Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

utgard14 Davey Cleaves (Danny Martins) is a little scamp who climbs aboard a moving van, which then takes off with him in the back. The van is driven by two men (Don O'Kelly, Harry Dean Stanton) who killed another man the night before. When they stop the van to bury the body, Davey gets out and starts wandering around like a little weirdo instead of running. Finally, after the bad guys discover him, Davey runs and leads them on a chase. During all this his parents are freaking out thinking a homeless man nabbed Davey. Don O'Kelly, a familiar face on '60s television, chews scenery like candy but it's fun to watch. Sadly O'Kelly died of stomach cancer before this movie was released. Harry Dean Stanton is good in an early role, still perfecting his screen persona. Child actor Danny Martins is terrible but there's a lot of fun to be had with his complete lack of talent. His line delivery is awesome ("I kicked him...really hard...on purpose"). John Carradine plays a homeless man who is friendly with the kid and gets blamed for his disappearance. The cinematography was handled by garbageman Ted V. Mikels, who made a lot of Z-grade trash that bizarrely has a cult following. He does a competent job here, helped by the location shooting. Oh and the film is scored by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, who did a number of great '70s low-budget horror flicks, including one of my all-time favorites, The Legend of Boggy Creek. Not a bad little low budget thriller. Some unintentional humor but decent direction and an interesting story make it watchable. The subplots like the couple who own the turkey farm are a nice touch. A better actor for the kid and this might have been a great one. As it is, it's worth taking a look.

lemon_magic I never read the novel this movie was based on, but I'd be willing to bet that the author wasn't all that happy with the cinematic results.There's a germ of an interesting idea here, and it seems as if the director and cast are trying very hard to make it work as a movie, but the plot is just too thin and the sets, props, costumes, scenery and dialog are just too threadbare. And the soundtrack, especially the introductory song on the credits is laughably overwrought and weepy.A word about the child actor who has to carry the film...you can't criticize a little kid for an poor performance in a role like this. Either they have the charisma, talent and maturity to give the director what he wants or they don't, and it's not their fault if the performance fails...it's the fault of the director and the people who cast the child in the first place. Danny What's-his-name is OK in some scenes, stiff and affected in others, but he's not actively annoying the way some child actors can be, and he doesn't try too hard. But this movie needed a real prodigy in the central role to work, and Danny ain't it. And he never (apparently) got another chance, which probably was better for him anyway.Harry Dean Stanton and John Carradine are in this is fairly prominent roles, but they play weak characters with no inherently interesting qualities, and the movie wouldn't have been any better (or worse) if the producers had just cast non-entities in their places.I wouldn't bother with this one unless you really want to see every last drama ever made. It's not awful by any means...it just isn't very interesting.

Woodyanders Pesky little boy Davey Cleaves (a capable performance by Danny Martins) stows away on a moving truck being driven by fearsome, brutish, volatile psychopath Bull (a pleasingly nasty and robust portrayal by Don O'Kelly) and his meek weakling partner Eddie (excellently played to the sniveling hilt by the always fine Harry Dean Stanton). Naturally, Davey finds himself in considerable peril when the two no-count criminals discover him. Director Russell S. Doughton, Jr. relates the gripping story at a steady pace, develops a reasonable amount of tension, maintains a serious tone throughout, and makes good use of the dry and desolate Des Moines, Iowa locations. This picture further benefits from sound acting by a sturdy cast: Stanton and O'Kelly work off each other well as the radically contrasting hoodlums, John Carradine impresses in a colorful secondary part as crotchety, sarcastic bum Otis Lovelace, plus there are solid turns by Ron Hagerthy as Davey's concerned father Steve, Jennifer Lea as Davey's equally worried mother Carol, Ann Doran as snoopy neighbor Miss Mabry, Nora Marlowe as kindly, helpful old lady Selma Morton, and Raymond Guth as Selma's mean husband Sam. While the competent color by Ted V. Mikels and Jaime Mendoza-Nava's shivery score are both up to speed, the sappy theme song on the other hand is pretty dire. A nifty little B-flick.

Theo Robertson A few minutes after seeing the very satisfying thriller BREAKDOWN I switched channels and sat down to watch THE HOSTAGE . I wasn't expecting it to be as intriguing or as thrilling as the Kurt Russell movie but long before we'd reached the halfway point I was very disappointed This movie starts with a trio of thieves falling out in which one of them is killed . So right away we've got it spelled out that one of them is a raging psycho and just to help of the hard of thinking audience his colleague says things like " You killed him " to which he replies " yeah I killed him and I'll kill you too if you give me any problems " . Just in case there's any deaf people watching Mr Psycho scowls his dialogue with an OTT expression so people know he's not to be messed with A few minutes later Stan and Ollie , oooppps I mean the two criminals come up with a scam that involves stealing someones furniture , and believe me if there's one thing worse than murder it's stealing someone's furniture . Being not very clever people ( I wonder if the criminals wrote this screenplay ? ) they accidentally drive off with a child in the back of their removal truck . So now they've got a hostage , but he's not really a hostage it's a kid they've accidentally brought along with them . But remember since only two minutes have elapsed since it was spelled out for a blind , deaf and dumb audience that these criminals aren't very nice , we're once again treated to yet more dialogue such as " I'll kill you if you cross me " etc . Long before the credit titles rolled I stopped being sorry for the kid who got abducted and started to feel very sorry for myself as I watched this movie THE HOSTAGE is very inoffensive but there's nothing I could take seriously . Everything about the movie is camp or contrived and you can't help thinking this might have worked better as a comedy . I also believe it was remade in the late 1980s with Macauley Culkin and Joe Pesci or was that just coincidence ?