA-Land

[av_m · 5/10 · 26 July 2022]

This flick is like putting a pan of water on the stove and not turning the heat up high enough - it gets warm, but it never boils.

The script is not bad - worthy cop noir wise-guy banter; and the editing sets a pretty snappy pace - until it all gets a bit too snarled up and, as a viewer, you lose track of who's who not to mention who's done what to who and entire characters just drop out of sight. Photography & sets seem to be desperately trying to capture a 1970's flavor LA - lots of stark old forlorn concrete and iron abandoned industrial sites and hosed down wet=slick nighttime street scenes and setting lit in noir relief, but it all never rises to high cinematic art, for sure.

In terms of the acting, Peter Weller is just not intensely street-edgy enough to carry the main cop role which, basically, has to carry the whole film - I kept thinking, WWSMcQD; i.e., what would Steve McQueen do - and Weller never did that.

Lots of other good actors in supporting - almost cameo - roles - David Caruso, Bruce Weitz, Sela Ward, Henry Sanders, even Megan Mullaly - but alas, none of the male characters are plausibly crazy derring-do and none of the women characters are sizzlingly sexy, so, as I said at the outset, the pot just never boils.

Mediocre crime movie simply goes through the motions

[mysteriesfan · 3/10 · 7 August 2007]

This movie is better than Sunset Grill, another marginal, grim, murky film in which Peter Weller plays a tough, honest loner taking on a powerful criminal conspiracy. But it may be less interesting than that strangely quirky, offbeat movie. Rainbow Drive is a thoroughly undistinguished dud, which is especially disappointing given its talented, recognizable cast and its origin in a Roderick Thorp novel.

Waking at dawn in the bed of a married woman (Kathryn Harrold), Weller, as the chief of detectives in Hollywood, hears strange sounds coming from the house next door. He discovers five dead bodies, neatly killed in their beds, sees a man running away, and fruitlessly gives chase to a fleeing car. By the time he returns to the crime scene, the "big city" cops - represented by a blowhard chief running for mayor and his ice-cold lackey assistant (David Caruso) - have already moved in on the case and frozen out Weller's local office. A woman's body mysteriously disappears from the house and shows up in another location, the four remaining, male bodies in the house are quickly written off as victims of a drug-related gang crime, and Weller's partner (Bruce Weitz) soon dies in a car crash after having tried to warn Weller off the case.

Seething with suspicions about his partner's death and what appears to be a big-scale cover-up, Weller digs into the case. But he is hampered by warnings from higher-ups to keep away and by not being able to divulge that he had discovered the five bodies at the house because that would also mean revealing that he had been with the married woman next door. He is fed clues by a lovely, intelligent woman (Sela Ward) who tells him she is a psychiatrist "profiling" the mass killing. Despite the lock-down on access to the case, she seems to have free run of the crime scene and the case files. Weller enlists the reluctant help of a sympathetic but cowardly coroner and of a fidgety but dutiful cop, who provides various wiretapping and other gadgets (like a "pen gun"). Along the way, Weller leaves unanswered phone messages for Harrold, takes a late-night swim in the pool at his house (how did he afford that?), shares a kiss and a hug on the couch with Ward, finds his house is bugged, and survives a clumsy attempt on his life.

The trail leads to a sleazy nightclub. It turns out to be a money laundering "front" for unidentified corrupt activities of a high-society big-shot, who is so evil as to have "butchered" the people in the house, including an intimate, for attempting blackmail. Weller tracks down and beats the truth out of a punk who sold out the others in the house but apparently has managed to stay alive by hiding evidence as "insurance" (that conveniently only Weller gets him to admit and then finds). An FBI agent surfaces, claims to be conducting a long-term investigation, and tries to warn Weller off. But he slugs the agent and bulls ahead alone into a final confrontation and gun battle. It leaves a pile of dead bodies, except for the big-shot, who slips away. After the FBI bursts on the scene, declares Weller's use of a wire "illegal," and berates him for blowing the chance to nail the top person, Weller shakes his head and walks away, with the cynical exit line, "The important ones never get caught." The credits roll.

