Liens d'acier

Will Patton is one of our finest actors, having blessed the screen with a variety of memorable characters. Unfortunately, most of his performances seem to be in movies like this: generic action films which nobody has any need to remember. Sure, he gets to show up in great movies (NO WAY OUT), good movies (REMEMBER THE TITANS), and popular movies (ARMAGEDDON), but the man is a working actor who ain't embraced by the masses, so he also has to make movies like this. Not that this is a painfully bad movie... it's just so darn generic. And the testament to the man's performance is that there is nothing on paper that should make this a particularly great role. But darn it if he isn't the moral center of the movie.

If you don't know who this guy is, you can skip the movie with a clear conscience. But if you are a fan of the man, this performance is one of his best.

FLED is, perhaps, best watched very late at night after a bit of a drink when you don't seem to care about plot holes, bland characters and poor acting. Although not as diabolically awful as other reviewers have made out, this is a pretty bad remake of a great classic. What they seem to have forgotten is that when they made THE DEFIANT ONES, it was at a time where racial awareness was so topical - in FLED the conflict is represented by just one line.

The two leads are acceptable, with Laurence Fishburne flexing his fighting skills ready for THE MATRIX. Stephen Bladwin is his usual surly smouldering self, and there is a very small (ie no reason to watch it just for this!) part from Salma Hayek.

Although a little overdone, I enjoyed the film references made by Baldwin's character, and you will have a chuckle at the very final one...!

Fled is an enjoyable action movie, not as bad as other users said it is, but with nothing special. The bad thing about it is that it's a remake, after a movie titled The Defiant Ones. And of course remakes are inferior movies by definition.

Except that, it has all the ingredients of an enjoyable film, very good to watch if you don't want to use your brain too much. The acting is good, there is alot of action, some funny one-liners, a nice ending.

All in all, pleasant, but that's it. Vote: 5 out of 10.

Fled is a cheerfully illogical actioner which rattles along at a seriously rapid pace without ever pausing for breath. It's stupid and spectacular in equal measure.

The plot hardly seems important, but for what it's worth here it is: a Cuban mafia boss has foolishly allowed himself to leave some incriminating evidence on a computer disk. The only guy who knows where the whereabouts of the disk is in a chain gang in the Deep South. An undercover cop is sent to the chain gang to find out where the disk is, and to keep the guy alive when the Cuban hitmen turn up to silence him.

The first half of the movie borrows liberally from The Defiant Ones, with Baldwin and Fishburne chained together and fleeing through the swamps from both the good guys and the bad guys. Later on, they reach the big city, and the film then borrows ideas from any police actioner that you could care to mention (Lethal Weapon, The Dead Pool, Tango and Cash, Striking Distance, et al). In fact, the second half of the film consists solely of fist fights and car chases and shootouts, all inspired by similar movies from the genre.

Fled never bores you, but it never particularly engages your brain. It is a quickly forgotten film, but it is also the perfect film to watch with your mates while you sink a six-pack of beer and a 16" pizza on a Friday night.

Mindless chasing and shooting. This one leaves plenty of your mind unoccupied to wonder such things as: How can a guy shoot a three-quarter inch rope with a handgun and miss everything with a shotgun? Why is RuPaul in this movie for 15 seconds? Would the feds really honour a verbal agreement to let you off after you've shot up a lot of folks and a lot of Atlanta? Could a limo really keep up with a Ducatti? Is it true that all you've got to do to get a semi out of your way is to lean on the horn?