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Owing his publisher a yet-to-be written and long overdue novel, author (and police detective) Dennis Meechum (Brian Dennehy Silverado, F/X) is intrigued when approached by a self-professed hit man named Cleve (James Woods, The Onion Field) to pen his story. Skeptical at first, but curious, Meechum is eventually convinced that Cleve is in fact telling the truth when presented with a list of hits requested by high powered executive David Matlock (Paul Shenar, Scarface, The Big Blue). The stakes are raised when news of a possible tell-all is revealed, endangering those closest to Meechum. Best Seller, directed by John Flynn (Lock Up, Out For Justice) from an original screenplay by Larry Cohen (It's Alive), co-stars Victoria Tennant (L.A. Story) and Alison Balson (Looker).
MPAA rating : R (Restricted)
Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 ounces
Item model number : 925
Director : John Flynn
Media Format : Color, Multiple Formats, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC
Release date : March 24, 2015
Actors : James Woods, James Woods & Shooter Jennings, Alison Balson, Brian Dennehy, Victoria Tennant
Studio : Olive
ASIN : B00RYZFSOC
Country of Origin : USA
Number of discs : 1
Reviewer: Bo88y
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good portrayal of extreme moral conflict.
Review: Far better than expected (I had never heard of this movie before I saw it here). After Grosse Pointe Blank, I saw a bunch of movies about hit men who wanted redemption or a life change (Liam Neeson in Gun Shy, William Macy in Panic, Jean Reno in The Professional, et al.), and this one seems to be a predecessor of all of them. James Woods is great as a conflicted person struggling between his desire to do something good, even if his motives are tinged with revenge, and if his habitual mode is intimidation and killing, like someone from a different culture (the culture of the amoral) who's had a taste of what it might be like to feel that one had done good. The trail of mysterious dead bodies and unsolved murders shown in the movie as newspaper clippings reminded me of the rumors about Hillary and Bill Clinton. Seems ironic these days, since James Woods is a patriot who helped prevent a terrorist event, and Hillary is increasingly turning out to be like the bad guy in this movie.
Reviewer: Judith D Donegan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: 80's classic
Review: Two of my favorite actors, but I really have to say that no one does a better complex character than James Woods. They both make this story work well. And we all like to watch a really dirty bad guy get what he deserves , brought about by a mismatched couple like a cop and a hired killer. I enjoyed watching it.
Reviewer: Alan from NYC
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: BEWARE -- Has no CC or subtitles, but REALLY needs them
Review: This is a very well-made thriller that has one glaring shortcoming. It does not have closed captioning or subtitles. There are many scenes where it is difficult to understand all of the dialogue. That is unfortunate, because you need to hear everything to really understand the complex plot. Shame on the people who decided to save money when they produced the DVD.
Reviewer: Mandie
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: James Woods Fans, Must-See
Review: Being a James Woods' fanatic (and fan girl) I was awed by Woods' performance. He shows such a combination of polite mannerisms and brute violence that creates a character so likable and yet fearful that you just have to love the whole movie in combination. With trying to convince a cop that his life as a killer (professional hit man) is the truth, you learn bit by bit about what he is and what he's done, but he's the hero in the end (won't say how). I absolutely enjoyed the movie from start to finish; the mystery of Cleve was just incredible.I highly recommend this movie to any James Woods' fan and if even they're just looking for a thriller, this takes the cake. Definitely, I think this movie should come out once more to show just how brilliant Woods is as an actor, exceptional thrilling. I loved it all the way, buying it on DVD since the 24-Hour Rental just isn't enough time for me to watch it over and over, and over again. Loved it!!!- Mandie
Reviewer: D. Larson
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: OK, Itâs Lurid and Loud and Stupid, Butâ¦.
Review: But itâs James Woods as a psycho killer, how bad can it be? There was a time when James Woods was your go-to guy if you needed a psycho killer but couldnât afford Walken, Malkovich or even Nic Cage, the big-time star who stands beside freeway entrances with a home-made cardboard sign, âWill Act For Moneyâ.James Woods, with the extra intensity that can boost a routine hit man story from meh to maniac. In âBest Sellerâ, he definitely brought it, even if the story is pretty dumb even for a Larry Cohen screenplay. Woods is paired with the stolid and solid Brian Dennehy. Better physical opposites you could hardly find to make a cop buddy movie. Dennehyâs the cop, needless to say. Woods, the assassin turned buddy whoâs just a little too tightly wound even for the hit man business. Even if he is kind of superhuman in the shooting and stabbing and strangling parts of the job. Credulity is strained a little.Or a lot. All of the supporting characters have to staggeringly incompetent and/or stupid to fall victim to Woodsâ various manipulations and assaults, but theyâre all pretty anonymous anyhow. Even in the pre-internet days when Best Sellers were written on typewriters and only one copy of a manuscript could possibly exist, the plot makes no sense whatever. Despite Dennehy being a greatly respected police, thereâs no police presence of any sort at any of the dozen odd murders and shootouts going on. Dennehy also sees nothing wrong with leaving his 16 year old at home alone even as mobsters and hit men threaten and surround and drop veiled and unveiled threats. It is nice to see venture capitalists revealed for what they are, vicious bank robbers in Richard Nixon masks. But havenât we suspected that all along?For those too young to have develop love and respect for Larry Cohen, the inheritor of Roger Cormanâs title of B Movie King, let me run down just a few of his greatest successes: He directed and wrote the horrific mutant homicidal