Cinema surveillance images are loading at the bottom of the page

The criminal

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Innocence is no protection.

The criminal begins with a rant from out-of-work musician, Jasper Rawlins (Steven Mackintosh) against dance music.

And amazingly, this is enough to attract blonde Sarah Maitland (Natasha Little), who promises a one-night stand that will make a man of him.

Instead, it turns Jasper into a murder suspect when she is later found in his flat with her throat slit. Grumpy, middle-aged Detective Inspector Walker (Bernard Hill) and his assistant detective-Sergeant Rebecca White (Holly Aird) arrest Jasper, convinced that he is the guilty party.

But they can't make the evidence stick, which means Jasper has a three-day race against the clock to clear his name.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film crime music sex murder police UK

Persons of interest

Steven Mackintosh .... Jasper Rawlins
Eddie Izzard .... Peter Hume
Natasha Little .... Sarah Maitland
Yvan Attal .... Mason
Holly Aird .... Detective Sergeant Rebecca White
Andrew Tiernan .... Harris
Jana Carpenter .... Grace
Justin Shevlin .... The Barker
Barry Stearn .... Noble
Bernard Hill .... Detective Inspector Walker
Norman Lovett .... Clive
Timothy Bateson .... Thomas
Daniel Brocklebank .... Jonny
Julian Simpson .... Screenwriter
Julian Simpson .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Studios and distributors:

Paramount Pictures

Intelligence analyst

Secret Agent Acid Thunder

Theatrical report

At first, I fell asleep watching The criminal. It came across as a boring attempt at a twisted comedic thriller. But then I woke up and saw the second half. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, it took me a while to figure out what was going on. Seems this guy was doing his Grim Reaper party trick, leaving death and mayhem wherever he went even though it never really had anything to do with him. Could've been anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time...

I saw a once commonplace working man be convinced by the power that be that he's a crazed killer (as if there's a whole bunch of kinder, gentler killers hiding away somewhere, just waiting to inherit the Earth). Funnily enough, I just saw a similar story in the Kiwi film, The irrefutable truth about demons.

If he was put in the same position, I would do the same things that Jasper did, except that if someone offers you a way out of the mire, you take it.

What would you do when they're all out to get you?