Phobe. Stimolson made me watch this movie and I'll never forgive him.

A thoroughly strange noir. The resolution is a bit muddled but before that point the protagonists' instability creates a hallucinogenic atmosphere. You're just never sure what is real.

I lost the count of the times I've fall asleep watching this movie. It is Simply boooring and slug.

("The Caveman's Valentine", a.k.a "Sign of the Killer") An okay movie. A bit odd.

I really appreciated some of the bigger themes alluded to and explored in this mystery thriller, while some of the dialogue and technical aspects come off cheesy and low budget over twenty years later. Samuel L. Jackson Binge: Similar to the movie as a whole, I really liked aspects of Jackson's character and really disliked others. It was great to see him in a solo lead, and especially as a mentally ill homeless person in the role of the hero. The way in which mental illness was portrayed however, was lazy and cliche, and probably a bigger indictment of the era than the individual writers and actor. *SLJ January #16

Between 3 and 3.5 stars. The plot could have finished better, but the good starting point, the mix of the reality and the mind of the main character, and the very good performance of Samuel L. Jackson, create a for-all-the-publics excuse to talk about homeless people.

A thoroughly strange noir. The resolution is a bit muddled but before that point the protagonists' instability creates a hallucinogenic atmosphere. You're just never sure what is real.

Speciale looking Samuel L Jackson did a good job in this oke-movie . Not memoraleble . SOMDVD

I enjoyed it even if it didn't amount to anything that made a whole lot of sense. Jackson follows up "Unbreakable" with another movie that proves there's more to him than brainless action flicks. Watch it if you can find it.

The Caveman's Valentine (Kasi Lemmons, 2001) [originally posted 5Dec2001] Lemmons, who gave us the well-above-average Eve's Bayou a few years back, helms George Dawes Green's adaptation of his own award-winning debut novel about a schizophrenic pianist, Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson), who wakes up one morning, walks out of his New York cave (yes, they do still have caves in New York, at least if you believe Green, and homeless people live in them), and discovers a frozen body in a tree. This may not be anything other than par for the course in winter in New York, but Ledbetter is convinced that the man's death is anything other than natural. Of course, Ledbetter is also convinced that the Chrysler building is inhabited by an evil overlord named Cornelius Beford Stuyvesant (groove on the name for a few minutes, if you're acquainted with the early history of NYC) who's out to kill him. So no one, least of all his daughter Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s love interest in Men of Honor), wants to take him seriously. But Lulu, an NYC police officer, is a subordinate of the guy who ends up running the case. What's a girl to do? Add to this the fact that the dead guy's boyfriend, Matt (Rodney Eastman, of many indie films and a couple of Nightmare on Elm Street flicks-he played Joey, the mute guy), DOES believe Ledbetter, and provides him with the name of the killer, internationally-renowned photographer David Leppenraub (Colm Feore, who's been in most every movie made in the past decade). Ledbetter starts digging around to see whether there's a murder here to investigate, and, as we all know, complications ensue. The movie is cast perfectly, from Jackson all the way down to the relatively minor part played by an almost unrecognizable Anthony Michael Hall (who really does deserve a lot more high-profile roles; the guy is just plain good). The script is well-done and moves along at a proper pace, never letting the action drop even when exploring its various subplots. Okay, Leppenraub is a little too obviously modeled on Mapplethorpe, but we'll forgive Green since the rest of it's so well-done. But the key to the whole performance is Jackson himself, who gives a career-best performance as Ledbetter. Schizophrenia may never have been filmed as well as it is here. Rather than go for the Hollywood-style nutcase one normally associates with filmed depictions of schizophrenia, Lemmons and Jackson take the DSM-IIIR route and hand us a character who's, ironically, not as believable unless you've read a whole lot of scizophrenia case studies. Then you realize just how perfect a depiction this is, and your jaw hits the floor, both at Jackson's wonderful performance and the fact that Hollywood let this movie slip through the cracks. Very much worth going well out of your way to see, especially if you like Sam Jackson. Lots of interest from indie circles, too, as many indie-film darlings show up here. Hard to believe this movie got almost no press given the cast, but so it happened. Very highly recommended. ****

Better than average, but I wasn't terribly impressed with Sam Jackson's acting; Shaky and falls in and out of character at times. I think the movie deserved better reviews than it received on Flixster.

I thought that Samuel L. should have gotten an Oscar nod for this performance. This was a really great story and movie and didnt ge the recognition it should have

Romulus Ledbetter: I got freezing temperatures all over my brain. And I got legends of angels up there! Like little moths, and they'll beat the hell out of you with their wings!  "Inside a tortured mind... The clues that lead to a killer." This weird crime thriller is just as schizophrenic as its character Romulus. I really don't know exactly what to think about it. As of now, all I really know is that I didn't enjoy it. I wasn't particularly thrilled by the story, nor was I enamored by the style. It was also maybe the first time I have seen Samuel L. Jackson in a movie, and didn't love his performance. His acting was more than just schizophrenic, it was off the wall and over the top. I'm guessing that's what the director wanted because the whole movie came off like that as well. It had all the makings to be a truly intelligent thriller. I liked the initial idea for the movie, but by the thirty minute mark, I was less then thrilled by what was going on. By the hour mark, I knew this wasn't going to be good. And by the hour and a half mark, I really just didn't care anymore.  Romulus is a genius musician who attended Juilliard. Now he lives in a cave in a New York City park. He's also crazy as fuck, seeing images and talking to his ex-wife like she is present. He also has a variety of crazy theories. When he finds a frozen corpse in a tree outside of his cave, he starts expressing what he thinks happened, to the police; one of which is his daughter. Obviously they think he is crazy. He decides to try to investigate what is going on by himself.  The Caveman's Valentine isn't an unwatchable movie, it's just one that I couldn't particularly get into and enjoy. I normally can enjoy these psychological, mind fuck movies, but this one was either too much or too little. I haven't really decided yet. I still can't really organize my thoughts on this one. Maybe I'll revisit it in a few years and I'll like it. Or maybe I will realize why I disliked it to the extreme of which I did, because normally like a movie or not; I know exactly why. This one... not so much.

Jackson plays a decent mentally ill hobo. Good twist but low budget.

It's unfortunate that all this talent is misplaced on what is, essentially, a contrived mystery.

This is a true thinking movie

Ça m'a prit 2 jours a écouter... BORING!

Samuel Jackson gave a stellar performance.

It was a great film. Its not the simple minded. This movie had a double meaning. Sam Jack was great!

Jackson does an admirable job playing a schizophrenic, however I wasn't enamored with the visuals associated with the character's mind. The story takes a while to set up but comes together pretty well when it just seemed like a mess throughout. I liked it but didn't love it.