R.J. Carter -- The Trades

Between all the scenes of sultriness and the Spirit (Gabriel Macht) delivering soliloquies so hard boiled that Raymond Chandler would flinch, there is the tale of the battle between the Spirit and the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). Both men are tougher than tough, which the audience gloms onto during a slobberknocker straight out of a Looney Tunes short (at one point Spirit clobbers Octopus with a crowbar -- which bends and conforms to the shape of Jackson's head). Why are they so tough? And what happened to police officer Denny Colt that caused him to rise from the dead after his murder to become the Spirit, the secret weapon of the curmudgeonly Police Commissioner Dolan (Dan Lauria)? And how is it that Sand Serif and the Octopus cross paths, each seeking a separate treasure from antiquity? These are the things that "The Spirit " explores, and where the storyline tends to not hold up as well, although it mostly delves too deeply into the silly. ...