The Oxford Murders

Release Date: July 2nd, 2010

Genre: Crime / Thriller/ Mystery

Stars: Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonor Watling, Julie Cox

Synopsis: An American student arrives at Oxford University in hopes of being mentored by a professor he admires when a string of murders draw the two together in an attempt to decode the logic behind the series of symbols the killer leaves as clues.

AltAss Ratings (On a scale of 1 to 5 asses)

Plot:                                                           

The overall premise is decent enough but the smaller details are noticably lacking.

Writing:                        

May go over the head of a lot of people in the audience who love a good mystery but didn't realize it was a prerequisite to brush up on their mathematics and philosophy before viewing the film.

Acting:                           

Elijah Wood was not very believable in his role as an intellectual and looked like he should be heading to soccer practice instead of a lecture hall.  The rest of the cast did a good job, especially John Hurt in his role as the professor.

Originality:                

A very classic who done it with little or no deviation from other efforts of that genre.

Overall:                       

This film was looking solid enough for the first 40 minutes or so but endings typically make or break this type of movie and "The Oxford Murders" did not stick the landing.  Even if you can decipher the academic jargon, there are a lot of things in this movie that just don't add up.