BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

christopher-underwood Nothing like as good as the director's earlier, 'The Hitcher', this does, nevertheless, have its moments. Impressive opening, some great landscape cinematography and a great ending, unfortunately a great film, do not make. The real problem seems to be that Mr Harmon doesn't know how serious a project this is. I have no problem with a decent, fast, lurid, exploitation flick, which is what I expected this to be. Unfortunately we are supposed to take much of this seriously and then between the action sequences we are given too much time to reflect upon how daft and unbelievable it is. The highway officer seems to be the key to it in that at the end, after all his pontificating, he makes a courageous and stirring decision, and we are left wondering what this film might have been like if he had been more like that all along, instead of acting so very dumb.

Michael_Elliott Highwaymen (2003) *** (out of 4) Director Robert Harmon made a name for himself with his 1986 cult classic The Hitcher and followed that up seven years later with the highly underrated Jean-Claude Van Damme film Nowhere to Run. In 2002 he made a return to horror with Wes Craven Presents: They but when Freddy vs Jason hit theaters horror fans got a big surprise. Before the film started New Line showed the trailer for a film that looked incredible and before the title popped up there was already a bit of buzz going on. That film was Highwaymen but it eventually kept getting pushed back to the point where it only opened limited theaters to cash in on star Jim Caviezel's role in The Passion of the Christ.Did the studio mess up a golden opportunity for another cult classic or was the film simply bad and that's why it kept getting pushed back? Well, on August 24th, New Line delivers this much talked about but rarely seen film on DVD with the low retail price of $19.95.The story is kept simple and violent throughout. Rennie Cray (Jim Caviezel) is out searching for a hit and run driver who no one knows about but himself. Five years earlier a man driving a '72 El Dorado ran over Cray's wife and got off without spending a day in jail. Cray on the other hand served three years in prison for aggravated assault after he crashed his car into this secret man who didn't die however. After being released from prison Cray goes out looking for the guy who is now deformed and has transformed his car into an extension of his own body. A cat and mouse game takes place over two years as the El Dorado keeps stalking and killing innocent women. The newest target (Rhonda Mitra) survives the first attack so Cray decides to use her in order to get the El Dorado who keeps coming back for more.Highwaymen is in no way a great movie and while there are many problems here the bottom line is that we've got a tense and well directed thriller that is destined to get a cult following just like The Hitcher did so many years ago. Like that film, the director goes over the top in some of the graphic violence but he also makes the wise decision to cut out all the Hollywood stuff and go straight for the jugular. I'm sure many other directors would have tried to turn this into some soap opera but thankfully Harmon knew exactly what to do with the film. The film runs 74-minutes not including the end credits and some said this is why New Line didn't give this a large theatrical run but it's this reason the film works so well.One thing missing from films today is the short running time. Films of the past were always good at keeping the running time low especially if they didn't have much of a story to work with. Various Monogram horror films and several exploitation films from the 1970's came in to show one thing and they delivered that without trying to butter up the viewer with silly side plots and stupid romance scenes between the two leads. Highwaymen is a very good example of this because it's 74-minute runtime is nothing more or less than a straight revenge story. The two leads don't fall in love and we don't have any stupid scenes dealing with the villain trying to come across as something he isn't.I'm sure some will criticize the film because we really don't get to know the good guy or the bad guy but once again I think this is a major plus. Do we really need an extra twenty minutes to know the good guy is a good guy and the bad guy is a bad guy? Of course not.This message is set up within the opening sequence and if the viewer has half a brain then he knows what's going on, who we're suppose to root for and we should be smart enough to know the bad guy is an evil SOB who is going to get what's coming. Director Harmon has a very simple setup and a very simple delivery. There isn't a scene in the movie that doesn't belong or doesn't add anything to the film. We go from the first act to the last one and the director delivers the goods without trying to do anything extra.Jim Caviezel moves slowly and speaks softly but the performance is right on the mark because we know exactly what he's thinking just by the way his walks and various body jesters that are given throughout the film. The supporting actors do a nice job in their roles but the film certainly belongs to Caviezel and the two cars. There are a few bad scenes, namely a rescue that's a bit far fetched towards the start of the film but other than that we've got a wonderful little B-film that manages to be tense without the added crap we'd see in a Hollywood film. The director has a fancy for showing some graphic crash violence but this here just adds to the discomfort of the film.

