Starring a variety of leading players in various stages of ascent and decline; this is a train that never really leaves the station.
Jimmy Stewart plays a 40-year criminal who has amassed $25,000 by steadfastly saving the pittance he has been paid for his life-time's prison labour. A juvenile Kurt Russell is also being released along with reliable Strother Martin ('What we have here is a failure to communicate'). Three friends going free together. George Kennedy plays the inevitable hypocrite guard who is rotten to the core but quotes the gospel. Anne Baxter hides her lines behind a plastering of ghoulish cosmetics as a sympathetic whore.
The criminal heroes are put on a train and sent out of state. Unfortunately, Stewart's cheque can only be cashed at the one bank of issue and by him personally. It's a trick played by the banker himself, who knows that his bank will collapse if it has to pay-up. The movie, by the way, is set in depression-time America (which might be about 2010). If Stewart attempts to go back and redeem the cheque, he will be shot.
That's the basic premise. It's a weary, plodding effort, that - like a number of movies from this period (Ashanti, Cassandra Crossing) - attempts to trade upon the names of fading Hollywood stars rather than creating a watchable movie.
It's a comedy crime thriller, or tries to be. The nearest that come to mind are those created by or starring Clint Eastwood. 'Thunderbolt & Lightfoot' for example, which also stars George Kennedy in a much more believable role, and even the excellent wartime 'Kelly's Heroes'.
This is neither. It doesn't come close. The takes seem to drag. The script is inadequate, neither serious nor comic. Stewart's character is simply not believable. The glass-eye stunt is shambolic and amateurish. Still; it is the first screening of a suicide bomber and a simple explanation for the very motives that most politicians now claim to be incomprehensible when they are done in the name of God or freedom. Perhaps Al-Queda should begin demanding money as it's the only thing we in the west seem to understand.
Don't be won-over by the cast list. This is a second-rate movie in every other respect. There is absolutely nothing to recommend it unless you're an out-and-out fan of the players. Even then, if you are possessed of the least critical evaluation, you will feel a little ashamed on their behalf of what they allowed themselves to be talked into.
Jimmy Stewart plays a 40-year criminal who has amassed $25,000 by steadfastly saving the pittance he has been paid for his life-time's prison labour. A juvenile Kurt Russell is also being released along with reliable Strother Martin ('What we have here is a failure to communicate'). Three friends going free together. George Kennedy plays the inevitable hypocrite guard who is rotten to the core but quotes the gospel. Anne Baxter hides her lines behind a plastering of ghoulish cosmetics as a sympathetic whore.
The criminal heroes are put on a train and sent out of state. Unfortunately, Stewart's cheque can only be cashed at the one bank of issue and by him personally. It's a trick played by the banker himself, who knows that his bank will collapse if it has to pay-up. The movie, by the way, is set in depression-time America (which might be about 2010). If Stewart attempts to go back and redeem the cheque, he will be shot.
That's the basic premise. It's a weary, plodding effort, that - like a number of movies from this period (Ashanti, Cassandra Crossing) - attempts to trade upon the names of fading Hollywood stars rather than creating a watchable movie.
It's a comedy crime thriller, or tries to be. The nearest that come to mind are those created by or starring Clint Eastwood. 'Thunderbolt & Lightfoot' for example, which also stars George Kennedy in a much more believable role, and even the excellent wartime 'Kelly's Heroes'.
This is neither. It doesn't come close. The takes seem to drag. The script is inadequate, neither serious nor comic. Stewart's character is simply not believable. The glass-eye stunt is shambolic and amateurish. Still; it is the first screening of a suicide bomber and a simple explanation for the very motives that most politicians now claim to be incomprehensible when they are done in the name of God or freedom. Perhaps Al-Queda should begin demanding money as it's the only thing we in the west seem to understand.
Don't be won-over by the cast list. This is a second-rate movie in every other respect. There is absolutely nothing to recommend it unless you're an out-and-out fan of the players. Even then, if you are possessed of the least critical evaluation, you will feel a little ashamed on their behalf of what they allowed themselves to be talked into.