Undo. A lot of recognizable Utah/Salt Lake Locations. Interesting if you grew up or lived in Utah in the late 80's early 90's. It's amusing to sometimes see cars driving down a sidewalk, or other areas around Salt Lake repurposed for locations like police stations and courtrooms. It's nice to see the old Salt Lake City police cars. Takes me back. Utah has never looked so good. It's usually grey and miserable. This must have been filmed in the early Spring. The rock climbing scenes are filmed on location and give the movie some production value. The movie is fine, the main actors are pretty good and elevate the material. But there's nothing groundbreaking here. The premise isn't bad. If the writing, directing, and story structure were revamped, and the cast was packed with A-listers This could probably be remade today with great success. Sela Ward and Rachel Ward are beautiful and Tron is pretty good too (he gets better as they add 5 o'clock shadow makeup). Sela Ward's lawyer assistant feel out of place. At one point she mentions having lived in New York. However, nobody in in the past 100 years would voluntarily move from New York to Utah. In 90's risqué fashion, they think that dude's butts will make it edgy. Additionaly some 90's fashion pops up now and again and makes you wonder if Nerf designed everything from this era. There's a lot of mentions of Utah and Salt Lake throughout the movie, but it doesn't really have relevance to the story. It also seems odd that so many characters are smoking indoors (and inside a school).
8 Reviews
*yawn*
culwin20 September 1999
This movie is not very thrilling and there are no plot "twists and turns" to speak of. I don't even know why this movie is called "Double Jeopardy". The trial ends 10 minutes before the end of the movie, when everything is revealed and the movie ends. A very stupid ending as well. The only thing that will keep you guessing is when something interesting is going to happen. All the actors do a good job and the director does fine with what he has to work with, but in the end, this could have been a good movie if only they had a good script to work with.
Watch it and judge for yourself
MovieFan98319 January 1999
Good acting and plot twists; disappointing ending
Uthman11 June 1999
Registering quite a bit above the typical made-for-TV potboiler, DOUBLE JEOPARDY features the fine acting of Bruce Boxleitner, Sela Ward, and Rachael Ward. The screenwriter cleverly lulls the viewer by seeming to go down predictable paths only to suddenly employ unexpected twists. The weak point of the film is the ending, which of course is a big weak point, but still this movie is worth a cable viewing.
The version I saw was on TNT (a nonpremium cable network) and probably bowdlerized, so I cannot comment on the racier aspects that may have survived on some rental version.
The version I saw was on TNT (a nonpremium cable network) and probably bowdlerized, so I cannot comment on the racier aspects that may have survived on some rental version.
1990's Version of 1940's Film Noir
VintageSoul566 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
It was very much in the realm of film noir. I've seen similar plots in some 1940's B & W noir. You know, guy is a sap over old flame and trusting wife at home. He doesn't show good judgement for an afternoon and finds himself in a jam. Just goes to show, some style of movies never go out of style. The acting was good, the script kept me guessing, but I did figure some of it out before the end. The ending was not good. It was too "wrap everything up". Rachel Ward's character should have been able to walk away from everything, but not scotfree. Looking at both Rachel Ward and Sela Ward, I couldn't help but think that Bruce Boxleitner's character sure went for the same physical type of woman. They really almost look like sisters, but are not related in spite of their last name. It's a decent movie.
Sexy but somewhat silly .........
merklekranz28 October 2013
Rachel Ward sparks up the screen with an intricate plot to win back former love Bruce Boxleitner. Their nude shower scene is certainly a highlight, but is then followed by at least a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo. Unfortunately the beginning and ending rock climbing scenes come across like add ons, almost as if they belong in a completely different film. While not always believable, the deceitful murder story does hold interest. Sela Ward as the deceived wife is quite good. I could have lived without the Salt Lake City religious influences trumpeted throughout the movie. Some parts such as the rock climbing look simply silly, however there are strong sexy moments throughout. - MERK
Victims of manipulation
clanciai13 January 2024
Rachel Ward is beautiful, so there is nothing strange about men falling for her like skittles, the power of her beauty being so self-assured, that they never even become aware of how they are being manipulated until, at best, it is too late. She has had a husband who is dead, apparently by some accident, as she says, but she never tells the truth, or at least keeps withholding essential parts ot the truth. Bruce Boxleitner is an honest teacher very much appreciated at his school by both colleagues and students, he used to climb mountains with Rachel ten years ago, so when she suddenly turns up after ten years they go climbing again, as they still have one challenge left to conquer. We will have to wait till the end of the film for the outcome of that challenge.
