***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***
Seems to have developed a small cult following in recent years, though I'm not sure why. Jim Metzler, an under-appreciated B movie actor who really looks like he should be hanging out with Burt Lancaster and Rod Taylor and other men's men in early Sixties-era thrillers, plays a computer exec who's just lost everything. Looking to start his company anew, he embezzles a ton of money (apparently this is before the internet boom and venture capitalists handing out sackfulls of money on a dime) and decides to drive it to Reno (?) Unfortunately he stops to pick up Jennifer Rubin (cute, not a bad actress) and Kyle Secor (Bayliss from "Homicide", here so irritating I spent a lot of the movie imagining various painful deaths for his character) and soon becomes their hostage. There's a lot of unnecessary twists and turns along the way.
Beautful location shots of the Nevada desert, and some isolated amusing moments, but in general this is pretty dreadful. These hit men and showgirls and mafioso are as arch and mannered as anything you'll find in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, and some of the dialog will set your teeth on edge. A pretty good example of the idiot plot, too, where people have to behave stupidly for the thing to work.
The whole thing is I suspect meant to be a parable for the human (more strictly, the male) condition: this is the kind of movie where a big bald guy on television will read Nietzche aloud and then glower at the characters, hoping They Get The Point. But as is often the case, avante-gardey stuff -- and I think this is intended as such, it's intended to subvert male genres to point up their hollowness, or something like that -- dates badly. The whole thing feels really really corny, you know where it's going way before it gets there, it targets all it's punches. (Of course the exec will become like the man who tormented him, of course they will choose the false comfort of money to the real comfort of love/Rubin, etc. ) So avoid. Jerry Orbach rolls in for about ten minutes, as another contract killer, by the way.
Seems to have developed a small cult following in recent years, though I'm not sure why. Jim Metzler, an under-appreciated B movie actor who really looks like he should be hanging out with Burt Lancaster and Rod Taylor and other men's men in early Sixties-era thrillers, plays a computer exec who's just lost everything. Looking to start his company anew, he embezzles a ton of money (apparently this is before the internet boom and venture capitalists handing out sackfulls of money on a dime) and decides to drive it to Reno (?) Unfortunately he stops to pick up Jennifer Rubin (cute, not a bad actress) and Kyle Secor (Bayliss from "Homicide", here so irritating I spent a lot of the movie imagining various painful deaths for his character) and soon becomes their hostage. There's a lot of unnecessary twists and turns along the way.
Beautful location shots of the Nevada desert, and some isolated amusing moments, but in general this is pretty dreadful. These hit men and showgirls and mafioso are as arch and mannered as anything you'll find in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, and some of the dialog will set your teeth on edge. A pretty good example of the idiot plot, too, where people have to behave stupidly for the thing to work.
The whole thing is I suspect meant to be a parable for the human (more strictly, the male) condition: this is the kind of movie where a big bald guy on television will read Nietzche aloud and then glower at the characters, hoping They Get The Point. But as is often the case, avante-gardey stuff -- and I think this is intended as such, it's intended to subvert male genres to point up their hollowness, or something like that -- dates badly. The whole thing feels really really corny, you know where it's going way before it gets there, it targets all it's punches. (Of course the exec will become like the man who tormented him, of course they will choose the false comfort of money to the real comfort of love/Rubin, etc. ) So avoid. Jerry Orbach rolls in for about ten minutes, as another contract killer, by the way.