Kiss the Girls

"Smart girls. Pretty girls. Missing girls."

1997 1h 55m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 1,980

ThrillerCrimeMystery

Synopsis

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Forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross travels to North Carolina and teams with escaped kidnap victim Kate McTiernan to hunt down "Casanova," a serial killer who abducts strong-willed women and forces them to submit to his demands. The trail leads to Los Angeles, where the duo discovers that the psychopath may not be working alone.

“Smart girls. Pretty girls. Missing girls.”

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Cast

Morgan Freeman
Det. Alex Cross
Ashley Judd
Dr. Kate McTiernan
Cary Elwes
Det. Nick Ruskin
Alex McArthur
Det. Davey Sikes
Tony Goldwyn
Dr. Will Rudolph
Jay O. Sanders
FBI Agent Kyle Craig
Bill Nunn
Det. John Sampson, LAPD
Brian Cox
Chief Hatfield, Durham PD

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gary Fleder
Writers: David Klass
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Alex Cross Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CAST

Did you know

250+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gary Fleder, shot by Aaron Schneider. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mark Isham. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Harvey Rosenstock shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd and Cary Elwes carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Smart girls. Pretty girls. Missing girls.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gary Fleder directs. Aaron Schneider behind the camera. Mark Isham scores. Harvey Rosenstock cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

129 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Part of the "Alex Cross Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
3250+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
4Directed by Gary Fleder, shot by Aaron Schneider. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Mark Isham. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Harvey Rosenstock shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd and Cary Elwes carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Smart girls. Pretty girls. Missing girls.".
9IMDB entry: tt0119468 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 19 themes, including "based on novel or book", "escape", "kidnapping", "detective".
11Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Aaron Schneider
Original score: Mark Isham
Editing: Harvey Rosenstock
Production design: Nelson Coates
Makeup / hair: Ben Nye Jr.
Sound: Rick Ash
Stunt coordinator: Chuck Picerni Jr.
Runtime: 115 min · 1h 55m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $27,000,000
Box office: $60,527,873
Return: 224% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Kiss the Girls (1997)

Part of

Alex Cross Collection

Collection of thriller films, based on the fictional character of Alex Cross, who originally appeared in a series of novels by James Patterson.

Also by

Gary Fleder

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2020-06-19
★ 5/10
Starts good and becomes increasingly farfetched A serial killer is loose in Durham, North Carolina, who’s actually a serial collector of young women. Forensic psychologist Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) ventures down from D.C. to assist in the investigation since his niece is one of the victims. He eventually teams-up with a surgeon who escaped the perpetrator’s lair (Ashley Judd). Cary Elwes and Tony Goldwyn are also on hand. “Kiss the Girls” (1997) is a detective thriller in the mold of “Silence of the Lambs” (1991) with some “Se7en” (1995) and a dash of “Scream” (1996), but less gruesome and therefore presumably more palatable to a larger audience. What I appreciate most about this flick is the lush nighttime sylvan cinematography. The cast is good as well. The first half is great for this genre, but the story gets progressively implausible from there with a muddled midsection. And then there’s the ‘big reveal’ at the end, which was predictable from the get-go. At the end of the day “Kiss the Girls” is worthwhile if you like detective thrillers and the cast, but be prepared for a wildly unrealistic tale. The sequel, “Along Came a Spider” (2001), had the same problem where the ‘big reveal’ is even more eye-rolling. The film runs 1 hour, 55 minutes, and was shot in North Carolina and Southern Cal. GRADE: C
CinemaSerf2022-09-07
★ 6/10
Morgan Freeman is quite effective here in this adaptation of James Patterson's novel about the kidnap of the niece of this police psychologist/detective. Racing to her North Carolina school, "Cross" discovers pretty quickly that she is likely to be the latest in a line of youngsters abused and killed at the hands of the so-called "Casanova"! Fortunately, one of his would be victims - "Kate" (Ashley Judd) - manages to escape her captivity, and with "Cross" and time very much against them, tries to track down this murderer. It stays fairly faithful to the book and that's maybe why it doesn't quite work. The narrative is really rather dry, the dialogue all a bit too wordy and though the subject matter is quite disturbing, there isn't a great deal of menace on show for us here. "Cross" is just too clever; the clues too obscure for us but childsplay for him, and after a while that starts to grate a little. The best examples of this genre allow the audience to participate in the manhunt along with the characters. Not so much here. Freeman owns the screen, as usual, and Judd is perfectly acceptable as his feisty and determined sidekick as we head to a denouement that has just enough jeopardy to keep it interesting. There are loads of "Alex Cross" books, so I would expect more from this character - I hope this is but a bedrock for a darker and more complex sequel.
Andre Gonzales2023-07-07
★ 7/10
Not that bad of a movie. Gets involved in a sex ring. Alex Cross has to figure out if she a victim or a participant.