UHM - Review - Highwaymen

Originally Newline was aiming for an August '03 release for this flick, but they later moved it to December and then for some reason it ended up being pushed to a limited February 12th '04 release. I have no idea why they kept moving the date or why they even bothered releasing it considering it’s got a limited release and barely made a dent at the box office. I'm sure we can expect an early DVD release for this, and hopefully it'll do well there, because it's a good movie.

What made me really want to see this movie were two things: Director Robert Harmon also directed The Hitcher, which is one of my fav. movies, and it's a road-themed movie, and I've always been partial to flicks set on the road (Mad Max, Jeepers Creepers). Two of the biggest faults for this movie are the lack of character development and the running time, which doesn't even hit the 80-minute mark. Had the movie been 15 or 20 minutes less it could've been considered a "short".

The story is about a man (James Caviezel) who witnesses his wife get run down by a driver while she was buying some fruit at a little stand on the side of the road across from the Motel they were staying at. Five years later the man is hunting for the driver, who apparently goes around different areas of the country just to find a random female victim and run them over. The driver attempts to kill one woman, but fails after she somehow escapes. The man gets to the woman after the incident to ally with her in hopes that it will help lead him to the mysterious driver.

The movie really sucks you in from the start and doesn't let you go until the end. It has no slow moments, except maybe one part where the two lead characters talk over things that gives the audience a little background info on them. Because of the fact that it jumps right into the story, the movie remains rather short. I guess that's both a good and bad thing. It's good because as an audience member you wont be bored, but bad because you really don't feel much for the characters, so when things happen to a character you really don't know what to feel about it. Either way, I still enjoyed the flick. I liked how the first 5-minutes-or-so of the movie has no dialogue, because it shows you what happens to the guy's wife and then fast-forwards to the guy 5 years later, with a sweet new ride hunting down the killer car. I also liked how it reminded me of Mad Max a little in the beginning.

In the end I found this to be a good flick. It's interesting and entertaining, but it's lacking on the feelings department. It doesn't have much for scares, but it has some good car chases, wrecks, and an interesting killer. I decided a 7-rating was best for this.

OVERALL

Lacking in character development, but excellent in entertainment value. Worth a look if you wanna see something different, but don't bother if you're looking for a deep story or a lot of scares.

Comments page 1 of 1:

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT

Jake :

Posted 161 days ago

great movie i wish they made more of these

old dad :

Posted 271 days ago

this movie is amazing ...i loved it ...9/10

<1>