Road Flower, Road Flower. A neat name, evocative and enigmatic, it just doesn't quite hook you in. Centred on a family travelling through the desert who p!ss off some travelling scumbags and end up in all sorts of trouble, it's a fun b grade joint with a few rewards for those with the patience for this kind of thing. And worth noting that this is one of those little seen b pictures that appear to have an eclectic cast through the passage of time, with Michelle Forbes, Josh Brolin, David Arquette and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, all of which have gone on to some kind of wider fame. Gordon-Levitt doesn't make much of an impression here, probably since he was pretty young at the time, but Brolin and Arquette both do well, with the latter being an infinity less irritating than he was in the Scream franchise despite here playing what on paper should be a very irritating character indeed, a sort of dopey idiot savant type in thrall to the main baddie, a wonderfully snarling and maniacal Craig Sheffer. Brolin is a conscience of sorts to the general villains, and pretty sympathetic too, off centre enough to be a little creepy, but with a scared likability to him. The nominal lead here is Christopher Lambert, who is pretty wooden, not especially good but has a certain presence, watchable enough. The film is at its best when dealing with its antagonists though, and the writing is often pretty entertaining, some dialogue made me chuckle out loud and I was generally smiling, there are even one or two surprises in amongst the formulaic set up too. The film moves at a smart pace, looks pretty nice and is even intermittently stylish, too many punches are pulled in terms of the violence but it still muster effective tension, it's a pretty fun ride while it lasts. Director Deran Sarafian clearly knows his way around this sort of film but the action is sometimes irritatingly edited and the film is too skewed in favour of its villains for the audience to feel much for the imperilled family. The directors dad Richard (Vanishing Point) pops up briefly and brother Tedi wrote the script, so its kind of a Sarafian family picnic. This film sure ain't a patch on Vanishing Point though. Anyhoo, this is worth a look if it turns up on late night TV or any other time where you have nothing better to do. Won't change anyones world, but it is kinda cool at times. 6/10 or something.
