Mr-Fusion "Sea of Love" has its strengths, but (and this is almost painful to say) thriller isn't its one of them. It starts out strongly enough, but the relationship between Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin is more frustrating than exciting. Obviously, the reason to see this movie is Barkin, who just smolders . That, and the camaraderie that Pacino shares with John Goodman. I liked that partnership, as well as these characters. And I can't even complain about the ending, but the road thereto isn't very smooth.6/10

generationofswine "Sea of Love" What can I say, it has Al Pacino and John Goodman in a movie with Ellen Barkin and Michael Rooker. It's as if the people who cast the film wanted nothing more than the creation of an easy link when they played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.Brando was in "The Godfather" with Pacino who was in "Sea of Love" with Barkin who was in "Diner" with Kevin Bacon.Robert Downey Jr was in "Iron Man" with Jeff Bridges who played the Dude along side John Goodman who was in "Sea of Love" with Rooker who was in "JFK" with Kevin Bacon.It is kind of what the movie does best, gives you those links that lets you work around the over used movies like "A Few Good Men." Going through "Diner" is a lot more satisfying than going through "JFK," but sometimes you are just there and might as well take it.Wait, what does all of this have to do with the movie? What do 90s drinking games have to do with Sea of Love? Absolutely nothing, it was just space filler."Sea of Love" is not a bad movie...but it is one that you have seen before. "Jennifer 8" is the same style but with a cooler ambiance. "The Ambulance" is the same sort of movie with a stranger plot.Unless you are a die hard Pacino fan...and who isn't?...you probably came across this movie on WGN at noon on a Sunday.Sunday Manatee is "Sea of Love" with Al Pacino...because you aren't watching cable so we can't afford to give you something premium.It's that type of flick and nothing more and nothing less.

sol- Along similar lines to 'Basic Instinct', this earlier crime drama involves a detective who enters into a sexual relationship with a woman who may or may not be a serial killer responsible for murdering a string of lonely men who have placed ads in the personals section. Where 'Sea of Love' differs from 'Basic Instinct' though is that it is not first and foremost a thriller. Lead actor Al Pacino has a well written character: lonely, full of anxiety and bitter over his wife leaving him for a fellow detective, and an interesting dynamic arises as a result. Pacino is not just pretending to be lonely and desperate when he goes undercover and places an ad to entice the murderess - he really, truly is. Ellen Barkin gets nicely well-rounded character too. Yes, she could be a killer and certain clues certainly point that way, but she also seems just as fragile as a lonely single mother, torn between doing the best for her daughter and securing her own happiness. With so much attention dedicated to the characters, the film admittedly missteps sometimes when in thriller mode. The twist, while clever, comes off as rather randomly written. The film also has a hard time maintaining suspense as Pacino becomes increasing convinced that Barkin is not the killer. That said, 'Sea of Love' is still engaging right up to its final frame. All concerned are good in form, with nice, understated supporting turns from Richard Jenkins and John Goodman. The latter in particular offers a decent dose of comic relief, which in turn prevents the film from getting bogged down in its gritty subject matter.

chaos-rampant A man who is starting to feel the pangs of lonely life, late at night he can't stop himself from phoning to an ex-wife that walked out on him. A series of crimes around the city where men turn up dead, lonely men seeking women late at night. He investigates, by posing as one of them, until he meets her.The middle portion revolves around these two selves in him trying to decide on the narrative; the lonely guy who's finally found her versus the cop whose job is to suspect her, even if that means she's the killer that he has to bring in. He settles for the latter, until a horrible version of himself is spat out by the story in the end, a man broken after his wife walked out on him. He gets to wrestle this uglier side of himself and come out on the other end for her purged of demons.That's all fine but it labors itself by trying to be one of those "character studies" that Methodist actors seem to gravitate to, Pacino here. A lot of them were being made in the 70s but they carried on, minus the young passion. So a lot of protracted scenes between characters, the thought is that just by seeing them together in scenes, we get "life". We don't of course, we get scenes. It's all a bit like Pacino's acting; aimless lumbering with the occasional bug-eyed frisson, but never amounts to more than pacing through motions. There are a few moments that suggest deeper undercurrents - the slumped look on the middle-aged blonde's face as she walks out the restaurant with a defeated soul - how Elen eerily manifests out of a dark hallway - and my favorite moment, the poem his father recites about someone who is living alone in the woods. It's so good, the poem and timing of delivery, it surpasses the whole film.Noir Meter: 1/4