Tss5078 Sometimes a film is so well written, that even though you know what's coming, you're still on the edge of your seat. A Murder of Crows is an independent film with some big time star power, that makes a terrific story that much better. The film focuses on Lawson Russell, (Cuba Gooding Jr.) a successful New Orleans defense attorney, who suddenly finds his conscience. A series of events leads to his disbarment, so he begins life a new in Key West. Once there, he meets a lonely old man looking for a friend. The old man insists that Russell read his crowning achievement, a novel. Russell is more than impressed with the book and goes to tell his friend about it when he finds that the old man has died. Russell then suddenly loses his conscience again and decides to pass the book off as his own. Russell's life seems to be back on track until the FBI shows up and arrests him. As it turns out, the murders depicted in the book weren't fiction and Lawson Russell is the prime suspect. From there the film turns into a mystery, who was this old man? Why did he set Lawson up? Who is the real killer? As I said the story is ingenious and very well written, unfortunately, I watch a lot of movies and actually figured the whole thing out, twenty minutes into the film. It wasn't that the film was predictable, most of the other reviews I've read seem to suggest that most people were shocked by the ending. I have no idea why I figured out what was going on so quickly, but this film is so good, that even knowing what was going to happen, I still loved it. Cuba Gooding Jr. was just off the charts good in this movie, he brings such energy and charisma to this role, that it easy rivals his Academy Award winning performance in Jerry McGuire. The rest of the cast is terrific as well, but all the other parts were seemingly bit parts that centered around Lawson Russell. This movie was the perfect fit for Cuba Gooding Jr. and was one of the best written films I've seen all year. A Murder of Crows proves that you don't need a big budget, with huge special effects, in order to make an extremely entertaining film. Gems like this one are rare, but ultimately are the whole reason I watch Independent films.

Wizard-8 I must admit that when "A Murder Of Crows" was first released, I was quite perplexed. Here was a star (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who two years earlier had got an Oscar for his work in "Jerry Maguire" - and here he now was starring in a direct-to-video movie! Actually, there are signs that this movie WAS intended for theaters - it was made by a production company that had got other movies released to theaters, and the movie looks fairly slick and expensive, enough to be theatrical quality. But no theatrical distributor picked this up, and I think I know why. Gooding (who for some reason thought this project was worthy, seeing that he was also one of the producers) plays a character who is quite annoying at times, with his endless (and often unnecessary) narration, and his quite stupid behavior at times. And the villain's scheme is obvious from the start - I had a good idea what was going on long before Gooding's character found himself in trouble. While it was nice to see Tom Berenger, he is pretty wasted in a role that probably took less than a week to shoot.This movie isn't the worst movie Gooding has done - "Boat Trip" and "Lies & Illusions" were far, far worse - but the movie is still a very unsatisfying experience, and was the start of Gooding's fall as a big Hollywood star.

will-moody "A Murder of Crows" finally made it to the top of my Netflix queue and I settled down to watch it on a Sunday afternoon. Immediately, however, I couldn't help but wonder if this movie had been made for television. From the opening titles to a few odd transitions that make you think you're about to see a TV commercial, the movie seems very cheaply made.A good score and better cinematography would have made all the difference in the world. Cuba Gooding Jr. is great but Tom Berenger has never been a favorite of mine.With a little more effort, this movie could have had the dark appeal of "The Game" or "A Perfect Murder."

Daniel The movie begins nice enough. Out hero, the lawyer Lawson Russell played Cuba Gooding Jr. gets his lawyer license revoked and his life changed when he can't stand defending an obviously guilty sex-murderer. He throws comments at his own defendant in trial and yet the defendant goes free.Step forward one year. Lawson is working primarily as a fisher guide, taking fishermen out. After not too long, they befriend, and the old man tells him about this novel he has made but not yet published, he gives him a copy, and dies of a heart attack not too much later. Lawson, being and unsuccessful writer himself, decides to publish the old mans novel in his own name.Though suddenly it seems that the murders and happenings in the book already has happened...And from there it goes downhill, really. First of all, i think the atmosphere in the movie is way too light for the message it gives, which is, that justice is unfair, if you have the right means and money. The movie would have been way more successful with a more serious Cuba Gooding Jr., but its not his fault, the scriptwriters did a too good job to portray him as a cocky and sometimes quite arrogant character. And sure, it would be okay... but i feel it still doesn't match the rest of his behavior (i.e selling another mans book as himself is not quite the idealist you'd expect from a man that is so just and cause in the beginning of the movie)Another fault is the obvious technical errors that occur through the movie. I'm not going to spoil the ending (and if i told, i would) but if you've seen a fair share of CSI and/or other crime lab shows, you would know that there are more evidence than the true hypothetic ones (for example, who held the gun and so forth)To conclusion, I really wanted to like this movie, but i really couldn't enjoy it because of different kinds of error that ruins the way the plot is kept up. With another tone of the movie, and a little less trying to put everything on the sharp edge, it would be way better. 5/10