dietzdm I am no car genius but that Baracuda was pretty souped up. When Renie and Molly are leaving his shack in the junkyard, he has her turn the car on in an attempt to get over her fear of driving. What makes no sense is how easily the car started. A car with that kind of power would have such a high compression that it would take a little cranking to start it. Any car experts out there have to agree. My boyfriend is a mechanic and totally agrees with me. I like how at the end of the movie when Renie flips the car after being chased and he magically gets it to start again and drive with a flat tire to go after the crazy guy. Why didn't he just get out of the car and beat the weirdo down. As far as the ElDorado goes, whats with the headlight man. You would think he would get pulled over for that thing. Also, somebody tell the crazy guy to get a new fan belt. That thing is making noise the whole movie. One more topic of discussion. How did a guy who is practically a vegetable manage to capture and tie up Molly? As crippled as he was, she could have managed to escape from the guy so easily. Take his arm off and beat him with it! Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie.

misbegotten It's true to say that Highwaymen barely has a single original bolt in it's toolbox. I spotted references to such previous action/horror road movies as Duel, The Car, Joyride (aka: Roadkill), Freeway, Walter Hill's The Driver and even Abel Ferrara's made-for-TV effort The Gladiator. And we mustn't forget The Hitcher, especially as it was helmed by Highwaymen's director, Robert Harmon. Yet this movie still emerges as a taut and engrossing thriller.The plot has former doctor Rennie Cray (James Caviezel) motoring along the highways and byways of America in a souped-up roadster, obsessively pursuing his wife's killer, serial hit-and-run driver Fargo (Colm Feore). Innocent bystander Molly (Rhona Mitra) becomes a rare survivor/witness of one of Fargo's homicidal smash-ups, and ends up being used as bait by both of the vehicular combatants.The film boasts some first rate stunt sequences, the best of which being the scene in which Molly's best friend is killed (a great suspense/action scene set in a road tunnel, directed with the kind of flair reminiscent of Russell Mulcahy), and a set-piece that has Mitra trying to escape from a burning car that's being towed, upside down, at high speed (the most imaginative car stunt I've seen outside of the Maniac Cop series).The movie also scores points by gradually revealing important information about the key characters as the story progresses, instead of just laying it all out for us at the beginning. Pay attention, and you'll learn why Molly is nervous around cars even before her friend is killed, why Fargo hates Cray almost as much as Cray hates him, and how both of the title characters have modified and customised their vehicles to suit their specific purposes and needs.No film is without it's flaws, and Highwaymen is no exception. There are the usual plot-holes and inconsistencies: it's never explained how Cray is financing his endless pursuit of his nemesis (presumably he's living off his wife's life insurance, but we're not told). Molly goes from being Cray's reluctant hostage to becoming dependant upon him in no time at all. Then, having begun to establish Molly and Cray as an effective team in their mutual conflict with Fargo, the script makes the bizarre mistake of separating them for the majority of the movie! Instead, Cray gets a new sidekick, accident investigator Macklin (Frankie Faison), whose only purpose is so Cray can have someone to explain key plot points to. On the whole, the movie's attempts at characterisation are kept to a minimum. In fact, due to it's short running time (just under 80 minutes) almost everything is kept to a minimum: there are only nine speaking roles in the entire film, the obligatory tacked-on romantic subplot is just a little too obligatory, and the final confrontation between Cray and Fargo is over before it's barely begun, which means it fails to match the metal-crunching mayhem that preceded it.As for the cast, Caviezel nicely underplays his obsessive vigilante. Mitra doesn't have much to do except be scared or apprehensive, but does it extremely well, and succeeds in making Molly more than just the token Girl In Peril. Faison is also stuck with an under-developed character, but does okay as the bewildered cop, while Feore manages to create a memorable presence despite his limited screen-time.In conclusion, Highwaymen will be a little too spartan for some tastes, but upon it's brief UK cinema release in 2004 I found it to be one of the better films I saw that year.