Sela Ward is his wife, and they have a wonderful daughter together. They are a happy family, when Rachel Ward turns up as a challenge to their happiness, as she has just killed a rapist of hers and needs the law to save her from murder charges, and Bruce's wife happens to be a skilful lawyer who gladly accepts her case, since she has had interesting rape cases before. At the ensuing trial, the details of the trauma are being publicly exposed in meticulous scrutiny, and Rachel is even called as a witness to testify to her own outrageous trauma. Is this actually standard procedure at American trials? Is there no sensitivity, no delicacy, no consideration for eventual post traumatic stress? Both Sela Ward, the lawyer, and Rachel Ward, the victim are surprisingly callous and almost inhumanly distanced in the penetration of the details of the outrage. The thriller reaches some apogee in the final climb of the ultimate mountain, in which Rachel Ward is still cocksure of having to win over her competitor. It is thrilling indeed, but things never turn out how you would wish them to, not even by the most clever manipulation.
Sela Ward is his wife, and they have a wonderful daughter together. They are a happy family, when Rachel Ward turns up as a challenge to their happiness, as she has just killed a rapist of hers and needs the law to save her from murder charges, and Bruce's wife happens to be a skilful lawyer who gladly accepts her case, since she has had interesting rape cases before. At the ensuing trial, the details of the trauma are being publicly exposed in meticulous scrutiny, and Rachel is even called as a witness to testify to her own outrageous trauma. Is this actually standard procedure at American trials? Is there no sensitivity, no delicacy, no consideration for eventual post traumatic stress? Both Sela Ward, the lawyer, and Rachel Ward, the victim are surprisingly callous and almost inhumanly distanced in the penetration of the details of the outrage. The thriller reaches some apogee in the final climb of the ultimate mountain, in which Rachel Ward is still cocksure of having to win over her competitor. It is thrilling indeed, but things never turn out how you would wish them to, not even by the most clever manipulation.
Clever mystery, how a moment of very bad judgement can cost you everything.
TxMike26 October 2002
Warning: Spoilers
Pretty good cast, Bruce Boxleitner (Mr Melissa Gilbert), Rachel Ward, and her cousin Sela Ward. However in total it is not a superb film and its median rating of "5" on IMDb is about right.
some SPOILERS - This is a story of a man's weakness, giving in to sex with an old girlfriend, and how it can have far-reaching impacts. Rachel plays his old girlfriend, they had been rock climbers together, parted ways, he became a successful teacher, married Sela, a trial lawyer, soon to be a judge, and they had by all appearances a great marriage and a cute little girl. No jealousy here, they even invited the old girlfriend to dinner at their house.
more SPOILERS - However, things were not what they seemed. Rachel had had her husband knocked off, and now she wanted the contract killer dead. So she seduced Boxleitner, lured him back to her place when she knew the other guy would show up for sex, made Boxy get onto the fire escape where he could witness an apparent rape and her stabbing him dead in apparent self-defense. He was forced to testify, the charges were dismissed at trial, and his wife, Sela, was thoroughly pi$$ed off, for good reason. Rachel goes rock climbing, falls and dies, and the last scene has Boxy and Sela walking towards each other, their cars parked off the road, with beautiful rock formations, presumably Canyonlands N.P., in the background. We sense that he will be forgiven and his marriage will be saved.
some SPOILERS - This is a story of a man's weakness, giving in to sex with an old girlfriend, and how it can have far-reaching impacts. Rachel plays his old girlfriend, they had been rock climbers together, parted ways, he became a successful teacher, married Sela, a trial lawyer, soon to be a judge, and they had by all appearances a great marriage and a cute little girl. No jealousy here, they even invited the old girlfriend to dinner at their house.
more SPOILERS - However, things were not what they seemed. Rachel had had her husband knocked off, and now she wanted the contract killer dead. So she seduced Boxleitner, lured him back to her place when she knew the other guy would show up for sex, made Boxy get onto the fire escape where he could witness an apparent rape and her stabbing him dead in apparent self-defense. He was forced to testify, the charges were dismissed at trial, and his wife, Sela, was thoroughly pi$$ed off, for good reason. Rachel goes rock climbing, falls and dies, and the last scene has Boxy and Sela walking towards each other, their cars parked off the road, with beautiful rock formations, presumably Canyonlands N.P., in the background. We sense that he will be forgiven and his marriage will be saved.
See also
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