zardoz-13 Whatever Mark Harmon saw in "Certain Prey" wasn't in it when I saw it. This pedestrian police procedural about Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport solving a complicated crime delivers barely enough to make it tolerable. Nothing about Oscar nominated writer & director Chris Gerolmo's run-of-the-mill saga stands out. Mark Harmon is charismatic enough, but nobody else seems remotely interesting. Mind you, Chief Davenport resembles Harmon's Special Agent Jethro Gibbs in large part. The Chief has a cabin in the woods where he goes to ponder things. Davenport's adversaries are a pair of killer bimbos who display no qualms about knocking people off in cold blood. These lethal ladies are bad news. Just ask the stuck-up narcotics peddler who doesn't believe that a dame can kill. One of the gals draws the line at gunning down little girls while the other has worries about a munchkin who saw them leave a crime scene. This is one of many complications that gum up the works for the unlucky pair. Cast as a sexy attorney named Carmel Loan, Lola Glaudini looks like a slim, attractive Susan Sarandon. Carmel is an obnoxious attorney who chases ambulances and loves to get married men in hot water. She hooks up with another lady, Clara Rinker (Tatiana Maslany of "Defendor"), to kill a villainous dope dealer. Initially, Clara is interesting because she became a killer when she killed a rapist with a baseball bat to the brain. Clara's willingness to kill makes her a splendid candidate for hit-man school. Since the St. Louis mob has trained her, Clara has iced more than 25 victims. This cute dish wields a silenced .22 caliber automatic pistol and lives out of town. She loves to pour lead into her victims, long after they have been shot. This poor trait rubs off on her friend Carmel who doesn't know when to start shooting and when to stop. Clara gets into trouble when she kills a cop who witnessed her execution style killing. The FBI is now on her trail, but they don't have much evidence to incriminate Clara.Although our hero absorbs a couple of shots, the Chief survives all the lead in the air with comparative ease. An innocent bystander captures a video of Davenport shooting an assailant charging him with a sports car and a pistol. The best surprise occurs during the last few minutes when we realize that one of those dolls escapes without either dying or doing time. In other words, Gerolmo doesn't tie up everything in a neat bundle. Instead, he leaves strands dangling. If anything sets this made-for-television crime thriller is Davenport's ethically challenged method of operation. He his loves to provoke his suspects and this strategy works. He has little use for search warrants and keeps hose and lock-pick tools handy. Unfortunately, the Chief's adversaries fall for this trick when they aren't tripping themselves up. The gag with the soap is one of the best. Sadly, unlike "NCIS," Harmon is surrounded by actors and actresses that pale by comparison with his gifted CBS-TV colleagues. The repartee between Chief Davenport and his colleagues is pretty bland for the man who wrote "Mississippi Burning," and nobody stands out as prominently as Davenport. A running gag is Chief Davenport's sexual exploits, particularly his 40 nights with a female subordinate. The things to watch for are a thick police manuscript and a lady who has trouble counting the number of .22 caliber cartridges in a container. Harmon delivers the only memorable line of dialogue: "Everybody I talk to says he's dumber than a barrel of hair." This shallow, straightforward thriller is ultimately forgettable. Only die-hard Mark Harmon should endure this polished pabulum.

Cedar13 Saw this mediocre movie for the first time last weekend. Was home sick in bed and desperate for any entertainment. Milding interesting, more as I live in the Minneapolis area (live only a few miles from the airport sign they show). Two days later I saw Lola Glaudini in almost the same role in the Law and Order episode "Loneyville" from 2007. In both she plays a sexy lesbian attorney who has a female partner in crime. I like her character in both but needed more sexuality than could be shown on TV. Really didn't like the ending in the movie. Could not believe that someone driving a convertible could fire a gun over the top of the front window and almost hit someone 100 yards away.

hillgazer This was very well acted and a totally engaging show. Would love to see this followed up with a sequel to watch the exchange of interesting energy between Harmon and his antagonist.The one complaint I would have is with the overly sexy detective under his authority--her energy should be toned down. I am unfamiliar with the novel and works of the author and have found it is usually disappointing to read a book and then to see the film adaptation, as there is insufficient time in a film for proper character development. Therefore, in my opinion, this movie was a hit and I have no intention of reading the book or books on which this film was based.I watch NCIS every week without fail and have enjoyed it as well. Mark Harmon is on a roll!

thommytiger For one, Mark Harmon is too old, too thinning and gray, too scrawny, and too short to credibly pull off Detective Lucas Davenport. He came across as a better-dressed version of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Second, he surrounded himself with some of the lamest acting talent available today. Athena Karkanis was embarrassingly bad as Marcy, even when you looked past the fact that she's too short, too soft-spoken, and not physical enough (inadequately endowed) to fill the role (think WWF's Chyna toned down a notch--that's Marcy). Did Harmon even read the book? Or the series? An unbelievable hack job. I think the Porsche out-acted the cast. Poor Sandford/Camp is now 0-for-2 on screen adaptations of his books. Note to Harmon: If you plan on doing another Davenport book, please hire Sandford as a consultant/screenwriter and LISTEN to him.