Blind Side

This is the story of a couple who own a furniture business. Heading home from surveying the future site of their plant in Mexico, they hit a Mexican policeman. Since neither look forward to the rumors surrounding life in Mexican prisons, they decide to quietly head back to California. In other words, they're guilty of hit and run. Thinking they're safe, and admitting the events only to their lawyer, they are suddenly greeted by a stranger who also claims to have arrived from Mexico (Rutger Hauer). The couple believe that he is a witness to their crime and want nothing more than to either get rid of him fast, or keep him quiet with bribes, never trying to let on too much that they know what he's referring to with the numerous hints he drops. But, the stranger has an upper hand in the situation that the couple never accounted for.

I would be reluctant to compare this film, as other viewers have, to Unlawful Entry because of one major difference: the couple themselves were guilty of a crime (to an extent) whereas the couple in Unlawful Entry had actually committed no crime that caused them to be pursued by their crazed assailant. All three main characters in Blindside (Ron Silver and Rebecca DeMornay, who play husband and wife, and Rutger Hauer, who plays the suspicious stranger) are all working around a strategy and a motive because, as is soon revealed to them all, both the couple and their exceedingly weird stranger have good reason for suspicion. The plot, too, is not immediately predictable from beginning to end as it is in Unlawful Entry, but rather, saves most of its crucial mystery until the latter part of the film when the couple must decide how to rid themselves of the stranger. Because the couple are also tainted by their hand in a crime, you are not immediately sympathetic of them, but you may also be initially suspicious upon Hauer's arrival. And, once his true motives are revealed and the crime's events finally given a clear picture, you're strategy changes as well with regards to the characters. It was done rather well.

Asside from Rutger Hauer's incredible weirdness (the synopsis on the box mentioning "bizarre sexual habits," the least of which actually contribute to his creepiness), this made-for-TV thriller may be worth renting. You can at least count on a decent cast as well as a nice constructed story that borders on the hitchcockesque kind of finale.

This is a "sleeper," an intense and involving thriller that grabs you from the start....but a film not people know about. Hey, only 10 people have even reviewed it here and the film is 13 years old.

To be fair, I did think the finish was unrealistic which the typical killer-talks- instead-of shoots mentality, a familiar flaw in flimmaking. Too bad, because the rest of the movie is very good with Rutger Hauer a convincing evil blackmailer. Few actors play a psycho better than Hauer (see "The Hitcher" and "Nighthawks").

Rebecca DeMornay is a sexy woman in this film while her husband is the sleazy Ron Silver, but the latter's character is better than most the villains he usually portrays. This movie also has the unusual distinction of being a modern-day crime film with very little profanity.

As a devotee of sleazy 90s thrillers, I ought to have liked "Blind Side" a lot more than I did. Rutger Hauer reprises his "Hitcher" persona, stalking an immoral yuppie couple after they flee a hit and run in Mexico. Hauer's scenery chewing excess is certainly the main attraction, but his character makes no sense. He's somehow both an evil genius and incredibly easy to manipulate, with his aims remaining totally inscrutable throughout the film.

The script is terribly weak, never generating any sense of urgency or threat in an interminable stream of fights, confrontations, aborted seductions and confusing twists. I had serious thriller fatigue by the end. The Brian May score (not *that* Brian May) is all over the place. I was particularly puzzled by the smooth jazz elevator music in the credits. Watch "Unlawful Entry" instead!

During their return trip from Mexico, Doug and Lynn Kaines (Ron Silver and Rebecca De Mornay) accidentally hit someone with their SUV. Realizing that the person is deceased, and not wanting to try out the Mexican legal system, the couple skedaddles north of the border... pronto!

Once home, aside from their ailing consciences, all seems well. That is, until a man named Jake Shell (Rutger Hauer) enters their lives. BLIND SIDE is a story of guilt, giving way to anger, and finally terror, as the Kaines's find themselves in increasing peril from this bizarre, unhinged stranger who just might know about their crime. Hauer's banzai, over the top, bananas performance during the finale is priceless! Watch, and be astounded!...

I commend anyone that was involved with the making of this movie, I am a big fan of thriller movies and this one tops the lot, Also go to see one of my favourit actors (Rutger Hauer) play one of his nastiest roles ever, And there has been alot of those roles for him. I dident even blink an eye while watching this movie. Well done to all involved in this film.

10 out of 10.