Eye for an Eye (1996)

The thing that spoiled the story for me and just made the whole thing implausible was ed harris and ed harris alone........i cannot imagine a father whose daughter is violently raped and murdered acting in such a blaze' or indifferent and completely detached manner.........he was absolutely blank about it and acted pretty much as if nothing unusual happened in his life.........as opposed, say, to sean penn in mystic river reacting to the same situation (outstanding believability) i have never thought much of harris' quirky and bizarre acting style until i realized he is just a terrible actor, that there is no real style to think about and this is a good example of that blankness and absence of emotion..........they would have gotten a better performance out of someone who just happened by the set.

Harris' performance here, as in many of his performances was without substance.

Fmovies: This movie is wonderful. The criticism is ridiculous

...seems to have enraged some viewers of this film. The bad guy is really bad. Guess what, they're like that in the real world too. There are plenty of bad guys out there who have no redeeming qualities and do laugh at the system, assuming it will never be able to really punish them. I found this movie very believable and thought the acting was terrific and the climax very satisfying. It was nice to see something come out of Hollywood that wasn't skewed in perspective by the left coast that produced it. Anybody who thinks Robert Doob as a character is too one-dimensional to be believable has never met a violent criminal in the flesh.

Eye for an Eye fmovies. Sally Fields does a good job with this movie as a revenge seeking mother of a teenage daughter who's been raped and murdered. I suppose to make this worth watching, she has to do a good job with this. The story itself has been done over and over: seeking revenge after a violent crime because the justice system has failed. That's a pretty cliché type of situation and story, so there's not really a great deal to recommend this as far as originality is concerned. But Fields is good, and Kiefer Sutherland is appropriately creepy and threatening as the rapist/murderer. The portrayal of the rape of Karen's daughter was terrifying, but (thankfully) not especially graphic.) The same could be said for the later rape committed by Sutherland's Doob. The movie, in my opinion, also makes a fair point about the justice system leaning too far on the side of defending the rights of obviously guilty criminals at the expense of actually dispensing justice for their victims. I understand the need to protect the rights of the accused, but there does have to be a balance, and that balance is sometimes lost in the system that we have.

I was kind of put off by the "group" the McCann's attended for people who had lost loved ones to violence. To each his or her own, I suppose, but I can't imagine that sitting around night after night talking about the same thing over and over and over again is really going to help anyone move on, and I wasn't convinced by the "vigilante organization" aspect of this.

I have to say, though, that I did like the ending. What I was finding distasteful up to this point was that Karen was going to turn vigilante, and by so doing she'd be be risking losing her other daughter as well by ending up in prison, which might have satisfied her own desire for revenge but would have been very selfish toward the younger daughter. So, the way she played things, she made sure that (a) she'd get her revenge, but (b) that she wouldn't lose anything more by doing it. So, the ending worked for me. Overall, I found this a pretty good watch. (7/10)

If you like Sally Field, you'll love this movie because she does what Sally does best . . . intense drama! I think she should have won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Karen, the horrified, devastated, angry, Mom/wife whose beautiful teen-age daughter was brutally raped & murdered by a wacko delivering groceries! She was every bit as good as she was in "Norma Rae" and "Places in the Heart"! Some say the movie was not realistic . . obviously you've never been poor or lived in bad neighborhoods, because this kind of stuff happens everyday! The way the justice system works was very realistic also. Gee, let me throw out the name O.J. Simpson! . . I rest my case! Granted the movie was very graphic but so is violent crime in real life! It was very realistic! I cried and grieved (having lost a loved one to violent crime myself) and was angry and revengeful right along with her. I wanted to reach thru the screen and strangle Robert Doob (Kiefer Sutherland, who should of won a best supporting actor award) the cocky, cold, malicious killer, who had no respect for human life and thought he was above the law! I hated him! And I would have done exactly what Sally Fields did if that was my only recourse get justice done! He was clever but she outsmarted him at his own game and did it within the law! This movie was so moving, I was an emotional wreck at the end just like Sally was! I thought the whole cast did a very good job and that the movie was underrated because of it's content. Not everyone wants to watch something so intense. After a hard day at work, I prefer to sit down to something lighthearted like comedy but this one was just to good to pass up!

Before the hit television show "24," Keifer Sutherland played mostly despicable, evil characters. That's what he does in this film, as "Robert Doob," a low-life who rapes and kills Sally Field's daughter and then is unfairly released by the courts. Sally, playing "Karen McCann," goes after justice.

Almost everyone loves a revenge story and that, of course, is what this movie is, pure and simple: kind of a female "Death Wish."

As for the characters, Sutherland is "over the top" with his guy - way, way past despicable, so ridiculously bad and evil you might even laugh.

For those who picture Sally Field as "The Flying Nun," this movie will be a shock. She is anything but the sweet, wholesome-looking girl she appeared to be in so many of her films when she was younger.....or even the new TV commercials of today. Even though she has shown she can be very foul- mouthed ('m talking 'real life'), somehow seeing her portrayed here as a vigilante, doesn't ring up. Charles Bronson, yes; Sally Field, uh.....no.

Be warned: this is a tough movie in spots, especially in the beginning. It is very similar to the opening in "Death Wish," and is not for the squeamish.

This isn't a bad movie. It is extremely manipulative and has a bunch of plot holes, but if you love revenge films and don't care about particularly intelligent scripts (although the mad-as-hell mom isn't stupid in here), you can just add this one to your library. It serves its purpose of entertaining.