Pressure (2002)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Unlike the reviewers who low rated it(my supposition is there won't be many)I couldn't justifiably in good conscience rate this film any less than a 10. Standard grade television fare? OK, lesser known stars (who based on this, will probably have had bigger titles by now)and an apparently formulaic setup: two friends on a road trip, yadda, yadda, yadda, seen it before. This flick, however, transcends that fantastically. Oscarworthy? No, but only because its not the type of film people who raved about Black Swan want to see. It is not fast-moving running,jumping, and gratuitous shooting, nor deep, thought-provoking fare. It is the perfect popcorn film. Great situations (oh, NOW what do we do?),the coolest sheriff this side of R. Lee Ermey,a most-depraved,sociopathic villain who you are "entertained" watching and waiting for to "get his" (possibly accompanied by what I thought was a great one-liner) and somehow, a sensible conclusion. Anybody who slights it on police-involved circumstances and procedures I'd strongly suggest talk to some police or ex-police without a microphone and camera running. Highly recommended.

Pressure is hugely enjoyable. This film is entertaining and thrilling as the pace is relentless and after 90 minutes you are sorry that it is over. Great direction, good editing and timing, great dialogues, 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree fun and black humour. Actors who obviously had a lot of fun during the production. Some comments criticized the stereotyping of characters, but hey that's the point: the film rides on clichés. I gave it a 10/10 because it is an Indy which is so much better than most blockbusters. Of course it's not the best film ever, the story is not in the nobel price league, but that doesn't matter, it's not meant to be. I only was sorry that the German distribution DVD did not include "making of" and other extras.

1st watched 3/15/2003 - 8 out of 10(Dir-Richard Gale): Very well done and suspenseful `man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time' movie. This movie surprised me because it doesn't have any big-name stars, it's one of those movies that you're scared to rent because of it's position in the video stores it has loser written all over it partly because of a subplot involving cheerleaders, but guess what!! This was far from a loser. I'm very surprised that this movie with it's keen writing, superb direction, good acting, and suspense til the end plot, didn't get much attention from anyone in Hollywood it seems. It was made in Canada and pretty quickly was put on video. This is why I like to watch movies, because every once in a while I get surprised. I will look forward to more films by Richard Gale and maybe even recognize Kerr Smith in another role in the future. Way to go, group!! There was tongue-in-cheek humor, action, great pounding music and even a good-guy wins ending.

Students-on-the-road-getting-in-trouble seems to be one of the themes of the year. At first sight, this movie does not look very differently from the other action or horror flicks I saw recently. However, it has a quality and coherence that is not usual for movies in its class. Without any known name in the cast, with a low budget and according to some of the critics in only 19 days, director Richard Gale succeeded to make a very decent movie. His hand is sure, his cut is professional, and the movie might have been low-cost for the producers, but never looks cheap. I also think that something deeper about the American gun culture is trespassing the screen. I expect nice surprises from this director in the future. 7/10 on my personal scale.