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Rising Sun | 
| Director: Philip Kaufman
Actors: Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Cary-hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy Used: $0.89
You Save: $9.09 (91%)
New (41) Used (46) from $0.89
Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 27006
Format: Color, Dvd, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 129 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D2003650D
UPC: 024543036500
EAN: 0024543036500
ASIN: B000B8GT92
Theatrical Release Date: July 30, 1993
Release Date: May 21, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Author Michael Crichton and director Philip Kaufman had a falling-out over the script for this film, based on Crichton's best-selling novel (which was controversial for its take on the Japanese invasion of American business in the early '90s). Kaufman ultimately won, doing an above-average job creating a murder mystery based on the culture clash between Los Angeles cops and Japanese multinational business interests. When a prostitute is murdered at the opening of a new L.A. headquarters for a Japanese company, detective Wesley Snipes is forced to call upon retired cop (and Japanophile) Sean Connery to help solve the murder. But he runs into obstruction from the Japanese, as well as a high-tech cover-up, while having to deal with anti-Japanese sentiments from people on his own team. Intriguing if overlong. --Marshall Fine
Product Description
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 05/22/2007 Run time: 129 minutes Rating: R
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 High-Tech Whodunnit April 21, 2009
Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie is not always easy to understand but if you give it a couple of looks - and the DVD is worth it -all the pieces finally fit and it's a good two hours of entertainment.
This modern-day crime movie may have a lack of action compared to others of its genre but it never loses your attention. Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes and Harvey Keitel star, along with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson, Mako and Tia Carrere. This is a high-tech story (at least for 1993) as two cops try to figure out who murdered a woman.
It's Japanese-big business-politics intrigue with surveillance cameras being the key to figuring out a murder. Connery and Snipes complement each other as a "buddy" cop duo with Connery being mostly responsible for making this story interesting. The suave ex-James Bond plays the cool veteran and it's fun to watch him operate.
The only complaint I might have is the ending, a stupid romance-type story with Snipes and Carrere that was very post-climactic and not needed.
 Much Better Audio May 3, 2008
Jerry Jim (Where The Wind Comes Sweeping Down The Plain !)
This "Blu-ray" version is excellent. The video portion is much smoother and the audio is "far superior" to the regular DVD. One has to appreciate that this movie was initially released on VHS and the regular DVD of it was not much of an improvement. This blu-ray takes care of all the VHS flaws of the origional DVD release.
The Blackmail of a Senator March 3, 2008
DTL (Boston, Ma.)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Rising Sun concerns the struggle to win and at what expense. It's story begins with the news that Senator Morton will vote against the sale of Micro-Con to Nakamoto which effectively ends their negotiations with the company, Micro-Con, and allows them to look into another offer. Somebody is determined to change the Senator's mind by way of a blackmail scheme. Who was involved? Tanaka, the head of Security was running the office at the time of the party. Cheryl Austin, the murdered woman, was undoubtedly involved. She choose a place for sex with the Morton under a camera. Richmond was informed by Mr. N's aide at the party and killed her after she had finished. Who could have informed the aide but Tanaka. Wasn't somebody using the gizmo for close-ups? When Eddie left the party he went upstairs to check on the Senator and Cheryl. When he spotted them on the board room table under the camera did he conclude that Cheryl and Tanaka were double-crossing him? Eddie thought that he had the Senator in his pocket but the disc would surely change his vote the other way. Was it Tanaka's bad luck that Eddie appeared? Did he leave the party or go downstairs to the Security office to recover the tape? Was N's aide or Richmond aware of these developments? Was Cheryl's murder planned by them? Who was holding the original disc? And who really made the copy? And why was Connor given the Golf Club membership? Was he on the take? Webb Smith believed so. Or was it gratitude for his discretion on something that had gotten out of control? Connor could have done things and asked questions to the embarassment of many people and firms. Didn't Eddie plead with Connor not to arrest him and promise him the disc at the other party? There's far more to Rising Sun than a murder. I never cared for Wesley Snipes but I do in this film. He really did a fine job but was overshadowed by Sean Connery and a really fine cast. Both characters develop through the film. Phillip Kaufmann is a fine director. Too many people are looking for action adventure and fail to appreciate one of the better whodunits that I've seen in years.
 One of Crichton's best novels becomes a below-par thriller February 15, 2008
Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Rising Sun is a textbook example of how to take a sure-fire, can't lose property and cock it up completely. It's not just a matter of the producers controversially changing the nationality of the killer that makes Rising Sun such a appointment: where Michael Crichton's novel weaved a multi-stranded web, turning issues into clues and bombarding the reader with information and clues to keep you guessing, director Philip Kaufman simplifies and makes it all patently predictable. Subplots are poorly handled, often either never followed through or simply forgotten, and you don't even care that much about who done it, or why.
Of course, there is a difference between what makes a good book and what makes a good film, but before the rot set in Crichton didn't just write novels that read well, he wrote novels that play - turning one of his books into a film should be more a matter of editing than adapting. Yet, extraordinarily, the producers have either dropped or diluted everything that made the novel such a huge bestseller.
