Breakdown (1997)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Blistering performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This was a decent movie, and Kurt Russell and the main trucker guy help it a great deal with good acting. It has enough action and entertainment to keep the tension going throughout. However, it is quite silly in some ways, such as...1) Why would a man let his wife ride away with a trucker in the middle of a desert, without coming along? Because he is worried about his vehicle? In the middle of the desert? There were barely even any people in the area, and my wife's safety is much more important.2) All people in small towns or rural areas are evil rednecks that attack or inconvenience outsiders! Watch out! Any time you leave the safety of Massachusetts, you will be spotted by guys from Deliverance or farmers who want to steal your money and kill you. The truckers and rednecks in the film are hilarious, though some of it feels realistic at times. I feel safer in areas like this than big cities full of crime, though. Why would everyone in a small town treat you like crap? Because you are wearing nice clothes? Most folks are glad for tourism dollars or at least a few of them would try to help you in a bad time.3) What is the obsession with Kurt having a "rich" car? LOL. This was funny. The rednecks keep mentioning how they knew he had money because he has a Jeep Cherokee with a CD changer and some (now-basic) features. You can tell this was made in the 90s, if a Jeep with a nice radio is considered wealthy! This point is made several times, and just makes me laugh. Yes, even in the 90s, if you had a Jeep and some khaki pants, you probably are the CEO of a major corporation.4) Kill the stupid, evil people when you have the chance! Stop letting a guy threaten you, kidnap you and your wife, assault you both, and attempt to murder you, and then keep holding them at gun point or tying them up to escape later. This is just so ridiculously stupid in most suspense movies.5) This is the funniest part to me. The kidnappers think he has $90,000 in an account, and they are willing to kill for it. Here's the deal, though-- at least 4 or more guys are involved in the plot. So, a man with a profitable trucking business, a nice 2-story house, a huge farm, lots of equipment and barns, etc. is willing to risk his family and kidnapping/murder charges for like a year's salary, when you divide the money among the goons?????? What sense does this make? The other losers might be believable, as they look like simple-minded white trash that live in a single wide and smoke meth, but the main antagonist just has too much too lose for this. They should have written a plot where he desperately needed the money up front for something, or had some young punks pull off the crime. Red just didn't make much sense risking his neck for 30 grand.

Jeff and Amy Taylor are moving to California and drive across the country. When they find themselves stranded in the middle of the desert with barely anyone or anything around, their trip comes to a halt. Amy takes a ride with a friendly trucker to a small diner to call for help, but as time goes by, Jeff becomes worried. He finds that no one in the diner has seen or heard from his wife. When he finds the trucker who gave Amy the ride, the trucker denies having ever seen her. Now Jeff must attempt to find his wife, who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. But who can he trust.......If you can ignore the final ten minutes of this movie, which gives us an obligatory over the top action scene, this is a solid, if nuts n' bolts thriller.Russell plays the middle class Everyman who winds the locals up the wrong way on first viewing, but on second viewing, it's a plausible set up to take advantage of 'city people' taking an unknown route to reach their destination.He's a great choice for the Everyman, calm and collected at first, then bewildered and so on. It's as if we actually see him going through the stages of grief in such a short time, and he plays his character wonderfully. In fact, it's his greatest performance of the nineties.But as good as he is, it's Walsh who steals the film. The scene where he literally denies having seen Amy, when no one else is around them is truly menacing, and just shows how unhinged him and his cohorts are.But as my knowledge and cinematic intellect has changed dramatically in the eighteen years since this release, I've realised that its nothing more than a high concept straight to DVD movie that gained theatrical release because of its star power.If it were released today, it would star Cusack and Cage, and go straight to DVD and vanish without a trace. But in the late nineties, these Hitchcockian-lite thrillers were quite popular, so I can understand its success.So all in all, it's pretty well done for the first hour, the scenery is beautiful, but it loses its mojo and goes unnecessarily action packed for the finale.

