McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty? (2005) starring John Larroquette, Marta DuBois, Matt Lutz, Lisa Brenner, Silas Weir Mitchell, Nikita Ager directed by James A. Contner Movie Review

McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty? (2005)   3/53/53/53/53/5


John Larroquette and Matt Lutz in McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty? (2005)

The Caine Murderer

"McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty?" is the 6th of the 10 movies in the "McBride" series and like the proceeding movies it follows an identical pattern, from an opening courtroom scene where McBride gets the innocent Mo Feldstein off to watching him and Phil solve a murder. Along the way we have the requisite familiar elements so we have some easy going humour, various people who could be suspects, the ongoing to and fro of romance between McBride and Sergeant Roberta plus of course Jesse the dog. What that means is that if you have enjoyed the previous McBride movies you are sure to enjoy "McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty?" just as much. But what for me is a pleasant surprise about this 6th movie is that it is not as obvious as the proceeding ones, we are kept wondering right till the courtroom conclusion as to who the guilty party is.

When Joseph Devine (Silas Weir Mitchell) is humiliated live on TV by talk show host Marty Caine (Jack Scalia) he threatens to kill him, unfortunately for Joseph he is seen fleeing from Marty's dressing room, blooded and with Marty dead on the floor. Having done some work for Joseph once before Mike McBride (John Larroquette) pays him a visit in custody and believes him when he says he didn't murder Marty leading to Mike and Phil (Matt Lutz) taking on his defence case, one which sees them inundated by requests from the national press due to Marty's celebrity status.

Marta DuBois as Roberta in McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty? (2005)

So "McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty?" follows almost to the letter the formula which has already been established in the previous McBride movies. Everything is there from the opening courtroom scenes to McBride's flirtations with Roberta and it is really just a case of a different crime and characters. But the thing is that is what you want because it is all about the fun not only of McBride and Phil unravelling the case with a touch of humour but also that moment of courtroom triumph at the end. The only thing I would say is that unlike some of the proceeding movies the case in this one is not so clear cut and we are left hanging right till the final courtroom scenes for it to become clear who the guilty party is.

So yes that does mean that "McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty?" once again rests firmly on the casting to make it work and the trio of John Larroquette, Marta DuBois and Matt Lutz get better and better. But then we have some fun cameos such as Harold Gould as Mo Feldstein who McBride proves innocent in the opening scene and then there is Liz Torres as Eugenie Underwood, the temp they hire to deal with all the calls. Torres does such a good job of playing Eugenie and fits in with the humour so well I hope she ends up a returning character, the secretary who bosses Mike and Phil around.

What this all boils down to is that "McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty?" basically carries on the good work set out in the previous McBride movies, sticking to the formula because it works so well.

Tags: McBride Movies, TV Mystery Movie Crime Solvers


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