Los Angeles Outlaws receiver Terry Brogan is cut from the team because of a shoulder injury. Needing work, money and a sense of purpose, Terry gets a lucrative short term job with an old acquaintance, nightclub owner Jake Wise. The job is to locate his girlfriend who is hiding out somewhere in the Mayan Riviera. The girlfriend, Jessie Wyler, just happens to be the adoptive daughter of the Outlaws' ruthless owner, Grace Wyler. Jessie doesn't much like her mother, who in turn doesn't like that Jessie's in a relationship with Jake, a man known to be on the wrong side of the law. Once Terry finds Jessie, she is waiting for him, or at least someone sent by Jake. But without telling Jake, Terry decides to quit his job as he is falling in love with Jessie, who seems also to be falling in love with him. But it isn't until they get back to Los Angeles that Terry slowly sees the big picture of where he fits into Jake's life and to what extent Jake will go to get Jessie back. A gangster hires an ex-football player to find his girlfriend. When he finds her, they fall in love, and the twists start to appear. Ok, ish, but ultimately disappointing. First half was good - intriguing, stylish, perfectly paced. Second half degenerated into your average convoluted twist-a-minute thriller. A tighter plot towards the end would have made this a pretty good movie.<br/><br/>Solid performances from Jeff Bridges, James Woods and the beautiful Rachel Ward. Reading some of the earlier comments, I began to wonder if I'd seen the same film. It is gaggingly-poorly edited/scripted. Watching it with friends, our comment at scene-changes was "and now, in an entirely different movie…." Motivation for the characters' actions? Why did Rachel leave Jeff in Mexico and go back to James? "Because you couldn't handle things" … but he (oops SPOILER ALERT!) had just thrown the victim's body in a river (after hauling it several miles…). And then she says to James, "You have to let me go." But she just came back to HIM. Sigh. <br/><br/>James Woods' character changes about half way through, too; goes from being Mista Gangsta to the guy who looses the girl. Although Mr. Woods does a very courageous/convincing job of staying with the schizophrenic character. If there could be a reason to slog through this film, James Woods would be it. Aside from Rachel Ward/eye candy but, as another reviewer commented, she spends most of her time in baggy outfits that your (staunch Puritan) mother would approve of. One of the guys watching the film with us: "We wuz robbed! When does she take her clothes off?" <br/><br/>It was as if someone were trying to make An Art Film by chopping the scenes/changing the context every few minutes. Either that or everybody wanted to get some $$ for spending a lot of time hanging out on the beach. Hey, where do I sign up? There is a lot of plot in this movie - probably too much. The best thing to do is to accept the plot, and then disregard it, and pay attention to the scenes of passion. They really work.
Garinravyn replied
346 weeks ago