Mike's Murder Reviews

Debra Winger stars in this occasionally intense film as Betty, a Los Angeles bank teller with an on-again, off-again relationship with Mike (Keyloun), a part-time tennis instructor who supplements his income by dealing drugs. When Mike fails to make a rendezvous with Betty, she learns that he is dead, murdered after he and a cocaine-addicted friend, Pete (Larson), skimmed money while acting as middlemen in a dope deal. Betty and Pete drift through a seamy Los Angeles--she looking for clues that will explain the murder, he trying to escape the hit men who have made it known that he's next. Winger overcomes the weaknesses of the script to give a strong performance, and Paul Winfield, playing a homosexual record producer, also does a nice job. Although MIKE'S MURDER was shot rather quickly by director James Bridges (URBAN COWBOY [1980]), its general release was delayed so the film could be recut after some less than successful preview screenings. It received a very limited release. Joe Jackson's score, appearing as a soundtrack album before the film made it into the theaters, was eventually all but replaced by music by John Barry.