1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Stylish but unoriginal B thriller., March 11, 2002
Recently someone said in a spanish "Twilight" TV review that film noir fanatics don't only love cliches, they also demand them. This B movie is a good example. There is absolutely nothing in this movie we haven't seen a thousand times before: the story of a man with misterious past that comes to a small village and changes the lives of its inhabitants. Meanwhile, a subplot set in a bigger city explains a story of police corruption and the reason why the man escaped.
Ok, you just can stare at it hating it and guessing what's the next plot twist, but if you are a film noir fanatic you will just know this is not the way to enjoy this kind of movies. You just have to relax, enjoy the simplicity of the plot, the effectiveness of character descriptions, the good acting and the occasional outbursts of violence.
This films provides all the above, and I really enjoyed acting (Dennis Hopper's portrait of a coward sheriff is antologic) and the occasional violence (there are a few shootings very well coreographed and quite believable). The pace is apropiately slow, caring more about details and building an atmosphere of danger and mistery than anything else, and the only reason I did not enjoy the movie completely it is that the police investigation subplot is given too much footage, and it is poorly acted: Peter Coyote is, this time, giving a dull performance.
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2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just Who Is My Secret Admirer? Please Advise!!!, September 26, 2005
This review is from: Road Ends (DVD)
It seems like every time I do a review these days that 5 minutes later somebody votes on it. I most surely would love the know the identity of this person.I always wanted to have "A Secret Admirer" although I hope it is female!!! If I knew I was so popular I would have run for Mayor!!!Anyway to my review of this movie. Chris Sarandon arrives in a small country town as a Man Of Mystery who soon attracts the attention of the local Sherrif whose job it is to "run those goldurn varmints outta town" just like they did in the Old Wild West. There is one very unbelieveable scene where Chris is at the local diner and Mariel Hemingway offers to sit with him but he rejects the offer. Gee. If Mariel offered to sit next to me I wouldn' say "No". Then there is the Obligatory Hollywood "Shoot Em Up' which is pretty exciting to watch. Not all is what it appears to be in this movie which makes it so much fun to watch.
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