 |
| year: 1989 cast: Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Bill Paxton, Adam Baldwin, Ben Stiller rating: ***1/2 |
An old school action flick in the Sam Peckinpah tradition that puts Patrick Swayze, in a narrow-eyed ready-to-strike ROADHOUSE mode, against seedy odds as Chicago cop Truman Gates, originally from the Sticks and considered white trash to his surly comrades.
His little brother (Bill Paxton) is killed by local mafia goon Adam Baldwin, but Truman plays entirely by the rules as the mob, including a lazy kingpin’s son Ben Stiller, continue to run the town.
Enter scene-stealer Liam Neeson as Swayze’s older sibling, Briar. With the countenance of a feisty badger mixed with a cagy serpentine prowess (imagine Charles Bronson as Daniel Boone), he sets out alone to get bloody revenge against those the law can’t strike.
By far the best scenes have the heavily-armed Neeson taking out mobsters and even leaping from moving trains to survive their retaliation. It really seems like his story rather than Swayze’s... Although the late actor’s dominate arrival on each scene substantiates the theme: that to really fight evil, you have to play your cards with deliberate precision. And while his climatic shootout in a cemetery doesn't quite live up to his brother's creative tactics, NEXT OF KIN is a worthwhile, and better than average, crime/action experience.
 |
| Patrick Swayze as Truman Gates |
 |
| Adam Baldwin makes the perfect heavy |
 |
| A young Ben Stiller as the mobster's brainy son |
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garre...
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
WILLIAM SMITH AS FALCONETTI ON RICH MAN POOR MAN The baddest of all TV bad guys… Matt Dillon’s character in BEAUTIFUL GIRLS calls Antho...
Susan Dey in Skyjacked YEAR: 1972 Some of the best elements of hijacking, plane crashing, ship sinking, building burning or any other di...
Kristine Debell as A.L. from MEATBALLS In MEATBALLS, actress KRISTINE DeBELL played a camp counselor in a classic movie that's liv...
Doc Savage YEAR: 1976 Just when you thought you'd seen everything, up comes something you missed because of being too young at the time...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.