Kansas

The two lead actors Andrew McCarthy and Matt Dillon did an admirable job in their roles as two drifters who by happen stance meet while freeloading on a moving train through Kansas. I really enjoyed the opening 10 minutes of the film and the Director's (David Stevens) use of the wheat combines chomping through a Kansas wheat field as the opening credits rolled along. I believed I was in for a pretty good film. Within the first 30 minutes a lot had occurred which I do not want to spoil for the viewers who have not yet watched the film so no spoiler alert is required.

As the plot progresses and the two lead characters roles emerge Doyle Kennedy (Matt Dillon) as the alpha male and his unsuspecting accomplice Wade Corey (Andrew McCarthy) continue on their mini crime spree it does not take them long to realize that they need to go their separate ways to avoid arrest and they agree to meet up later.

Doyle being a bit psychotic without a conscience wants to have a few drinks and connect with an old girlfriend. While Wade is looking for a way to continue his route to New York where he is expected as the Best Man at his friends wedding. So Wade stumbles upon a farm that is willing to give him a couple of weeks work in the wheat fields. Wade falls for the bosses daughter and he finds himself in a dilemma with his recent new criminal associate Doyle who wants to get the money they stole and move on out of town. Unfortunately for Doyle his criminal past and his distinguishing features (duh Wade!) leave the local police with an easy target to re-apprehend him.

The latter half of the film was predictable and a bit hokey. I thought because of the strong performances and cinema appeal of the first half of the film that maybe the production ran out of time and/or money and so a different director may have been used to complete the film. Since the first half of the film was so appealing I felt the latter half was a bit of a let down by the director David Stevens.

As a result I have rated the film a 6 out of 10. It is worth watching still but don't expect a great ending to a film that started off very strong.

Good enough. Matt Dillon does a great sociopath. If you know or want to know something about the mid-west, Kansas, Nebraska, small farming towns, then it's worth the watching. Filmed on locations that look real, are real, with a reasonably realistic portrayal of that life. It's a cheap rental if you can find it and a better waste of your time than the latest "reality show". They want ten lines of text for a comment, which explains to some degree, why there is so much drivel in the user comments that you find in IMDb. It doesn't take that much text to give you an idea of whether or not you'll like a film, really. Like crime drama? With a "just out of prison sociopath" that you'd really not like to meet? Then you'd likely enjoy this. If you've got any Midwestern farmer roots, you might also like it. I said that before I got to the significant "Ten Lines of Text..."

After watching Kansas I still haven't figured out why Andrew McCarthy just didn't call his friend and tell him my car died in Utah and there ain't no way I can make the wedding, get yourself another best man. Of course there would be no picture if he did that.

Nevertheless McCarthy decided because he was a romantic he'd like to try bumming rides in freight cars on the railroad maybe because you meet such interesting people. In McCarthy's case he meets an amiable Matt Dillon going home to Kansas and the small town he grew up in.

Dillon might seem amiable, but he soon enough gets McCarthy involved in a bank robbery and the two are fleeing. McCarthy has the loot and he buries it in a tree. But then on a heroic impulse he jumps in a river to save a drowning girl and the stranger is now a town hero.

In the meantime Dillon flees far enough and then turns around to get McCarthy and the money.

The tension in Kansas is whether McCarthy will be discovered as a bank robber just when things are going well for him. He's even taken interest in country girl Leslie Hope. Dillon on his return back shows what a truly sociopathic character he is with several acts of brutality.

Watching Kansas put me in mind of I Was A Fugitive From A Chain Gang and how Paul Muni got caught up in something he was really not involved in. McCarthy is a bit less innocent than Muni was. Still it was not an enviable situation.

Kansas is a well constructed film with very good tension buildup and helped by location shooting in the title state. McCarthy and Dillon acquit themselves in roles they are well type cast in.

I'd see this one when broadcast.

I'm only giving this six stars because the two leads are true legends, and Brynn Thayer as Connie is so unbelievably gorgeous in her every single scene in this movie, it can't be less than a six.

But this movie doesn't make sense in a lot of ways.

This is another one of those Hollywood productions that comes along every now and then, even then, that tries to show us how Americans not on a coast, live, work and think.

And it usually doesn't work.

And it certainly doesn't seem authentic or real.

This is also, yet again, another movie that proves the actors, no matter how great they are, are only as good as the material they are provided with.. Is Andrew McCarthy supposed to be salt of the earth or a scoundrel, or is he the Great Gatsby?

For most of this movie we can never tell and it's confusing and unconvincing in all directions.

Matt Dillon can play mean but here it just doesn't seem right.

The ladies all look way to dry, clean and made up with their hair down to be riding on horseback out in the backwoods somewhere.

It's funny because it seems the Brat Pack, at least some members of it were all taking grittier-sounding scripts and parts in this era to maybe distance themselves from that image.

You had Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore in Wisdom (1986).

You also had Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy in Blue City (1986).

And then you have this. Though I don't consider Matt Dillon part of that group.

The actions of these characters just doesn't seem believable. Then or now.

Certainly there is much behavior in 80's films that seems creepy or even stalker-ish.

Then it was portrayed as romantically persistent.

There are often tiny actions taken here by characters here that is simply unsafe in any era.

Turning your back on a stranger.

Being alone with a stranger. Even provocative.

No.

Doesn't make sense when you try to dose it in reality and not just an actress with a leading man.

And the editing leads much to be desired.

A character is drinking with somebody at a bar. Next scene, he's under a bridge with that person stripped down to the skivvies.

Wait.

What?

What happened?

What's going on here?

We're not in Kansas anymore.

Or are we?

This was a total waste of Dillon and McCarthy in their prime.

McCarthy, coincidentally enough, has a documentary coming out soon about the Brat Pack called, Brats (2024).

Outstanding performances by Dillon & McCarthy. Great scenery throughout the movie. A young Kyra Sedgewick has a small role as Matt Dillon's girlfriend. Also look for Alan Toy (Professor Finley from 90210) as a news paper reporter. Very underrated. Recommended very highly. I rank this up there with Less Than Zero, Fresh Horses & St Elmos's Fire for McCarthy. One of the top actors of the 80's. The DVD only has an Original Theatrical Trailer. No other special features are on there. At around $10.00, this is a nice deal. Most stores don't carry this obscure gem but it is very available through Amazon or any other vendors on the Net. Hope you enjoy this outstanding movie that doesn't get the credit it deserves.