La morte alle calcagna

Predictable '80s actioner. Everything is set up as if it's underlined. We see Anthony Michael Hall practicing with his knife, so we know it'll come into play. Jeff Kober is good as the guy pursuing Hall. HIS motivations and actions are the only ones that make any sense, and he's the bad guy! Somebody gave me the video as a birthday present because I'm a huge Kober fan. If you are too, go watch AUTOMATIC (1994) or your box set of KINDRED instead.

This is a story of a good kid on the run from drug dealers and police. It has a great 80's feel in music and scenery, and makes Los Angeles look better than the real thing. What the story lacks compared with it's many cousins in this genre is character interactions between the three principals in the chase. Every time the kid wants to talk, somebody starts shooting. The believability of the story suffers and the characters aren't developed. At least the Richard Tuggle didn't go too over-the-top with the farm boy culture clash. The most prescient line of the movie is when Jenny Wright's character admits, "I'm not really an actress."

If you are looking for a good youth-on-the-run 80's scenery movie, head over to San Antonio and check out Cloak and Dagger (1984).

I admit, there are parts of this movie which are incredibly dumb. A lot of it owes, the incredibly poor script. But I really liked the fast paced flow of the movie. And we have a new action hero, Anthony Michael Hall. Yeah, right? Yeah too f..in' right. He rocks in the movie, that's a perfect vehicle for him, after the string of John Hughes films prior. He plays a farm boy, Daryl, in Iowa, and we see his miserable self, out there on the tractor working the farm. Some youngies speeding along in a red convertible, yell something to him, from a far, though I couldn't make out what it was, but I'm pretty sure they were dissing him. His parents have been arguing over Daryl's future, and we get a taste of their fracas's. At the advice of his Mother, he's sent out to L.A. to live with his brother. After having some wet dreams on the plane, he meets a would be actress, Dizz, sitting next to him. He makes one fatal mistake that costs him his older brother and fiancée's life, only the start of a bigger body count in the film, though we can't forget the poor sod at the start, who also made the fatal mistake of being a savior to the wrong guy, a drug trafficker, and psychopathic Kober, a great character actor of evil. Daryl had picked up the wrong duffel bag, an identical one to his-what are the chances? This bag worth killing for, contains H. Now, you're asking yourself, how did Kober not find Daryl at his brothers. He was in a segregated outhouse concealed coolly by a hedge. Now Daryl's on the run, with the H, and it isn't long before he's up to his neck in trouble. But this is the thrill ride, Hall, hijacking a bikie was great stuff, while nearly being blown away by a cop, while making a righteous phone call. He's soon reunited with Dizz, his only chance, of clearing himself, and taking pr..k Kober down. We really get to see a bit of L.A's underworld, Dizz and Daryl, putting it out there, he has what Kober's after, and soon enough they're being pursued by this psycho, where in the mean time, more bodies show up + a dead mouse, crushed by Kober's merciless hand. I though the way Kober died was stupid though, with Daryl, just happening to be a champion knife thrower. OOB has some pumping rock scores too, but I liked the energy of the film, regardless of the stupidity or realism, but the latter is not really why we go to the movies, now is it.

Farm boy Daryl Cafe leaves behind a life on the farm with his feuding parents, for one in The Big City with his brother, expecting a better life, things instantly go wrong when he picks up the wrong bag at the airport.

First off, credit to the film's pacing, it doesn't give you a slow, tedious buildup, it's essentially straight into the action, it's a fast paced, man on the run, in strange surroundings film.

The script isn't great, some of the dialogue is flat, some of the situations are absolutely crazy, you'll be scratching your head wondering if it's reality or not, if you're aware that you're watching a crazy thriller, you may just get some enjoyment from it.

The acting is actually really good, Anthony Michael Hall is great as Daryl, one thing he will do, is put you on edge, I think you get a sense of the character's stress levels. I adored Jenny Wright, she was a bundle of fun.

7/10.

Anthony Michael Hall leaves the farm to visit his brother in Los Angeles; his parents are going through a bust-up. When he gets off the plane, he picks up the wrong bag, one full of drugs. When he wakes in the morning, he finds his brother and sister-in-law dead and im on the run. His only help is Jenny Wright, a woman he met on the plane, and who came on to him.

There are some nice bits of writing here, simple solutions to obvious problems. Why doesn't he call his parents? Because his father is traveling and his mother is visiting in Kansas..... and he wrote down the wrong phone number! But while Hall, who was trying to break out his his 'nerdy teen' phase, is very good in the early scenes as an unsure farmboy, after one day in the city he moves through a punk club with an air of assurance. In addition, there's little to interrupt the increasing level of apprehension throughout. A few breaks, a la Hitchcock, would have been nice.

Miss Wright has a far more nuanced and interesting performance to give that would seem to foretell a longer career. Alas, a dozen years later, she made her last film. It's mildly surprising. She's what makes this movie watchable.