I cant think of a film in 2018 that has come anywhere near close to as boring as this one. NOT a patch on the original 1950 version. This one does NOT have 1 redeeming feature, even the "dying hero" of the title hasn't any redeeming qualities, PANTS and find something different to do would be my advice, give this a very wide berth....the reason for "dead" is explained close to the end and its as poor as the rest of the film

D.O.A. is a remake of the 1949 film of the same title that shares the same premise but otherwise have a different story and characters. It stars Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, and Charlotte Rampling. It was directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton and scripted by Charles Edward Pogue. The writers of the original film, Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, share story credit with Pogue. "They didn't kill me; I was dead already," is the statement uttered by Dexter Cornell, an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has been poisoned by a slow-acting toxin and who has twenty- four hours to track down his killers before he ceases to exist. Cornell is a burned-out novelist trying to hold on to tenure at the university while seeing his marriage collapse around him. As if that weren't enough, he is receiving amorous come-ons from smart, young student Sydney Fuller and being badgered by another student, Nick Lang, to read his brilliant first novel. Not long after Dex demurs to Nick to read his novel, Nick is killed in a fall. Only then does Dex find out that Nick has been having an affair with his wife. Things keep going from bad to worse when, after an all-night drinking binge, Dex discovers that he has been slipped a poison that will kill him within 24 hours. Teaming up with the adoring Sydney, Dex tries to track down the person who poisoned him while dodging the cops, since he happens to be a prime murder suspect.It's not on the same level as the original, but this updated version still manages a few enjoyable twists, as it is a witty and literate thriller, with a lot of irony to cut the violence. The ending shouldn't be given away, but it hangs on a laughable motivation for murder that says more about the plagiarist Zen of Hollywood and screenwriters than anything else. Quaid is convincing as the chain-smoking English professor, Ryan is true blue as the stalwart coed and Rampling looks capable of keeping her victims alive just to toy with them.In summary, "film noir on campus" idea works surprisingly well as it has enough inventive moments to make it interesting.

D.O.A. (1988) * 1/2 (out of 4) The title pretty much sums up this remake of the 1949 noir classic. This time out Dennis Quaid plays a teacher going through the worse period of his life as he can't get a book published and his wife is leaving him but things get even darker after being poisoned and learning that he's got less than 24-hours to life. In that time he decides to try and track down the person or persons who poisoned him along with the help of one of his students (Meg Ryan). The original film is one of the all-time great classics but many movies were getting remade during the 80s and many of them were quite good (THE THING, THE FLY, THE BLOB) but others were less than memorable and that's where D.O.A. falls. Many people considered this one of the worst films of the years and it's hard to try and fight that because this is one pretty lousy movie from start to finish. This is really one of those mysteries that's quite annoying because everyone you meet is a red herring and not once did I ever feel as if the screenwriters had a good idea as to where they were going because the entire storyline just seemed like one big mess and in the end they could have had anyone be the killer and it wouldn't have made any less sense than someone else. I won't reveal the ending but it's quite laughable and you can't help but really be mad that you've wasted so much time with the picture just to get to this conclusion. Directors ***** try to add some style to the picture but this never works and quite often it's just as annoying as everything else going on. There are some fancy camera moves and some quick edits but they add nothing to the picture. The opening and closing sequences are in B&W and I'm guessing this was done to try and give the viewers a throwback to the old days but it does nothing to enhance the film. The film actually contains some fine actors but none of them are given much to work with. Quaid, one of my favorites, pretty much sleepwalks through the picture and it never really appears he knows what to do with the character. Ryan is pretty bland in one of her early roles and the shocking thing is that she has no chemistry with Quaid. Daniel Stern, Charlotte Rampling and Jane Kaczmarek round out the supporting cast. One of the most annoying things about the picture is its soundtrack, which features some great tracks but these songs really don't mix well with the story or anything going on. I'm not one that goes against remakes but this here is one that can be skipped. Check out the original instead.

