Best Seller (1987)

This terse, tense, no-nonsense collaboration between screenwriter Larry Cohen and director John Flynn parlays tough-guy attitude into true-crime thrills. The sort of well-crafted but unpretentious mid-budget cops-and-killers flick that seems to have disappeared since its '70s and '80s heyday, Best Seller features typically intense performances from stars Brian Dennehy and James Woods, the former as a hard-bitten cop turned author, the latter as an elegant, haughty hit man. Although the script is so soaked in testosterone that the only female presence of any note is the cop character's stupid, damsel-in-distress daughter, Cohen gives in to manly sentiment at the end; yet, the many well-wrought suspense sequences, strong lead actors, and literary plot hook elevate the material above its otherwise fairly typical crime-world scenario. Hardly a classic, Best Seller is still solid entertainment for genre aficionados. It might make a good video double feature with F/X, another gimmicky Dennehy thriller. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide