Persecución mortal

After an eleven year absence from the screen, Sidney Poitier chose to return in an action/adventure film where he plays an FBI agent in search of a killer.

He's got good reason to want this guy bad. His quarry is ruthless and kills without mercy. Poitier loses a hostage and the ransom he's asked for. But some good detective work has traced the man to a remote part of the Pacific Northwest.

Where the perpetrator has killed again and joined a party of dry fly fishermen being guided by Kirstie Alley into the rugged mountains. No place for a city kid like Poitier, says mountaineer/hermit Tom Berenger who has the prerequisite skills to get the job done. These two are forced into an alliance of inconvenience.

The best thing I liked about Shoot To Kill is the guessing game we play for the identity of the perpetrator. Any one of the five men in Kirstie Alley's party could have been the killer. Look at the cast list and you'll recognize a few names who've played some pretty loathsome villains in the past. The identity is revealed suddenly and quite shockingly.

What I didn't like with Shoot To Kill is the fact that the final confrontation with the perpetrator is in big city Vancouver where he's escaped with Alley. He needed her in the woods, not any longer, she should have wound up dead. And Berenger and Poitier should have confronted him in the woods.

That script decision made the climax a rather ordinary one that you see in a whole lot of police chase films. Still all the players do fine here, my favorite being Kirstie Alley as the woods smart guide.

Warren Stantin (Sidney Poitier) is an FBI agent in San Francisco. A hostage situation goes wrong. The killer escapes with a bag of diamonds. Stantin follows a similar killing to the wilderness of Washington. He suspects the killer had surreptitiously joined a fishing expedition guided by Sarah Rennell (Kirstie Alley). Her partner Jonathan Knox (Tom Berenger) sets out to follow and is forced to take the city slicker G-man with him.

It's Sidney Poitier's first movie in over a decade. He hasn't lost a step. He is surprisingly funny at times. The fish out of water aspect is solid and fun. His most memorable scene is probably scaring away the bear. The killer is kept a mystery in a good way. That half is a fun little mystery. I would have preferred ending the movie in the woods. There are a couple of good ideas in the city. The car chase is nothing special but solidly 80's action. There is a good switch-a-roo that ties in with an earlier moment. I don't know about keeping Kristie Alley a hostage all through that part of the movie. It makes much more sense for the killer to kill any possible witnesses once he escaped to the city. Kristie becomes a hinderance during the escape. That's all the more reason to end the movie in the woods. The killer is incentivized to keep his hostage alive as long as he needs a guide. Overall, this is a solid 80's action thriller.

It think whoever wrote the script for this movie had the first half all planned out, but then didn't know where to go afterwards. The first 40 minutes or so is riveting, one of the greatest openings to a film you'll ever likely to see because it keeps you guessing, there's decoys thrown in and it throws up one big question, which one of the fishermen is the bad guy? I guessed wrong. Once his identity is revealed it all becomes a bit stock standard, other users have said that the bad guy question was answered too soon and i tend too agree, another 20 minutes or so would've helped, the fishermen tour is a fun part of the movie.

Despite it's slight decline in power at this point the directing and cinematography remain first class. The characters are believable, realistic, give good feedback and are easy to relate to. Character development in Shoot to Kill isn't matched by many others, simply first class. The script is laugh out loud witty at times and Poitier and Berenger gel well, but the acting does have it's poorer moments, as does the script. A couple of plot holes don't help. But look past some minor flaws and the movie is great, the curiously catchy soundtrack adds to the movies feel, and the scenery is documentary spectacular and also gives a good sense of it's intimidation. Definitely a must watch for thriller fans. Everyone I've shown it too loved it, and everyone I know who's seen it loved it. Highly underrated, yet highly enjoyable.

Sidney Poitier's return to movies (after a 10 year absence) was this wilderness action flick which is fun all the way.

FBI Agent Warren Stantin (Poitier) trails a nasty serial killer to the wilderness and enlists the aid of an experienced mountain guide Jonathan Knox (Tom Berenger). The killer has "hitched" a ride with 4 other campers who are being led through the mountains by Knox's girlfriend (Kirstie Alley).

Well written script, first rate action sequences and solid acting by Berenger and Poitier make Shoot to Kill an excellent action-adventure yarn that's sure to please most. The opening 50 minutes or so are airtight and then it loses a bit of steam but on the whole it's damn good overall.

Shoot To Kill (GB title: Deadly Pursuit) is a lively, fairly intelligent action film which benefits from good character development. Many post-1980 action films suffer because they are empty spectacles, full of boring stock characters and visually impressive/emotionally redundant stunts. However, this one is different. There are eight main characters (all of them well-realized) as well as a fundamentally exciting plot, sharp dialogue, and a spectacular mountain setting.

FBI agent Warren Stanton (Sidney Poitier) is desperate to track down a dangerous jewel thief following a botched hostage situation. He suspects that the thief has joined a five-man hiking party in the rugged wilderness near Spokane. Unfortunately, there is no way of contacting the hiking guide Sarah (Kirstie Alley) to warn her that a dangerous killer is among her group. Instead, Stanton has to put his trust in another mountain guide, rough and tough Jonathan Knox (Tom Berenger). The unlikely pair pursue the hiking group, hoping to reach them before the killer strikes again.

The film moves at a good pace. Interest is generated on several different fronts: the volatile relationship between Stanton and Knox; the intriguing guessing-game as to which member of the hiking party is actually the jewel thief/killer; the "race-against-time" tension (as soon as the hikers have entered Canada, the killer could dispose of them at any time). There is spectacular action, but it is not emphasised to such an overwhelming degree that other story threads are lost. Shoot To Kill is a very commendable action film and it is a pity that more films in the genre are not up to the same standard.