VividSimon Simply Perfect

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

MBunge Let me ask you a question. If you had James Spader, Aidan Quinn and Peter Coyote in your cast, would you make Matt Davis the star of your film? How is that supposed to work? How is a young actor virtually no one has ever heard of like Davis supposed to avoid getting blown off the screen every time he's in a scene with one of those veteran performers? It's like trying to build a house where three sides are made of brick and one side is made of straw. You can't blame Davis for that. He didn't give himself the part. These filmmakers had the money/connections/Columbian nose candy to get Spader, Quinn and Coyote in their motion picture, but then the best they could get for the most important role in the whole shebang is Matt Davis? What, was Urkel from "Family Matters" unavailable? How about Screech from "Saved by the Bell"? Did Adrian Zmed not return any phone calls? Shadow Of Fear certainly has other problems, but this thing never had a chance to be any good due to such an inexplicable imbalance in experience and star power.Harrison French (Matt Davis) is a young businessman who just lost a big deal. Driving home in the rain he hits and kills a guy, whom he drags into the woods and tries to forget about. Two fairly unbelievable coincidences prevent that from happening. One, it turns out the guy Harrison killed robbed a bank that very morning. Two, it seems the guy was also the brother of Harrison's erratic wife (Robin Tunney). Desperate for help, Harrison turns to the enigmatic William Ashbury (James Spader), who promises to help Harrison avoid the dogged pursuit of Detective Scofield (Aidan Quinn). But it turns out Ashbury has some very unusual ideas of what constitutes "help". Throw in the disapproving father of Harrison's wife (Peter Coyote) and a sister-in-law (Lacey Chabert) who wants to jump Harrison's bones, and that's Shadow Of Fear.I can't say Matt Davis does an awful job in this movie because Harrison French is such a worthless character that all but the best would be hamstrung in their performance. Harrison has no discernible personality and before the audience sees enough of him to ever know that, he's introduced first as a loser in his career and then as the sort of bastard who will negligently murder somebody and cover it up to protect himself. And he's the HERO of this affair.The only interesting thing about Shadow Of Fear is William Ashbury, both because Spader is always interesting and because the character is like the Star Trek Mirror Universe version of the hero of a Stephen J. Cannell TV show, if that makes any sense. Ashbury assists rich and powerful men in covering up their misdeeds, then punishes them by making their repeat their sins over and over until they're sick of them. Oh, and he also appears to hit on their wives and young daughters. Why he does it all and to what end is never explained or even hinted at, but there's something intriguing about a character who could very easily be a good guy instead made out to be a villain. It's also amusing to see how incredulous Ashbury is at the end to be taken down by such a nonentity as Harrison, largely because it comes off equally as Spader's incredulousness at how his talent has gone to waste in this turkey.If Robin Tunney and Lacey Chabert had gotten naked and Davis had been replaced by someone capable of standing up to his older co-stars, Shadow Of Fear might have made an implausible but tolerable pot boiler. As it is, it's like a ship that sinks 30 seconds after its been launched from the docks.

Katherine Howard I give this a 3 out of ten, and that's only because cuties Quinn, Spader, and Coyote (in that order) were in it. Aidan Quinn gave the best performance, living up to his sensual, commanding presence as a cunning detective. He is as handsome as handsome gets and was quite frankly the only reason I kept watching the movie until it ended (the end being reminiscent of a "Ya seen one, ya seen 'em all: SuperHero Saves the Day" moment). I suspect he had no clue the final cut of the movie would render such a poor product, much less that it threatened to weaken his very reputation as a reputable actor! Spader gave likely the worst performance I've ever seen him yield--with virtually no emotion and even less vocabulary employed throughout. His performance was faarrr from "commanding" or even engaging and was flatly unconvincing. The movie was played out like everyone was rehearsing the script for the first time in an audition and someone just happened to have a videocam nearby and decided to kill some time. To see a bunch of grown men sitting around sobbing in their drinks like the poor, helpless victims of a single Mastermind Grim Reaper (more like MustardMind) was beyond ridiculous and I came out thinking of Quinn, Spader, and Coyote: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? (Or were they all just really hard up for some cash that month?) The only thing missing was Spader's tights, cape, and evil mask as some cartoonish villain and hearing everyone that passed him cry, "Heil Ashbury!" The movie is a blight to them all. Such great actors and so poor a finished product . . . I'd hate to have something like this on my resume . . . especially so late in my established career.

Terryfan Now some movies have been known to be boring and Shadow of Fear is nothing different.And this is no movie for a fan to watch.Shadow of Fear try is a boring movie.There's no point so trying to figure out the story is a pain.Also the movie can't be worth anything.The movie limits the enjoyment of the movie, so the movie itself becomes rather boring, rather fast.The acting in the movie is just simple awful it's not even funny.Don't get me wrong, I like the cast of the movie.The music is not all that great.Shadow of Fear is a failure.If you really want a great movie, try something else, this movie has nothing that makes it worth watching.I give Shadow of Fear 4 out of 10.AVOID AT ALL COST

Peter Grunbaum I'm surprised this movie has got such a high rating. It starts out very promising with some nice images in the rain. In fact, it is extremely fascinating about until the time when he gets back to his wife and they begin talking. After that the movie falls apart little by little, until it becomes so borderline non-sensible that I just had to turn it off. It is not a matter of "plot twists" as some viewer suggested. Obviously, it is a question of just not being able to put a decent plot together. I see an alarming trend in the new DVD-market where many movies are put out quicker and easier to DVD than it was possible in the good old video days. American horror has suffered in recent years, and did not improve with the pathetic remakes of brilliant Asian horror. Anyway, "Shadow of Fear" is not a horror-movie. It is hardly even a movie. If it had only lasted until he got back to his wife, and she then turned into a demon or something; then it would have been a good "Twilight Zone"-episode but when a movie-plot collapses like that in one superfluous scene after the other then it becomes irrelevant to watch. As one viewer suggested, we are never told what this "organisation" does. I think, this is a major problem. On the back of the DVD it said something about a secret "cult"-organisation with big power. It sounded promising but in the movie this organisation seems completely devoid of power, so what's the point?