The Getaway (1994)

Directed by Roger Donaldson. Starring Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Michael Madsen, Jennifer Tilly, James Woods, James Stephens, David Morse, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Burton Gilliam, Richard Farnsworth. [R]

Retread of the 1972 Sam Peckinpah crime-thriller; that one starred Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw, who would later marry, while this one stars Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, already married. Could that be why their sex scenes feel perfunctory and self-conscious? They do less “making love” than “making hate” anyway, as it’s one of those movies where the lovers on the lam appear ready to combust at any moment, whether by being caught by the crooks and cops looking for them or by double-crossing one another. It’s also a relentlessly mean-spirited picture while Peckinpah’s was simply hard-edged in its professionalism, relegating the scummy material to the scummiest character (played here by an actor who strutted through the decade to a Stealer’s Wheel beat playing scumbags: Michael Madsen). Lots of bullets and blood squibs and destruction and profanity, but not much energy. Even James Woods seems to just be going through the motions as a crime boss Basinger takes to bed to spring her heartless hubby from a Mexican prison, a decision for which her man is less than grateful when he finds out. Screenwriter Walter Hill returns for this new adaptation of the Jim Thompson book, with rewrites from Amy Holden Jones.

46/100