Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross travels to North Carolina and teams with escaped kidnap victim Kate McTiernan to hunt down "Casanova," a serial killer who abducts strong-willed women and forces them to submit to his demands. The trail leads to Los Angeles, where the duo discovers that the psychopath may not be working alone.
Kiss the Girls is a competent but formulaic serial killer thriller that follows well-worn genre conventions. The plot keeps things moving reasonably well and the Cross-McTiernan partnership adds some interest, but the mystery's resolution feels rushed and the villain reveal is underwhelming. Freeman and Judd deliver solid performances without being stretched, and the film's visual style is workmanlike but unremarkable. The 'Casanova' conceit had potential for distinctiveness but the film leans heavily on genre tropes already popularized by Silence of the Lambs. The ending deflates tension rather than capitalizing on it, leaving the dual-killer twist underdeveloped.