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Loosely based on a 1947 film noir, "Out of the Past," Taylor Hackford's "Against All Odds" has strong performances in all but the most critical role. Jessie, a confused disoriented heiress, is the romantic obsession of two men and the crux of the film's action. However, Rachel Ward fails to convince that Jessie could obsess anyone with her flat delivery and phoned-in performance. Jessie runs off to Mexico to snorkel and shop, and her gangster boyfriend hires an injured football player to find her. Sending a handsome hunky athlete off to find your girlfriend at the beach is not an inspired idea, and both the expected and the unexpected ensue. The twisted convoluted tale occasionally meanders, and the pacing falters at times. However, when the sweaty romantic scenes are over, the plot manages to re-energize and re-capture attention towards the fade out.

Despite her physical beauty, Ward is the black hole at the film's center. However, her two co-stars are more captivating. James Woods can play slimy gangsters in his sleep, and his Jake Wise is appropriately chilling and creepy, which makes Jessie's attraction to him even less convincing. Evidently Jake had a brain fart when he decided to hire Terry Brogan to search for the girl who deserted him, because Jake and Terry are worlds apart in the looks and charm departments. Jeff Bridges's athletic Terry, who has history with Jake, is unwittingly drawn into a vortex of corruption during his search for Jessie. Although always watchable, Jeff Bridges has had better and more demanding roles than an injured jock playing private eye. Despite a decent script adapted by Eric Hughes from Daniel Mainwaring's original, the film's central mystery is why Jake and Terry would be hopelessly drawn to a shallow drifter like Jessie. Ward received top billing over Bridges and Woods, another mystery as baffling as any in the plot.

Experienced veterans provide solid supporting performances, led by a still-handsome Richard Widmark, who, at age 70, remained a commanding presence. In a nod to film buffs, Jane Greer, star of the 1947 version, appears as Ward's cold distant mother. Location work in the Mayan temples of Mexico's Yucatan is travel-log appealing, and the end credits feature an Oscar-nominated title song by Phil Collins. An exciting car race through Los Angeles traffic is thrilling, if pointlessly reckless. Although "Against All Odds" runs more than 20 minutes longer than the 1947 original, Bridges and especially Woods are compelling enough to hold attention even when the tricky plot wanders.

Just recently discovering this on dvd, I'm actually suprised I haven't heard much about it before. A modern film noir that's a very loose remake of "Out of the Past" with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas. The film instead focuses on gorgeous, sunny locations like Mexico and the finer locations of L.A. instead of the dark and grungy look that most film noir's follow. Jeff Bridges stars as a pro L.A. football player that gets cut because of a mild injury. Upset because he has some good years left in him, he attempts to sue the team to no avail. Broke and looking for a job, a shady past friend played by James Woods shows up with a job offer: find his girlfriend who split on him and headed to Mexico. This girlfriend also happens to be the daughter of the woman who owns the L.A. pro football team, a ruthless business woman who is primarily interested in real estate and inherited the team from her late husband. When he decides he needs a vacation and the money, he takes Woods up on his offer. After a couple days of useless searching, he finally finds her...and immediately falls in love. The femme fatale is played by Rachel Ward, a hot commodity back then, coming off of The Thornbirds. A spoiled rich princess-type, she eventually succumbs to him and the following scenes are some of the most beautiful sequences put on film. The only commercial movie that has filmed scenes in the gorgeous ancient ruins of Chichen Itza and Tulum, these sequences make the film. The sex scene is one of the best I've seen, really putting a passion on the screen without becoming too...late night cinemax. Unfortunately, from here, the film plummets into a convuluted mess trying to deal with issues that seem out of place with the film: The L.A. business elite, gambling, real estate, etc. I think the film is definitely worth a watch for the first two-thirds alone. Also, dvd fans are encouraged to listen to the cast commentary. One of the better commentaries I've heard, there is a lot of great anecdotes from a rare track by Jeff Bridges and James Woods. The two leads really seem to come off as real friends joking and ribbing each other, unlike some of the stuffy professional actor commentaries that are usually the case.

Having already sustained a shoulder injury previously, an aging professional football player by the name of "Terry Brogan" (Jeff Bridges) is not exactly a hot commodity for a team looking to add fresh new talent. Adding to that, his arrogant attitude isn't helpful either and as a result he is subsequently cut from the team by an underhanded owner named "Ben Caxton" (Richard Widmark) who only cares about the bottom line. To that extent, when a local gambler named "Jake Wise" (James Woods) offers him $10,000 to track down a former girlfriend by the name of "Jessie Wyler" (Rachel Ward) who has stolen money from him and fled to Mexico, he reluctantly accepts the job. What he doesn't know is that Jake hasn't been totally honest with him and that Rachel means a lot more to him that he lets on. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a good film by and large but there wasn't a great deal of chemistry between the characters with all of them being rather unlikeable as well. In short, although this remake of "Out of the Past" certainly wasn't bad by any means, it didn't quite have the same appeal as the original film and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Against All Odds is an less than effective remake of Out of the Past that RKO noir classic that starred Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas and Rhonda Fleming. Not that the players in this film are bad, far from it. But the whole basic structure of the story was completely changed.

What made Out of the Past the classic it is, is the moody tension and overwhelming sadness surrounding the leading characters. Most of all Jane Greer who is an evil temptress beyond description bringing death and destruction to all around her.

Jane Greer is in this film, but as the mother of Rachel Ward who plays the part Greer had in the original. Ward in this one is just a spoiled young woman who runs off with bookie James Woods to upset mom and then runs off with him.

Greer is the owner of a professional football team in Los Angeles which she runs with her high priced fixer of a lawyer Richard Widmark. I think they're characters are modeled on Joan Payson who was the original owner of the New York Mets and M. Donald Grant who was reputed to be the hard character Widmark portrays.

Anyway Jeff Bridges gets into the act when he's cut from Greer's team and goes to work for Woods trying to locate Ward. The rest of the film is pretty much following the plot of Out of the Past until the ending which is completely different. Remember how everyone ended up in the RKO film and the same doesn't happen to most of them.

Still it's not a bad film, but Against All Odds just won't be a classic.

I expected a cringefest, but actually ended up liking this movie a lot. Befitting its era, it has a sleazy "Miami Vice" atmosphere, complete with Porsches, Ferraris, casual jackets, big hair and a great soundtrack including a live show by the one and only Kid Creole. But there's more. Nice location shoots in Mexico - Cozumel, Tulum and Chichen Itza. Jeff Bridges and James Woods, who play fairly complex characters well. A dark script that delivers some good moments, especially during the final 30 minutes.

Yes, it's a B-movie, and at times it feels like a protracted episode of Knight Rider, the A-Team or the aforementioned Miami Vice. But is that a bad thing?

If you're looking for a real 80s experience, find "Against All Odds" on VHS, pop it in your VCR and soak it in.