baby trilogy âItâs Aliveâ, âItâs Alive II: It Lives Againâ, and âItâs Alive III: Island of the Aliveâ. By far the best horrific mutant homicidal baby movies ever made. âManiac Copâ, which also went on to spawn sequels about, well, a maniacal cop. Whoâs undead. And âQâ, aka âQ: The Winged Serpentâ.This last combines ancient Aztec human sacrifices at the American Museum of Natural History with the appearance of a gigantic flying reptile which snatches hapless New Yorkers off the streets and carries them off to a really big nest in the art deco attic of the Chrysler tower. How often do you get to see that? With Michael Moriarty doing some of his best acting ever as the sleazy paparazzo who somehow is the only person to notice a sixty foot dragon flying the steel canyons in broad daylight. Moriarty is seriously wonderful in this movie. I recommend it highly.Suffice to say that Larry Cohen, in addition to writing a whole lot of television, some of it quite prestigious, has also wrote and directed a whole lot of inexpensive dreck, of which his âBest Sellerâ script is a pleasant example. Sure, itâs violent and incoherent and nonsensical. But those things can be virtues if youâre in the right frame of mind. Thereâs an appreciated bit of very brief gratuitous nudity, lots of gunplay (with the soundtrack turned up to Really Loud) and aimless driving around. But also an exploding Checker cab, some airliner interiors that remind us of just how much weâve lost, seat-width-wise, big Oldsmobiles and large telephones. Violent things happen constantly for no good reason. While the action is supposed to be set in L.A., Cohenâs deep and abiding love for NYC requires the action to change coasts.Women are, as usual in this sort of thing, present only as underwritten sex objects or nearly mute threat objects. Common sense is rarely employed. Police are incompetent or corrupt. If an exploding car is worth seeing once, itâs worth seeing from multiple angles. Filming is competent without being âgoodâ. Gunshots are ramped up on the soundtrack enough to make one wince. So itâs not good by any stretch. But itâs fast moving and short, and thatâs enough. Plus, James Woods!
Reviewer: Laura
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Story of two great guys with a character flaw each
Review: I'm still thinking about how much I liked the two of them and how exciting it was to find out what they would do next.You can't hate a guy for wanting respect (James Woods)t. You have to admire his intelligence and technique for getting what he wants, and flashes of sophisticated humor in the process.You can't hate Brian Dennehy - he's got that kind of face. I only faintly disapproved of the way he solved the conflict between his duty as a cop and his duty to his publisher and his career as an author. Both of them loved their families deeply. Yet . . .The chilling effect is just starting to set in. There is one! In context of the story, the two of them are very much alike - compartmentalized, so the ethics and morality of what they're doing never collide with the actions they're taking to meet their objectives.
Reviewer: mrsammy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A true 1980âs...
Review: A true late 1980âs movie classic with two of the best actors of their generation â James Wood and Brian Dennehy (a seamless collaboration). If you enjoy action, suspense, and thriller-type movies set in the background of that era, you wonât be disappointed.
Reviewer: Steve Toms
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great movie!
Reviewer: jogillab
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Der Plot ist einfach, aber mitreiÃend :ein Polizist, der die Lebensgeschichte eines Verbrechers schreiben soll.Brian Dennehy spielt den Polizisten (- Hobbyschriftststeller) und James Woods den geltungssüchtigen Verbrecher.Die Schauspieler sind einfach überragend, besonders Brian Dennehy vermutlich in seiner besten Rolle, wobei die meisten Filme von ihm in Deutschland - meines Wissens- leider nie gezeigt wurden. Auch auf DVD ist von Dennehy kaum etwas erschienen. Auf jeden Fall ist der Film ein Klassiker der 1980er Jahre.
Reviewer: M D Gordon
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a terrific thriller with excellent performances from the two lead actors (James Woods, Brian Dennehy). It starts off as a slow burner but increases the tension as the movie progresses, the two leads playing off each other as the characters get more involved in the details of the hits that Woods' character is confessing to.
Reviewer: Mr D Bunce
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Best Seller is an absolute gem of a movie and quintessentially 80s fare. They don't make them like this anymore and it's such a shame. The movie centres on the character of Dennis Meechum (Brian Dennehy) who is a cop and novelist, having been inspired to write the true account of a robbery he was the victim of years earlier. With the death of his wife leaving him to raise his daughter and having now fallen on hard times as he faces writer's block and financial and legal pressure from his publishers for missing deadlines, he is approached by the mysterious Cleeve (James Woods). Cleeve appears to know a lot about Dennis and offers him a once in a lifetime deal that will give him a best seller and solve all of his problems, write a non-fiction book of Cleeve's career as a hitman in order to take down the powerful corporate empire, Kappa International, and its founder David Madlock. The joy of this movie is in that set-up, two people who are on opposite sides of the law yet are put in a situation where they have to work together to take down a larger evil. James Woods is brilliant as usual in exuding that confidence and cocky charm and Brian Dennehy plays those stoic heroic figures so well. You suspect Dennis comes to respect Cleeve as their partnership develops though he can't admit it, with Cleeve always one step ahead. He wants to be loved if not understood as well. The film pulls no punches in showing that Cleeve is not a nice person, with one scene in particular being quite shocking, however he does come to embody the qualities of an anti-hero. However, is Cleeve capable of an unselfish act? I highly recommend this film, which needs a UK blu-ray release as soon as possible.
Reviewer: Tommy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Gute Story mit zwei sehr guten Hauptakteuren