Product Details

• Actors: Jennifer Ann Evans, Stuart Wilson, Nicole Fellows, Caprice Benedetti, Chris Mulkey
• Directors: Christian Ford
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Lions Gate
• VHS Release Date: August 21, 2001
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305989303
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,585 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Minnie Driver produces and stars in this sometimes unusual but largely familiar and undercooked crime thriller, a project seemingly aimed at hardening her good-girl image with a touch of the femme fatale. She plays Trina, the surviving daughter of a couple who spent their lives searching the Mexican desert for a fortune in lost diamonds. What a shock when a pair of escaped convicts (James Spader, chewing on an accent that could make him Ratso Rizzo's long-lost son, and Josh Brolin) stumble onto her camp, dragging the treasure behind them. Completely obsessed with the diamonds, she turns ruthless in her pursuit--these boys are rank amateurs next to Driver's hardened schemer. Director-cowriter Christian Ford carves the film out of sharp, sun-blasted colors that seem to bleach out over the course of the film, but the script's blatant echoes of Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Greed (including characters named after author Frank Norris and Greed protagonist McTeague) never allow the film to establish its own identity. Brolin turns in a fine performance as a holy innocent on the wrong path, and Stuart Wilson is excellent as the narrator and Trina's desert-rat protector, an ambiguous, dangerous figure always on the periphery of the story. The story concludes in a clever climax of dark irony, but the rest of the film is less satisfying--not quite predictable but never very surprising. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow Burn, July 20, 2000

By 

Eric Sanberg (Berwyn, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slow Burn [VHS] (VHS Tape)

When this title crossed my desk I became curious. The star power was notable and history tells me that neither Minnie Driver or James Spader would be appearing in something on a shoestring budget. So...why did I not recall a theatrical release? Why was it going direct to video? Anyway, I took it home and screened it and had quite a time of it. This is a totally worthwhile movie. The story involves Minnie's grandmother who died in the desert with a rather large stash of diamonds. Minnie's mother, father and father's friend search for granny's remains and the stash (only to come to a dastardly end), and now Minnie susequently spends her life in the desert trying to find those same blasted diamonds. But of course there wouldn't be much of a movie if things were that easy. Who should stumble onto the diamonds right under her nose but James Spader and his intellectually challenged buddy played by Josh Brolin. They are escaped cons being pursued by Minnie's dead dad's friend. Much ensues as a touchy cat and mouse game is played out amongst the participants, and everything culminates in a rather fitting conclusion. This is no low-level crime thriller. The desert is used to great effect. It's alive with an entire history and set of rules all its own. All the actors draw memorable characters. They are interesting and there is an immediacy to the proceedings. You feel the heat and dryness and you really get the heebie-jeebies when lives are threatened by such unforgiving surroundings. The end might tick some people off, but it's logical. This certainly doesn't attain the level of some similar movies such as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but this is a good flick that more than satisfied the time I invested in it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lost treasure in the desert, August 7, 2005

By 

Erik H. East "easthaven77" (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slow Burn (DVD)

I loved this film from the first time I saw it. What is so compelling for me is the familiar Hollywood subject matter: lost treasure, lust, greed, obsession and death. I must have seen dozens of films of this genre and enjoyed every one: Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Makenna's Gold, The Deep, Indiana Jones 1,2&3. But this one stands out among the recent efforts, although on a more modest theatrical scale and budget. The natural landscape, photography and the settings are outstanding. The characterizations are vivid and interesting, but crazed, even by treasure hunter standards.

Mini Driver is a looker. She keeps the movie "cooking" as the central character through many unexpected turns. An enigmatic desert rat, she has been searching the hot dry Mexico desert alone for years, looking for the long lost family jewels. Needless to say they eventually turn up, but in the wrong hands.

The story line is a bit cumbersome and convoluted, but nothing to get upset about. I think the film requires that you suspend your disbelief for the duration. If it is reality you want, go find it elsewhere. I see it for what it really is: an age-old sourdough yarn like those spun around the campfire by the master storytellers of the age before television. That's pure entertainment, in my book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars th;is movie is so hot its cool!!, August 18, 2001

By 

Walter P. Kramer "cork1or2" (Jacksonville, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slow Burn [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I watched it and was really surprise at how the plot thickened and kept me wondering what was gonna happen next. I ewas surprised that three people could hold it all together and each one were great!!Many surprises and Josh Brolin has really had a hidden talent thesre past years for he was fabulous in this --I daresay that is when he met his now wife Minnie Driver. It's very well acted, very well directed, and writing that will keep it on your mind.