Harold McCain is a gambler although he is not a very good one and he has run up big debts with mean bookie, Hacker. It would be easy for his uncle Big Fred to clear his debts given that he is very wealthy and owns an American Football team. However Fred dislikes his nephew and has no intention of helping him, meaning that Harold must resort to other measures to get his hands on his money namely murder. He rigs a bomb under his uncle's car but his plans are altered when his uncle is killed in a hit and run whilst jogging. Harold can't believe his luck until he realises that the bomb is still under the car and, with police all over the place he has to try and get it out and hide it. He fails to do so and someone trying to move the car dies in the explosion giving Columbo another murder investigation while Lt Robertson picks up the hit and run.
As with many TV film series (such as Perry Mason), if you like one or two of them then you'll pretty much like them all. This entry in the Columbo series pretty much follows the usual formula we know the killer and the "perfect" plan but then watch Columbo follow his hunch and gradually starts to pick holes in the story he is told before eventually finding enough to prove his suspicions. However in this entry in the "new" Columbo's things are not quite that simple because the plan doesn't work at all and Harold's futures go from good to bad to worse when he kills the wrong man in front of the police. Although this essentially does set up the usual investigation, it is enough of a different first 30 minutes to make it seem that much more interesting and, although we know the car will blow up, it is still quite tense while Harold tries to get at the bomb under the noses of the police.
The film provides some nice twists along the way but the second "big" one is a bit unlikely and asks us to accept a lot about Dolores, who up till that point had been nothing but a comedy drunk. The film isn't as good from that point on because the sudden shift of direction in the final third doesn't really work (it didn't work in Columbo Cries Wolf either) because the main mystery that Columbo was doing just ends with Harold's murder essentially negating the 70 minutes of film beforehand. It is still interesting enough to carry itself till the end but it loses a lot of pace by changing everything so suddenly and so late. The solution to the murder is also a problem specifically the issues over Dolores killing Harold without leaving blood in her house and being able to move a really big guy to another house unseen, but this is all part of the weakness in the final quarter.
Falk is still good as Columbo although some scenes portray him as a bit of a clown (specifically rolling around on the car showroom floor). Normally he is a comic figure but the films always bring out his intelligence under the surface something that this film doesn't do quite as well. Evigan may have a nasty style (cowboy boots, country music and ugly moustache) but he is a nice "suspect" character and works well with Falk. Daly is poor; for the majority she is just giving a poor drunk performance and the sudden change to scheming femme fatale just doesn't convince at all. Forrest is OK and, having just seen him spoof noisy senior police officers in Last Action Hero, it was amusing to see McRae deliver the same again! McEveety does pretty well as director, injecting tension well at places (until the material lets him down) but I must admit that I didn't think opening with the same music as the famous opening of Goodfellas was a good idea it just made me think how great Goodfellas was.
Overall though it is an enjoyable Columbo despite the fact that the final 20 minutes does really spoilt it to some degree mainly by suddenly dismissing everything that had gone before. Not good enough to stand up alongside the original series but certainly one of the better modern ones.
As with many TV film series (such as Perry Mason), if you like one or two of them then you'll pretty much like them all. This entry in the Columbo series pretty much follows the usual formula we know the killer and the "perfect" plan but then watch Columbo follow his hunch and gradually starts to pick holes in the story he is told before eventually finding enough to prove his suspicions. However in this entry in the "new" Columbo's things are not quite that simple because the plan doesn't work at all and Harold's futures go from good to bad to worse when he kills the wrong man in front of the police. Although this essentially does set up the usual investigation, it is enough of a different first 30 minutes to make it seem that much more interesting and, although we know the car will blow up, it is still quite tense while Harold tries to get at the bomb under the noses of the police.
The film provides some nice twists along the way but the second "big" one is a bit unlikely and asks us to accept a lot about Dolores, who up till that point had been nothing but a comedy drunk. The film isn't as good from that point on because the sudden shift of direction in the final third doesn't really work (it didn't work in Columbo Cries Wolf either) because the main mystery that Columbo was doing just ends with Harold's murder essentially negating the 70 minutes of film beforehand. It is still interesting enough to carry itself till the end but it loses a lot of pace by changing everything so suddenly and so late. The solution to the murder is also a problem specifically the issues over Dolores killing Harold without leaving blood in her house and being able to move a really big guy to another house unseen, but this is all part of the weakness in the final quarter.
Falk is still good as Columbo although some scenes portray him as a bit of a clown (specifically rolling around on the car showroom floor). Normally he is a comic figure but the films always bring out his intelligence under the surface something that this film doesn't do quite as well. Evigan may have a nasty style (cowboy boots, country music and ugly moustache) but he is a nice "suspect" character and works well with Falk. Daly is poor; for the majority she is just giving a poor drunk performance and the sudden change to scheming femme fatale just doesn't convince at all. Forrest is OK and, having just seen him spoof noisy senior police officers in Last Action Hero, it was amusing to see McRae deliver the same again! McEveety does pretty well as director, injecting tension well at places (until the material lets him down) but I must admit that I didn't think opening with the same music as the famous opening of Goodfellas was a good idea it just made me think how great Goodfellas was.
Overall though it is an enjoyable Columbo despite the fact that the final 20 minutes does really spoilt it to some degree mainly by suddenly dismissing everything that had gone before. Not good enough to stand up alongside the original series but certainly one of the better modern ones.