Coming off their career high hit "The Longest Yard" Reynolds and Aldrich tried a highly stylized LA thriller. That was all She wrote for Roburt" productions.
Even at a very young age I took a look at the reviews this film got and was
surprised how easy the critics went on it. Mostly it was ignored and allowed to die.
Aldrich has done good work ("Flight of The Phenix" is among my favorite movies)
but he is so out of his element trying to be stylish here. His efforts come off as
a tasteless slob trying to be classy.
Steve Shagen was slightly hot at the time, with his turgid "Save The Tiger" being
taken seriously in some quarters. But Aldrich should have known this script needed
some serious work or better yet, should have been thrown out all together.
The Dirty Harry/Death Wish element ( A double murderer somehow is let out
out of jail for good behavior, you know, just like real life) is perhaps the worst
bit of audience pandering. Then there is a consenting adults rape that
probably wouldn't go over today.
Visually ugly, terribly edited ( a sign of desperation and bad audience
testing, the film still has a train wreck sort of quality, we all become
bad cinema lookie lous. A great partnership of Burt and Bob was not
to be. Also, when something this cynical is this unconvincing, the result
is oddly upbeat.
Even at a very young age I took a look at the reviews this film got and was
surprised how easy the critics went on it. Mostly it was ignored and allowed to die.
Aldrich has done good work ("Flight of The Phenix" is among my favorite movies)
but he is so out of his element trying to be stylish here. His efforts come off as
a tasteless slob trying to be classy.
Steve Shagen was slightly hot at the time, with his turgid "Save The Tiger" being
taken seriously in some quarters. But Aldrich should have known this script needed
some serious work or better yet, should have been thrown out all together.
The Dirty Harry/Death Wish element ( A double murderer somehow is let out
out of jail for good behavior, you know, just like real life) is perhaps the worst
bit of audience pandering. Then there is a consenting adults rape that
probably wouldn't go over today.
Visually ugly, terribly edited ( a sign of desperation and bad audience
testing, the film still has a train wreck sort of quality, we all become
bad cinema lookie lous. A great partnership of Burt and Bob was not
to be. Also, when something this cynical is this unconvincing, the result
is oddly upbeat.