The Advocate's Devil

The film is based on Alan Dershowitz’s novel, a defense attorney,himself. We are presented with a situation of how a lawyer’s badjudgment clouds his vision and gets a client absolved of a crime thatseems, in retrospect, too obvious to even get involved in. Abe Ringel(Ken Olin) is retained by jock star Joe Campbell (Holt McCallany) whena young woman accuses him of raping her. In fact, Ringel and his teamof investigators seem to have doubts about this client from the start.

Joe Campbell figures he is above the law and can do whatever he thinkshe can get away with, even after a tragedy occurs, for which he is noteven blamed. It’s not until he decides to concentrate on Emma, Ringel’sdaughter, when everything comes to a head.

The film is interesting to watch because it’s not the typical Movie ofthe Week type. The acting is good and the cast gives an excellentaccount under the direction of Mr. Bleckner.

"The Advocate’s Devil" will not disappoint because the quick pace andcredible story.

2) "Thirty Something" star Ken Olin has certainly had a fascinating careersince the series ended. He has become a very successful producer, forone thing. Acting wise, for as nice a guy as he played on the series,he has often been cast as a wife killer. In this movie, based on anovel by Alan Dershowitz, he’s an attorney with a run of losses whotakes what looks to be a slam-dunk case, defending a basketball staraccused of rape. Along the way, it begins to look like the case isn’tthe winner he anticipated as inconsistencies in his client’s storybegin to emerge.

As his investigator girlfriend, beautiful Mariska Hargitay gives a warmand honest performance. I first saw Mariska’s work when she was a kidon "Falcon Crest" and my opinion of her has never changed. She was adelight then, and she has evolved into a wonderful actress while stillmaintaining a charismatic presence. Holt McCallany, as the defendant,gives nothing away in an enigmatic performance and will keep youguessing.

This is a film that will definitely hold your interest. Only a lawyercould come up with a plot like this, however. I found it just a littletoo clever.

3) XX There Are Spoilers XX Disturbing crime/court drama based on a novelby famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz who also wrote the screenplayabout rape deception and finally murder.

Known as "The White Knight" San Francisco Condors basketball star JoeCampball, Hoit McCallany, has it all: talent looks charm and money aswell as thousands of star struck young women who would give their rightarm to spend an evening with him. One of those lucky ladies JenniferDawling, Jessica Tuck, gets that wish and after having a quite anddelightful dinner with Joe goes up to his hotel room to spend the nightwith him.

The next morning Joe is accused by Jennifer of raping and abusing herand is later indited by a grand jury to stand trial. Joe gettingdefense attorney Abe Ringel, Ken Olin, to defend him tells Abe thatJennifer is trying to get money out of him by dragging his name throughthe mud and that he's willing to take the stand to tell the truth whichis that he's innocent of all the charges that she made against him.

On he stand Joe comes across so truthful and straightforward about theevents that happened that evening with Jeniffer that Abe reviles hername, a possible rape victim, in public at a news conference the nextday.The trial of Joe Campball is a forgone conclusion with him beingfound innocent,a verdict announced by a pretty and admiring young womanwho's the jury forewoman, and admittedly set free. Everyone in thecourtroom, with the exception of Jennifer and her lawyer, feels thatjustice was done but the person who you would think, next to Joe, wouldhave felt most happy about the verdict didn't.

Abe knew that he unleashed a psycho on society who raped before heraped Jennifer and will more then likely rape again, which he did, andone of his intended victims being his, Abe's, pretty young 17 year-olddaughter Emma, Gina Philips.

During the trial Abe found out that Joe is an expert computer hackerand likes to hack into court and police websites checking young ladieswho claimed to have been sexually abused and then having their casesthrown out of court due to lack of evidence. Jennifer Dawling was oneof those young women.

Joe had found out that these women would not be believed in a court oflaw, if they chose to press charges against him, because they werealready proved to be lairs before so why would not a jury feel thatthere lying now. Which was exactly what the jury in the case that thestate, through Jennifer Dawling, brought against him felt.

Free to do what he wants Joe ends up killing another young women LisaLister, Anne Farquhar,who he picked up and took at a local SanFrancisco hotel-room. Abe seeing this in the TV news, no one in thenews or police knows who killed Lisa at the time,and realizes that thisis Joe's Modus Operandi. The act that Joe's basketball team, the SanFrancisco Condors, were playing in SF at the time makes him a primesuspect in the murder.

Feeling terribly guilty for letting Joe loose on an unsuspecting publicAbe tries to get him re-arrested by the police with what he knows abouthim. Still technically being Joe's lawyer Abe feels that he can'tbetray his client even though his client betrayed him.

Joe in a mad effort to get even with Abe charms his young daughterEmma, who's totally Ga-Ga about him, and takes her to a hotel room todo to her what he did to Jennifer and Lisa and ,as far as we know,dozens of other young ladies before them. With Abe and the police beinghelpless to stop him.

The movie " Advacate's Devil" is both shocking and engrossing at thesame time and will leave it's audience jolted at whats happening on thescreen. Both Ken Olin and Holt McCallany are in top form as the lawyerand criminal with McCallany stealing the movie as a chilling DoctorJekyll and Mister Hyde type of person and McCallany pulls this offwithout the use of any makeup at all.

