Witness Protection
by Richard Pearce
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Forest Whitaker, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Shawn Hatosy, Tom SizemoreDirector: Richard Pearce
Brand: EMI
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-06-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 91703
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Movie Reviews of Witness Protection
Movie Review: Transition into the witness protection program isn't easy
Summary: 5 Stars
This 1992 HBO film dealt with a subject that has always fascinated me and yet I knew little about. What happens to a family that goes into the witness protection program? What kind of problems do they face? And how, exactly, does the transformation work. This film attempts to answer some of these questions. And, if the characters are a little larger than life, and the story sometimes dips to the level of a soap opera, it really didn't matter to me. Because by then, I was so involved with the story and the personalities of this particular fictional family that I was too caught up to care.
The story starts out strong and continues its hectic pace. We soon learn that Tom Sizemore is involved with the mob who are out to kill him. It becomes apparent that his wife and children are also in danger. That's when Tom Sizemore goes to the FBI and agrees to testify in exchange for his family's protection.
The teenage son who is doing so well is school that he could get into a prestigious college is heartbroken. He has to leave his girlfriend too. And give up what looks like his whole future. The little 5-year old girl has to learn to lie about her name. And the wife, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, has to give up all the luxuries she's become adjusted to. This family is going to be poor in their new location and the father is going to have to work as a laborer.
This change doesn't happen overnight however. First, the family must spend 5 days in an FBI relocation house which looks like a house but is really a fancy prison. Here, they have to learn how to behave in their new environment. Forest Whitiker is cast as the FBI agent who will help make this happen. He plays his "tough love" part well and keeps saying he doesn't care. But it is clear that he does care about this family.
There are arguments between the husband and wife and one scene where the dishes fly and she hits him with a frying pan. There is one scene where the son refuses to go along with the relocation. The little girl cries a lot and we wonder how this will all affect her little life. Tensions do more than mount. They explode. And there were times that my own emotions were touched and I found my eyes tearing up.
I enjoyed this film and its unique angle on what the witness protection program means in the lives of one particular family. It made me think.
Summary of Witness Protection
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: R
Street Date: 06/01/04
Wide Screen: no
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
Bobby Batton (Tom Sizemore) is a middle-class father and family man who just happens to make his living as a mobster. After surviving a midnight attempt on his life in his own home, he packs up and hustles his family off to a motel, where he tries to figure out who wants him dead. The FBI offers him a choice: face prison time on previous indictments, or turn state's evidence and enter the Witness Protection Program. The family soon finds itself in an interim facility run by the agency, a sterile apartment with all the personality of a hotel suite, trying to leave their past behind and make the adjustment to new lives and new identities. Batton's family is about as "normal" as a mobster's family could be, but things soon begin to fall apart under the strain of their situation. The reliable Sizemore and costar Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are both good in their roles, as is Forest Whitaker as a sympathetic federal official, but they never quite rise above the shopworn story. To the screenwriter's credit, Batton's character has some real depth; on the surface, he's a fairly unsympathetic figure, a slimy mob type who's made his living as a professional criminal. When things are turned upside down, though, he shows himself to actually care about his family and struggle to make things work out. That aside, though, this is still a fairly average made-for-cable drama, with a cast making the best of an uncompelling screenplay and flat direction. --Jerry Renshaw
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