I don't know which pushes the limits of cerebral capacity more: figuring out your Alternative Minimum Tax or the plot of this movie. The opening shot in black and white is certainly an eye-opener. (The opener apparently references the film noir classic of the same title, D.O.A., 1949-1950, but the 1988 offering is not a remake) Prof Dexter Cornell, played by Dennis Quaid, stumbles into a police station to report a murder. The first question of course is who was murdered to which Quaid responds with his memorable but simple answer, "I was." Quaid plays an English professor-novelist who says, at some point, that English professors don't inspire the kind of passion to be victims of premeditated murders, which is I guess the point of D.O.A.: not even English professors are completely without risk. But don't let this movie fool you. Being an English professor is sort of like flying, it's one of the safest ways to travel.The rest of the movie is a flashback entirely from Cornell's point of view in which the events leading up to his entry into the police precinct are retraced, which turns out to be two days. The movie shifts back into color, and we are taken back to the morning of two days ago in Cornell's writing class. The first hint of a plot is an unpublished novel written by one of Cornell's students, Nick Lang. Cornell had promised to read the work but delayed. After class, when Cornell is dashing off, presumably to another class or a meeting, Lang runs after him through the halls begging him to read his work. At one point, the student says he will kill himself if the prof dislikes his novel. A couple of scenes later, guess what? Lang is turned into mush, presumably having killed himself by throwing himself from an undergrad dorm window. Cornell's office just happens to be underneath, and the body hits the window before becoming a human pancake. (I have never heard of student dorms being above professor's offices on a college campus, but that is one of the many strange coincidences that permeate this film.) The incident does not stop Cornell and one of his colleagues from celebrating in his office shortly thereafter.But this is just the beginning. A whole back-story about Lang emerges about him having been put through college on the tab of an older wealthy lady who shot a prowler-thief in her house 20 years previous to the events of the movie. As an interesting twist, it turns out Lang is the son of the slain thief. On top of that, Cornell's marriage is ending. He gives his soon-to-be ex-wife a toy Ferris Wheel and she gives him the divorce papers, a rather odd exchange of Christmas presents. They attend a university social function where he makes a drunken fool of himself. But to add to the twists, the event is sponsored by guess who? The lady financing the late student-writer.It is never fully explained exactly what Cornell writes. We gather he had 4 or 5 successful books, probably novels, but has had nothing for the last four years. But what he is good at is the bottle. He goes to a bar and encounters a young woman who turns out to be the daughter of the lady of the student who killed himself. It's starting to sound like the nursery rhyme "The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." The girl is dragged out from the bar by one of the lady's henchmen leaving Cornell to his own devices. But he is not alone. He ends up drinking himself into a frenzy with one of his students, played by Meg Ryan.Next morning, he wakes up in Ryan's freshmen women's dorm room. One of thing about this movie: Quaid keeps waking up in places after having conked out. Luckily, he did nothing that would be reported in the gossip column of the university newspaper and jeopardize his tenure. But he feels worse than having a hang-over. He drags himself to the university hospital only to find that he has been poisoned. The lethal chemistry has been absorbed by the body enough that he only has 24 to 48 hours to live. And now he has to find out not only the who but the why. Sort of like a Clue game for geniuses, DOA has many pieces of the puzzle, and Cornell has to figure out their arrangement before he falls over for the last time, and not just from the numerous shaken-not-stirred martinis. Martinis and poison go well together to accelerate the demise of the poor victim. When the pieces start falling into place, they are like nothing you would expect.The film moves a mile-a-minute, with people getting knocked over the head with things, people chasing through tar pits, and of course a short episode at the compulsory carnival. Seems like suspense movies from the 1980's until the mid-1990's always have a scene where the protagonist is stumbling through a carnival or bizarre of some sort late in the evening to add to his already dazed-and-confused condition. Some of the action is a bit unbelievable but what saves it are the fine performances of all the leads, particularly Quaid who keeps you wanting to find out with him what is really going on. Certainly not the best movie of its type, but it has a look and feel all its own. So take a break from trying to figure out your Alternative Minimum Tax depreciations and check this film out.