A shock ending may be the best hope for this film, a convoluted mystery that thinks it's way smarter than it is. Kevin Spacey stars as David Gale, a Texas prof on death row for raping and killing a fellow activist (Laura Linney) against — oh, the irony! — the death penalty. Kate Winslet plays the reporter to whom Gale gives his last interview. Working from a script by first-timer Charles Randolph, director Alan Parker alternately engages and infuriates. Parker's flash works in some movies (Midnight Express, The Commitments) and exposes the hollowness of others, such as Evita and this one. Except for Linney, the actors ride the surface. Spacey, hopeless in a flashback drunk scene, is all bogus emotion. And the usually solid Winslet is reduced to mostly crying and running, possibly in reaction to a race-against-the-clock ending that shocks, yes, but only by jerking our chain.

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.