It's another thriller, but we aren't thrilled by 1988's D.O.A., featuring Dennis Quaid as a former wunderkind novelist turned tenured professor in a rut. No: really. Is that off-label casting why this confrontationally sweaty film doesn't work? Is it the lack of onscreen chemistry between Quaid and Jane Kaczmarek...AND Jane and Meg Ryan? Does a fetal Robert "T-Bag" Knepper need more to do? New Coke, Silk Stalkings, Wonder Boys, Binder & Binder, and the heartbreak of chronic zydeco all factor into our discussion of a "noir" in which noir wit doesn't factor...at all.

Overall score: 3.5

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