Still back to playing catch up and reviewing the movies I have mostly had the pleasure to watch over the last month and a half.
We return with Breakdown which is a little remembered, predominantly road based, action thriller with the superb Kurt Russell going up against thieving murderous truckers headed up by the man who always relishes the chance to play evil, the late and most certainly great J.T. Walsh.
It has a simple set up, a hero you can root for a bad guy you love to hate, the action comes on thick and fast and it's a pretty fantastic viewing experience all round to be honest. The acting is top notch and the direction and production valuesare great and perfectly suited to the subject, which is odd because everything else Jonathan Mostow has done has been completely bilge.
Kurt blows the bland bad actor Chuck Norris, the Sluggish and lumbering Seagal and the incomprehensible and silly Van Damme out of the water in the action stakes. This film is very much in the same ball park as their outputs only better. Much better. It's the film all their films want to be.
Russell is not a kick boxer, he's not a martial artist, he's just an East Coast yuppie on his way out West pushed to extremes by some rednecks.
If you have ever been attacked (and I hope that you haven't) but after a couple of days of nursing bruises you start to picture what you would've done if only you had the guts or the opportunity, it's a very common scenario or if you have ever watched a horror or action movie and said 'now this is what I would do...' well this film lives out that wish fulfillment for you. That's its entire premise.
Forget these wannabe exploitation/retro/B-Movie action films of recent years that try so hard but 9 times out of 10 fail, Breakdown is the real thing, a simple action thriller that doesn't have to make everyone aware of it's 70s influences to be good, it just IS good. Now-a-days the only way to make a film like this again and for it to be any good is not to get Tarantino to do it but it would be to hire Jason Statham.
I would say this was the last great movie Russell has done, it happily stands alongside classics like Tombstone and Escape from New York for me, just obviously not as iconic but either way, well worth a watch.
9 out of 10 dusty road side cantina burgers
Points from the Wife 8 out of 10