This movie is more serious and less uneven than Sunset Grill, which came off as weirdly tongue-in-cheek. Weller looks quite different than he did there, here as a clean-cut, suit-and-tie chief. Again, he does an adequate, straight-ahead job. Popular supporting actors are on hand, like Caruso, Ward, Weitz, Harrold, and Megan Mullally.

But the talent is wasted in a weak, flat, unoriginal effort at a "gritty crime thriller." The story is choppy, trite, and undeveloped. Weller's "investigation" is flimsy and confusing, and his tactics are unprofessional and self-defeating. The movie lacks wit or feeling. For a movie set in "Hollywood," the film offers nothing more than dirty, dingy shots that seem like they could have come from many other places. The music by Tangerine Dream is barely noticeable and completely unmemorable.

None of the characters is interesting or engaging, and it is hard to follow who they all are. Weller's brooding, opaque character soon becomes tiresome. Caruso and Ward do good jobs, but they have only thin, limited roles. Harrold is a glorified extra, given nothing more to do than look pretty, fill out a nightgown, and banter with Weller in one trivial scene. Mullally fares only slightly better in the bit part of (I think) a loudmouth friend of the murdered woman. (I did not even see the cute blonde on the box cover in the movie.) Here, Weitz wears loud, checkered sport coats, chews with his mouth open, and by all appearances is a spineless, good-for-nothing smart-aleck whose only contributions are to keep repeating that "Rainbow Drive is not our case" and to suddenly blurt out that he sold out his badge years ago by letting a VIP hit-and-run driver go before other cops arrived. Yet we are supposed to care about this nothing, amateurishly drawn character, who the movie belatedly and implausibly tries to turn into a hero by saying he "knew something" and was "tracking down a lead" when he died.

TV Guide billed this movie as a "whodunit." It is more like a "who-didn't-dun-it" and a "why'd-they-bother-to-make-it." Everything in the movie, including the tone, look, feel, settings, and characters, exists only to conjure up a superficial effect -- a cynical, bad attitude and image of a cesspool of corruption. All that is accomplished in the end is an uninspired, shallow, murky, disorganized, depressing, pointless police procedural that is not meaningful or satisfying but instead merely goes through the motions.

All the cliches and even more

[Angeneer · 2/10 · 10 September 1999]

I can't find any interest in this movie. Boring, predictable, slow, dumb etc. Maybe if a cinema historian 100 years after asked a sample of all the cliches in a cop movie, it could be a contestant. It uses them all. From plot cliches to character cliches to location cliches. In fact there was a point where I was thinking which one I hadn't seen yet and tada! in the next scene it was there!

Weller's Performance

[ecichy · 8/10 · 6 February 2004]

Peter Weller's performance can carry pretty much anything. He's not a household name so he gets stuck mostly in B films and TV movies like this one, but they're all pretty decent, if made on a moderate to low budget. Point is its worth watching for him, as well as the score by Tangerine Dream. Not a bad flick at all.

" My Father was a good Cop, but he reminded me, everybody has secrets "

[thinker1691 · 8/10 · 29 November 2010]

Peter Weller has made himself unforgettable with his portrayal of 'Robo-Cop.' Since then, he has tried various other movie roles and for the most part his films have been accepted, but few are strong enough to surpass his original character. In this movie, " Rainbow Drive " he plays Det. Mike Gallagher (Peter Weller) a Homicide Officer who works the Hollywood division. Unfortunately, a multiple murder takes place just doors from his home but surprisingly, his jurisdiction is taken from him and Dan Crawford (Bruce Weitz) his partner. When it's learned, he is still investigating, his partner is killed and he is threatened with death. The farther he investigates, the more danger he is exposed to and those who wish to bury the murders are high and hot and stem from very powerful sources. For Weller, this type of film is filled with Dark Drama, cloak and dagger and plenty of backstreet shadows filled with lethal results. It is interesting to see David Caruso from TV's CSI fame playing, Larry Hammond and that in itself makes for a great combination. All in all, a much better caliber of movie which might lean itself to interesting movie audiences and Peter Weller fans. ****