JohnHowardReid
SYNOPSIS: Ex-football player takes a job to hunt down the ex-girl friend of a shady acquaintance. She's hiding somewhere in Mexico. NOTES: Phil Collins was nominated for his title song for both a Golden Globe and Hollywood's most prestigious award.COMMENT: Although the screen credits imply otherwise, Daniel Mainwaring (pronounced "Mannering") had no input into this considerably augmented yet at the same time watered down remake of his Build My Gallows High (novel)/Out of the Past (screenplay), both of which he wrote under the pseudonym, "Geoffrey Homes". True, the new script mirrors the original closely at times, but there are wide divergences at others. Even more annoying, Hughes has added a number of extra scenes which do nothing to advance the plot but tend to dissipate atmosphere and tension. One often has the feeling that the producers' aim was to provide employment for as wide a number of their actor and professional friends as possible. Admittedly, this does result in some agreeable casting. It's always a pleasure to see Richard Widmark snarling away, and a real treat to find Jane Greer, the star of Out of the Past, here cast as her original character's mother! However, when all's said and done, this movie runs a wearying 128 minutes. The original, on the other hand, told us basically the same story in a far more terse and involving 98 minutes!
LeonLouisRicci
The Argument that You can't Transfer Film-Noir to Modern Times is Weak at best. Talented Filmmakers have Done it Repeatedly and it Can Work. It has been Termed Neo-Noir. Of course, it is a Tricky Transformation and the result has Not always been Successful. There Are some Great Neo-Noirs out there, but this is Not One of them.Director Taylor Hackford said that He did not want to Remake "Out of the Past" (1947), So why did He? It's OK to imagine a Metamorphosis and tailor the Film to Current Sensibilities, Style, and so forth, but Here it Hurts and the Mediocre result is anything but effective.Somehow, the Core of Noir is Lost among the Steamy, Sweaty, Sex Scenes and the Sheen of 1980's crowd pleasing Fads. Music Video Styling and Shallow Representations of the Femme Fatale Fails to intrigue. The Crisp Noir Dialog featured in the Original falls flat and the Actors seem to be Struggling to Make This WorkOverall, Not a Bad Movie, it is Just Unremarkable. Jeff Bridges at His physical Peak of Manhood, seems a bit Whiny on Top of the Tan and Gym Tone and Rachel Ward is a Less than Great Actress and is almost Awful and here Shows No Range of Emotion. James Woods gives the Best Performance but for Him it is a notch Below His usual Show Stealing abilities. Richard Widmark Playing the reprehensible Money Man, a Rich Slime Bucket, is Fine, but again, about Average for His later day Movies.You Know the Movie is Struggling for attention when Just about Everyone Relates to the Film through a Pop Song. A Pop Song? Now that's Definitely Not Noir, in Any Era.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Nothing to brag about, not even about the restricted audience. Los Angeles in all its shady business dealing with city planning and city development, no cinema industry, but a lot of football. A football player gets kicked out of the Outlaws, the football team, or at least one of the football teams, of Los Angeles after a broken shoulder or something like that. He gets involved with some "friend" who is as crooked as my arm when I blow my nose. That "friend" wants him to find his disappeared girl friend. She is the daughter of an important business woman who is doing in city development, meaning real estate speculation for the rich, the very rich, away from Beverley Hill. Behind her there is a man who is the real maker of deals, generally with money or blackmailing.Our kicked out football player accepts to look for the girl, falls in love, brings her back against all odds since a killer had been sent after them and then he manages to put his hand on the treasure chest of a crooked lawyer just after the latter was killed and the former has the power to blackmail everyone he wants. That's what I call a kushy pushy job. Lovely Jubbly!So he accepts to disappear, he gets trials with football teams out of Los Angeles, but he cannot get the girl. Too bad.And that's all. It is no new thing that city planning and real estate development are rotten to the core. It is no new thing that sports competition and football games are in a way or another "arranged" by some people who make money out of it. They say rigged like the football players who are rigged with their padding and masks and helmets, etc. You are sure to win when the result has been well cushioned ahead of time. So the film is in no way a masterpiece, except maybe if you could speak of a B masterpiece, the way some speak of B movies. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
kkentuckywoman
How do I hate this movie: let me count the ways. Unsympathetic characters; silly plot; no suspense; terrible editing; LOTS of "filler" between key scenes; an Eighties time capsule with the ugly interior decor, big hair, and period clothing. Seeing Rachel Ward slipping in and out of the era's baggy clothing made me long for "Flashdance" instead of this tripe. As one of the other reviewers noted: 2 hours out of my life wasted.Anything positive to say? Phil Collins' song is good; the car chase is pretty good; the Mayans were phenomenal architects. Chichen Itza and Tulum are the most interesting characters in the film. Lastly, a noir-ish film star from an earlier era, Jane Greer, playing Ward's mother, shows that she aged gracefully.
AD
