Certain Prey (2011) Reviews

• A Whole Lot of Love

  darknemesistattoo2011-11-10

  It seems many people hated this movie, but it is fairly obvious from the reviews that none of you have read the books. I thought Mark Harmon did an excellent job of portraying Lucas Davenport, and you can tell by his performance that he is a fan of the books. He really captured the world-weariness of Davenport without going over the top with the character's general bad-assery, and I would love to see him return in further "Prey" movies! As for the people who didn't approve of the fact that all of the characters seemed to be sleeping with one another, this movie is an adaptation of the tenth book in the series. There were nine other books spanning several years of plot that led up to the movie's various romantic entanglements. The producers and writers just did a really efficient job of summing up too much information into a believable plot.

• Please avoid this movie unless you want to laugh at bad writing

  nex212011-11-09

  Agree with the other reviewers, this was an embarrassing "movie". Bad lines, actors mailing in performances and it felt like a high school play where everyone was just muddling along with no flow and no tension. If I could give it 0 stars I would, but the 1 star is for the laughs I got when listening to the bad lines. Like a train wreck, I had to watch through the end to see the chain of comical sequences come to an end. This was a blatant audience grab for the fans of Mark Harmon and NCIS. He looked like he tried to be Gibbs again, but seriously it is tough to overcome a bad script.

• It sucked and then some

  thommytiger2011-11-09

  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.

• When reality meets fiction.

  swf642012-03-24

  I came across this pretty much by accident. I don't get the channel that made this TV movie, and as a huge fan of Davenport/Sandford, I eventually went to great lengths to get a copy. By then I had seen the reviews and pictures here and they had lowered my expectations. In fact, I even waited a couple of weeks to view it. I think many of the complaints of this film come from the unmistakable fact that a TV movie will never be better than a Sandford novel, and even more so for an audience that enjoys reading. I also think this is one of the real strengths of this film. Mark Harmon and company didn't try to give us our vision of Davenport, he gave us his. All of the characters in the film represent an image that is similar to the book series, but also unique, and the villains are exceptionally well played. In the end, it works well and stands on its own merits. I really enjoyed this TV version of Sandford and hope there are more. This is good TV.

• Horrid

  donlessnau-591-6377302011-12-03

  To quote the late, great Bill Hicks, "Piece of S..." How could Sandford sign off on this stinkburger? Sandford and Lucas Davenport is the best series I've ever read but this movie was a hot, steaming plate of steaming BS. The screenplay seemed more intent on putting in PC lines about gays and feminism than following the book. Where did the gay cop come from? He certainly wasn't in the book. Everyone connected with this stinkburger should be banned from making movies for the rest of their lives. Painful to watch. It was a great book as all the Prey series are but the treatment was juvenile and childishly PC.