V.I. Warshawski

Theatrical Release Date: 1991 07 26 (USA)

UPC: 683904630254

Studio: Mill Creek

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Questionable for Children]

Summary: Kathleen Turner stars as V.I. Warshawski in Jeff Kanew's film version of the hard-boiled detective character from Sara Paretsky's series of crime novels. Warshawski is a freelance private investigator in Chicago, who lives the part of the hard-boiled detective. But in her heart of hearts, she is a softy. One night, while she is drinking at her favorite bar, she meets an ex-Blackhawks hockey player named Boom-Boom Grafalk (Stephen Meadows). The two connect and a romance appears to be in the making. But Warshawski is nevertheless surprised when Boom-Boom appears at her doorstep later that night with his 13-year-old daughter, Kat (Angela Goethals) in tow. He asks Warshawski if she could watch her and Warshawski agrees. Later that night, Boom-Boom is killed in a boat explosion and Kit hires Warshawski to track down her father's killer. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Category: Mystery

V.I. Warshawski

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 05/10/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Alternate Wide Screen

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 89 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Region: Blu-ray region A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia)

Derek Armstrong

Rarely has a flop extinguished a career so quickly as V.I. Warshawski did to Kathleen Turner. Turner came in boasting a truly enviable r?sum? of 1980s hits, only to see this would-be franchise character knock her name permanently off the top of movie posters. V.I. Warshawski has developed kind of a cult familiarity for being famously misguided, but the truth is, it's more boring than anything else. Turner's tongue-in-cheek appeal from the Romancing the Stone saga is nowhere to be seen. The few attempts at humor totally sputter, leaving the movie feeling like a sluggish detective story with only superficial grit or direction. A different actress might have pulled this off, or pulled it off better. But Turner's sunny charm, key to her previous success, is totally suppressed by the bad lighting and grimy urban setting. What passes for a running joke is that everyone says her last name differently, despite its relatively straightforward phonetic pronunciation. Inadvertently, this ends up being a metaphor for how unknowable she is. If they intended this as a series, screenwriter David Aaron Cohen should have given some consideration to the character's origins as a private eye, but there's only a cursory mention of her once having been a lousy housewife. The only other depth V.I. has is a maternal instinct for the girl who just lost her father, and without a back story, it feels like an empty gesture. Child actor Angela Goethals has the most life of anyone on screen, while the ragtag bunch of character actors who fill out the cast range from hammy to just plain ridiculous. We eventually learn that the V stands for "Victoria." Maybe they were waiting for the sequel to reveal the I, but "Insipid" seems like a pretty good guess. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Mike Bacarella  Actor 
Geof Prysirr  Actor 
Gary Epper  Actor 
Theresa Bell  Actor 
Professor Eddie Lusk  Actor 
Victor Herold  Actor 
Everett Smith  Actor 
Gregg Almquist  Actor 
Sandra Foster  Actor 
Shirley Johnson  Actor 
Maurice Vaughn  Actor 
Roger T. Ito  Actor 
Herb Muller  Actor 
Gene Hartline  Actor 
Aaron Seville  Actor 
Robert Wong  Actor 
John P. Marsh  Actor 
John Beasley  Actor 
Doris LeGras  Actor 
John Fujioka  Actor 
Casey Jones  Actor 
David Aaron Cohen  Screenwriter 
Penney Finkelman Cox  Executive Producer 
Randy Edelman  Composer (Music Score) 
Jeff Kanew  Director 
Jeffrey Lurie  Producer 
John P. Marsh  Executive Producer 
Edward Taylor  Screenwriter 
Nick Thiel  Screenwriter 
Kathleen Turner  Actor 
Jay O. Sanders  Actor 
Charles Durning  Actor 
Angela Goethals  Actor 
Nancy Paul  Actor 
Frederick Coffin  Actor 
Charles McCaughan  Actor 
Stephen Meadows  Actor 
Wayne Knight  Actor 
Lynnie Godfrey  Actor 
Anne Pitoniak  Actor 
Stephen Root  Actor 
Robert Clotworthy  Actor 
Tom Allard  Actor 
Michael Hagerty  Actor 
Lee Arenberg  Actor 

Country: USA