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      The Riverman

      TV-14 2004 1h 36m Mystery & Thriller Crime Drama List
      Reviews 25% 100+ Ratings Audience Score It's 1982 and Detective Dave Reichert (Sam Jaeger) is on the trail of the Green River Killer, who's responsible for the deaths of over a dozen women. With few leads and the death toll mounting, Reichert seeks help from retired investigator Robert Keppel (Bruce Greenwood). But as he examines the case, Keppel decides to consult someone who knows about murder firsthand -- serial killer Ted Bundy (Cary Elwes). Bundy seems interested in cooperating , but there's a catch: He wants off death row. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      Ted B 2.5 stars; Basically a made-for-TV q. With the possible exception of Cary Elwes who played a creepy Ted Bundy very well (and even looked somewhat like him), the acting was summer stock level. Not suspenseful. More like a documentary. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/15/23 Full Review steve d An effective serial killer film. Too bad it is the wrong serial killer. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member I found myself tuning out of this flick when Cary Elwes' Bundy wasn't on screen. There are some great sequences in this movie but if you take out the third act it completely shits the bed. For its content it was an absolute snore fest. The only reason it gets a star at all is because of Cary Elwes. Watch for its last half an hour, or if you have 90 minutes you have to murder dead. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Forget this was a made-for-TV movie. This was just a good (but not great) movie. The performances by Bruce Greenwood and especially by Cary Elwes were quite compelling if not necessarily accurate portrayals of Keppel and Bundy. I was let down a bit by the script because it didn't tell me enough about the hunt for Ridgway or about Bundy's motives for helping Keppel find him. Did Bundy want the files because he got off on the crime scene photos? We know he tried a number of ploys to delay his execution...was his involvement in the Green River case just a ploy? Was he trying to atone for what he had done? Was he worried that he would be outdone by the Riverman? The movie doesn't explore that enough. I feel like it needed to be about 30 minutes longer in order to do justice to the material. But the best reason to watch this is Cary Elwes's chilling portrayal of Ted Bundy's confession. Elwes was not so much trying to imitate the real Ted Bundy as much as he was trying to create his own serial killer character or get into Ted's mind instead of his actual demeanor or the way he actually talked. The real Ted Bundy was calmer and cooler than this. He didn't sound like a monster...he seemed like a nice, sincere, smart, charming guy on the surface. He had everyone fooled. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member I'm usually disappointed in most true crime films about serial killers, but Bruce Greenwood's performance held my interest throughout. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member This was a TV movie done by A&E based on Keppel's book. I heard that he thought the movie turned out well enough so since it was on Netflix, I watched it. It was good for what it was. You could see that CSI influenced the look and feel of the movie. It was interesting. They benefited from the cast because without the skills of Elwes and Greenwood, this could have been a very boring movie. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Riverman

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      Critics Reviews

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      C.H. Newell Scriptophobic Like a feature film-length version of the famous Friedrich Nietzsche quote: "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster." May 2, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis It's 1982 and Detective Dave Reichert (Sam Jaeger) is on the trail of the Green River Killer, who's responsible for the deaths of over a dozen women. With few leads and the death toll mounting, Reichert seeks help from retired investigator Robert Keppel (Bruce Greenwood). But as he examines the case, Keppel decides to consult someone who knows about murder firsthand -- serial killer Ted Bundy (Cary Elwes). Bundy seems interested in cooperating , but there's a catch: He wants off death row.
      Director
      Bill Eagles
      Producer
      Hawk Koch, Peter Lance
      Screenwriter
      Tom Towler
      Production Co
      Starz! Pictures, Koch Company, Fox Television Studios, Cinema 21 Group
      Rating
      TV-14
      Genre
      Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 7, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 36m