4) A very clever legal drama, shown on television but one i would definitelyhave paid money to see. A Defence lawyer gets more involved in a case thanhe would like due to his client threatening his daughter.

Excellent performances by all the cast, who i must admit I’ve never seeninanything else, or atleast i don’t think i have. they may have been insomething but not impacted on me.

Hire it or catch it on TV, you won’t be disappointed.

5) A very good , solid, direct for T.V. movie. I had the fortune to watchit on "Cinemax" and I really enjoyed it.

The movie deals with the hard situation that popular lawyer Abe Ringleis going through after losing several cases in a row and not being ableto recover from that situation. Things change when basketball superstarJoe Campbell is accused of rape with violence. Campbell decides to hireRingel as his lawyer. Ringel and his super hot assistant, and otherteam member figure out and win the case although they know that Mr.Campbell is in fact a disturbed person that gets excited afterinsulting and raping women. Ringel discovers that Campbell murdered anex-hooker and threatens him about demanding him. This is where themovie gets interesting on the legal field because it shows topics likethe lawyer’s professional privacy about his clients, rape, testimonies,murder, etc.

Things get bad when Campbell decides to take revenge on Ringel byseducing Ringel’s sweet but hot daughter Emma. Campbell manages to gether on a hotel room and tries to rape her after telling horrible thingsabout her dead mother.

This movie is very interesting even if you are not familiar with laws.It moves in fast pace and manages to keep you entertained. Watch thismovie and you won’t regret it because it’s a solid drama with likablecharacters, great acting, and most of all, it’s entertaining and verybelievable.

6) As a big SVU fan, I checked this one out for Mariska Hargitaypre-Olivia Benson! As a TV movie thriller, it was quite good fun,although the director's habit of putting the camera at an angle all thetime was VERY annoying! The plot is pretty much standard TV movie fare,defence lawyer Ken Olin gets a high profile client off, only to realisehe was guilty. Cue the dramas.

For Mariska fans, she has a fair bit of screen time, and isn't JUST theGirlfriend. She's an investigator, although we don't get to see enoughof her investigating sadly. The young girl playing Olin's daughter is abit of a Natalie Portman lookalike, and is annoyingly perky at times.

Good Sunday afternoon viewing on the Hallmark channel!

7) This turned out to be a very good movie. The story is intriguing, and Iwonder if it must have been based on reality, somewhat. The onlyproblem is there was the big film- "The Devil's Advocate" with KeanuReeves and Al Pacino- (totally different plot though) so it may confusethe viewer, thinking these are similar films, and thus, not tuning in.

That aside, Ken Olin is excellent in this film, as the defense attorneywho must defend basketball star, Joe Campbell (portrayed by HoltMcCallany). I have seen McCallany in one or two smaller films, and hewas excellent in this. The case which Olin prepares so well, and winsturns out to be a possible mistake. What if the defendant really didrape these girls? What kind of person is he? What is he capable of?.

Mariska Hargitay is also good as Olin's assistant. There is a smallrole for Deanna Milligan ("Intensity" 1997) and Gina Philips is Olin'sdaughter, who becomes involved with Joe Campbell (McCallany). While theending wasn't overly suspenseful, this film addresses the many flaws inour legal system, and psychological issues which cannot be assessed bythe courts.

Saw advocate’s Devil on cable in bits and pieces. due to commercialinterruption when I usually change the station. but with VHS videosprices generally so low these days, tried in vain to find it forpurchase, thus far.

mayhap I will record it when next I find it playing.

my rating is that it appears to be engrossing, well-written (yes, thisis THE one from the Dershowitz novel) and well-played. Ken Olin playsthe defense attorney. (he starred in 30-something). and therefore wasimmediately recognizable to me (for the other reviewer’s comment)..allaround, a seemingly worthwhile courtroom and beyond drama.

9) I liked this movie, I usually hate legal drama crap but this one wasprettygood. Sadly, in real life pro athletes get off for stuff like this all thetime no matter how many times they are accused, and their fans will alwaysbe on their side. The guy in this movie was a complete sociopath, it wasreally scary! I recommend this movie to anyone who likes legal films, andalso to any Lifetime movie buff. The only problems I had with the movie:1)The movie never tells what happened with that girl who got killed 2) Whydid the daughter just forgive this woman for having an affair with herfather, and why would she suggest they move in together? I mean come on nodecent person would suggest a couple move in together!

Other then that the movie is really good! Please watchit!

10) Well…I originally wanted to watch this little telefilm; to see someother stuff Hargitay had done. I must say it was werid seeing her withlonghair. The whole plot of the story ran like your typical ‘lifetime’ movie.You know the channel where; "The men are accused, and the women areabused."

Just like all other lifetime movies, this one was predictable. As soonasthe Lawyer’s daughter left for college I swear I knew exactly what wasgoingto happen. I understand that someone would like to make unique camerashotsto enhance their piece. But trust me using dutch angles was not a way togo. It just seemed to make the film worse, and I wondered when they’dstopit.

Besides all of that they never really explained the ‘note’ that thebasketball player found in Rendi’s computer. I find it hard that the girlwould dismiss it all that easily. In regards to that it wasn’t veryrealistic.