Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Teri Hatcher, Rob Lowe, Trevor Blumas, Mark Caven, David Hemblen, Alex Karzis,
Christina Cox, Maurice Dean Wint, Kevin Jubinville, Lyriq Bent | Written by Kevin Elders
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 90 minutes | Directed by Kevin Elders
MILF with the most Teri Hatcher turns action girl in this rather ordinary US cable TV thriller from 2001— before her career resurgence with Desperate Housewives. Hatcher is the Jane Doe of the title, a divorced mum whose teenage son Michael (Blumas) has been kidnapped. To get him back she needs follow some strange instructions delivered to her via payphones by a cliche British bad guy before eventually sneaking some computer files out of the offices of Cy-Kor, the arms manufacturer where she used to work. While she is there the company's chief executive is murdered, for which she's framed. Soon she has police, the bad guys running Cy-Kor and the feds on her pretty tail — including the Defence Intelligence Agency, which her ex-husband David (Lowe) works for.
Jane Doe starts well, with lots of action and shaky hand-held camerawork, but soon gets bogged down in sily plot twists and some atrocious dialogue ("These guys don't deal," says her rescued son at one stage. "Grab someone by the balls and squeeze hard enough, they deal," is her reply). It's formulaic stuff from action supremo Joel Silver with performances that don't suck too hard from Hatcher and Lowe, and is an entertaining enough way to kill an hour and a half on a cold, rainy night. But do yourself a favour and rent it rather than buy, OK?
EXTRAS Nope