Crichton's strength was always his ability to put over big issue in a pulp format, but while Kaufman does tidy up his typically messy ending, hedrops most of the issues, patronisingly soft-pedalling the novel's economic/political debate, leaving just the pulp. It's rather like making The Third Man and ditching all that guff about cuckoo clocks and black marketeering, and getting rid of Orson for good measure. It may now be a gaijin who kills the girl, but it's Kaufman who kills the movie.
Kaufman has shown he can take mainstream material and imbue it with a greater significance and still turn out a terrific picture with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Right Stuff (and let's not forget, he was one of the creators of Indiana Jones), but perhaps he'd just spent too long making art movies in the interim. Here there's a snobbery to his direction, a contempt for his material that shines through in almost every frame - he thinks he's better than this, but still comes out looking like an amateur.
Where Crichton's novel was not the racist tract many claimed at the time (Crichton's criticism wass aimed directly at America's short-sighted business/political strategy), Kaufman's film comes perilously close to being just that. The xenophobia of the scene where Snipes sets some homeboys on the Japanese who are following him is an uncomfortable and tasteless exercise in ethnic stereotyping that doesn't belong in this movie.
The most astonishing lapse is in the appallingly acted and staged scene where Snipes is interrogated by his superiors. While this provides the novel with an effective framing device, only a complete idiot would include the American PR man for the Japanese corporation implicated in the conspiracy and a muckraking reporter among those present. Kaufman does. Not only is he hopeless at staging action, but scenes such as the suicide are handled with an ineptitude bordering on the infantile while some of the sexual overtones are feeble beyond belief - hey, don't forget that close-up of the next door neighbour's crotch so we know what Wesley's thinking, Phil! If anything, the absolute stinker of an epilogue is even worse, coming on like the warm wrap-up to a 70s cop show and spelling out Connery and Carrere's relationship just in case we're too thick to work it out for ourselves.
Much blame for this must attach itself to executive producer Sean Connery. Too many years of being denied his due as an actor and still, one suspects, trying to overcompensate for his years in Bondage have left him a sucker for a 'quality' director and a name writer, often with disastrous consequences (cf. A Good Man in Africa). Yet if Kaufman kills the movie, Connery gives it the kiss of life. Connery is never less than watchable, and he's certainly one of the few things worth watching here, whether barking Japanese in a Scottish accent or deliberately losing at golf. It's one of the best displays of pure star quality energising a moribund picture you're likely to see.
Wesley Snipes is wildly miscast in a role that didn't just have Andy Garcia's name on it but his address and a photo of his wife and kids as well. Instead we get a another of his typically one-note aggressiveone-size-fits all performances. Supporting performances are dubious at best, with Mako, Carey-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Stan Egi faring best, countered by Ray Wise and Kevin Anderson, both even phonier than their roles.
When Rising Sun concentrates on the plot mechanics, such as the manipulation of an incriminating recording of the murder, it's fine, but what should have been great is merely an average potboiler distinguished by Connery's presence. Rupert Murdoch, who took a strong personal interest in the picture, said that if they got it wrong they deserved a sound kick in the a**. If you happen to run into him, you might want to take him up on that.
 Good thriller that could have worked much better February 2, 2008
Richard Ross
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Philip Kaufman's film adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel works best when it focuses on the murder of a high priced American call girl and the subsequent investigation by detective Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) and his liaison John Connor (Sean Connery). Unfortunately the film decides to throw a lot more into the mix ruining the overall quality of the film and leaving one a little confused. Since the victim was American and her body was discovered on the boardroom table in a Japanese high rise the film is full of racial tension. At times there's a strong anti-Japanese stance regarding American companies sacrificing power and security to partner with the Japanese yet the Connor character's sole purpose is to try to educate the American detective in the ways of Japanese culture and he is constantly praising their customs. It's interesting to note that the original screenwriters, which included Michael Crichton, walked off the picture since they were displeased with Kaufman's handling of it. This resulted in David Mamet coming in as a script doctor and doing an uncredited rewrite of the script. Knowing this it's fun to watch the film and try to spot what parts are his contribution. A dead giveaway is when Web's superior officer Graham (Harvey Keitel) starts referring to him as "Baby", a favorite Mamet term of endearment. As Web and Connor try to further their investigation they're met with resistance from the Japanese who refuse to provide witnesses or evidence essential to the case. Both men are also branded dirty cops who can't be trusted. The reason for these allegations are told in elaborate and confusing flashbacks. There are major continuity gaps particularly with the Graham character. In one scene he is shown to be guilty yet he shows up in the next scene interrogating a witness along with the cops who know of his guilt. Another confusing element was that one character is believed to be dead, we see someone die, and then we find out that that person really didn't die. That doesn't mean that he won't actually die for real later on in movie. There are subplots involving technology and how the surveillance tapes have been tampered with, there is a sleazy senator (Ray Wise) who is too eager to partner with the Japanese as opposed to his Washington constituents who are hesitant. Connery and Snipes are an odd pairing and there is a lot of humor in that idea alone. They are fun to watch for most of the film but at a certain point Connery's philosophizing and "tutoring" of the Snipes character gets boring and condescending. There are some very strong performances from the supporting cast which includes Steve Buscemi, Tia Carrere, the excellent Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Mako. The film is well made and very stylish and it kept me involved and entertained even past the two hour mark but if director Kaufman would have trimmed the excesses and focused more on the murder investigation Rising Sun could have been a great crime thriller rather than a decent but failed one.
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