A deranged murderer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) commits 7 horrific murders in the style of the seven deadly sins, but leaves the seventh one for 7 o'clock in horror postal delivery climax...

Horror investigation led by Detective Lt. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt).

"A horrible nightmare of nutty murders and then Mr Spacey makes it sound so reasonable at the end. Horror of horrors! Thankfully there is a happy brain explodey ending or I could not have slept for a week. A joy!"

"Gwyneth - there are few actresses who would have agreed to putting their heads in such a small box like that. Well done, your future career looks as bright and rosy as ever!"

"My dear, I have poor eyesight and, due to the darkness of this movie, I managed to see very little of it. I could hear the gun shots and swear words however. I must admit I did enjoy it, Brad Pitt's voice has been deepened to graveled levels of deepness. Bravisimo!"

"A superbly James Dean like performance from our Brad - thankfully he never gets to drive."

John Doe turns himself in to police after a chase which almost kills David Mills (Doe has the gun to David's head but does not pull the trigger).

Doe has murdered six people as they represent six of the seven deadly sins (gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust). He kills Mill's wife (Tracy Mills - Gwyneth Paltrow) and says he killed her due to envy. He gets her head delivered in a box in the middle of nowhere at 7 o'clock...

Mills shoots Doe in the head.

An exemplary, dark, movie.

It's that old senior cop about to retire and having to handle the young cop routine. It was presumably fresher when this movie came out (although Lethal Weapon fans probably complained). But, even so, the routine works well here, it is suitably cast and the combination is effective. Was Brad Pitt ever this young? Folks, here he is a pup's pup!

The plot sets out to shock and the first hour is truly grisly and seemingly pointless until the last hour in which we get to hear the voice of the murderer - an unexceptional man who is doing what he believes to be an exceptional thing. A man so upset by society's depravity that to get the attention of that society he decides not to 'tap it on its shoulder', but to 'take a sledge hammer to it'.

Whilst the crimes committed are terrible, the relationship between Pitt and Freeman is engrossing and it is this which pulls us through. Not a pleasant movie to watch, although by this time in its history you have probably seen a couple of copy cat movies like this.

July 11 , 2003.