There's something about Kurt Russell and a lot of the roles he has chosen over the years in his filmography during the 1980s & 1990s. As far as it has been seen, Russell has three major sides. There's the cult role, where although it wasn't recognized upon release, it became popular later. There's also the comedy or action role he has taken part in that people remember him for fondly for. And then there's Kurt Russell's thriller side of films, where he plays an ordinary man caught in extremely dangerous situations that could happen in the real world. But as far as situations go, this is by far the film that hits closest to home just because of how nerve-rackingly possible it can be. Not to mention but the tag line to the movie says it all - "It Could Happen to You". Great, thanks for reminding us.The story to this thriller is about couple Jeff and Amy Taylor (Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan) who are moving to California from Massachusetts. On their travels, their car stalls and manage to get a passerby's attention driving an 18-wheeler. The trucker, Red Barr (J.T. Walsh), offers to drive them to a next stop so they can call a tow- truck. Not wanting to leave their car alone, Jeff lets Amy go with Red. After some time, Jeff manages to get his car running and heads to the stop where he was supposed to meet his wife. As it turns out she's not there and nobody saw her arrive. This starts Jeff on a long search and rescue and his findings reveal to him things he never thought possible. Written by Sam Montgomery and Jonathan Mostow (who also directed), this thriller is tense all the way although it becomes more fictitious as it goes on, it still is a thriller that crosses the boundaries of how plausible this situation actually is.The acting is one of the strongest parts to this story. Although Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan do not have much screen time together, they feel like an authentic couple. J.T. Walsh as the passerby truck driver is also convincing in his performance for the character that he plays. There's also other roles played by other known actors like M.C. Gainey, Jack Noseworthy and Rex Linn as the town police officer. The only part of the writing that doesn't work in favor of the actors is the story's predictability. There really is no surprise. The trailer to the film alone allows some spoilers to slide. But even without viewing the trailer, the execution itself reveals its hand a little early. As to whether the secret was supposed to be kept hidden is unknown but again, it is rather obvious. The bigger question that'll linger on the audiences' mind is what's going on. This is the second strongest element to the film - tension.As the film progresses, small clue tidbits are given to the audience as to possible outcomes of what happened to Jeff's wife. With that, there's only so many solutions one can create to try understand the problem. Without the audience exactly knowing what happened to Jeff's wife is a great way to get the viewers' imaginations to run wild with thought. This is exactly why this thriller is so much scarier than running into the Sawyer family from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (although it does have small traces of influence). The fact that several people everyday go missing is much more realistic than crossing paths with a chainsaw wielding cannibal, is why this hits closer to home; just like the movie's tagline, "It Could Happen to You". To assume any normal human being would want to be captured would be absolutely insane. Besides, if you wanted to be captured, then you're really not being captured as definition claims the action to be.Thankfully, along with the high tension come some worthy retaliation scenes that involve fighting back. Of course, if you want the protagonist to get what they want, it's going to be fun watching those scenes. Who doesn't like watching antagonists getting what they deserve? The cinematography is a nice addition as well. Handled by Douglas Milsome (Full Metal Jacket (1987)), numerous shots contain what they need to show; barren rock land,...better known as isolation. Yet as gloomy as the setting feels, it is quite beautiful to look at. Bright clear sunny skies, mountain ranges in the background and a single road highway. Definitely a different setting than your usual urban territory. Finally the music composed by Basil Poledouris (best known for his work on RoboCop (1987) and RoboCop 3 (1993)) was decently constructed. There's no recognizable main theme but Poledouris includes a number of tracks that emphasize the bleak emptiness that is the desert area of North America. Even so, his tracks that involve fighting are also well made too. All around, an intense watch.It has a bit of mystery in its story but much of that is revealed way at the beginning. However with chilling storytelling that concentrates on how it could happen to the person watching it, the events that occur are scary at times. The acting is solid, the music sounds organic and the camera-work looks great; all of which keep the tension high the whole time.

The first hour of this is pretty good, then you just have to shut off your brain and enjoy the ride as things get silly. I definitely felt the suspense, frustration and fear of Kurt Russell's character after his car breaks down in the desert and the trucker that gave his wife a ride to a diner later claims not to have ever seen her.A decent mystery, good road trip movie on desolate highways filled with crazy redneck bad guys who seem to have come up with a pretty intricate kidnapping/heist plan for some not so smart guys. Kurt Russell pulls off some decent stunts involving big-rigs and fancy driving especially in the final showdown on the bridge. Reminded me of that other mid 90's movie The Vanishing where the girlfriend disappears from a gas station bathroom. 8/24/14