Watch Against All Odds For Free

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

SYNOPSIS: Ex-football player takes a job to hunt down the ex-girl friend of a shady acquaintance. She's hiding somewhere in Mexico. NOTES: Phil Collins was nominated for his title song for both a Golden Globe and Hollywood's most prestigious award.COMMENT: Although the screen credits imply otherwise, Daniel Mainwaring (pronounced "Mannering") had no input into this considerably augmented yet at the same time watered down remake of his Build My Gallows High (novel)/Out of the Past (screenplay), both of which he wrote under the pseudonym, "Geoffrey Homes". True, the new script mirrors the original closely at times, but there are wide divergences at others. Even more annoying, Hughes has added a number of extra scenes which do nothing to advance the plot but tend to dissipate atmosphere and tension. One often has the feeling that the producers' aim was to provide employment for as wide a number of their actor and professional friends as possible. Admittedly, this does result in some agreeable casting. It's always a pleasure to see Richard Widmark snarling away, and a real treat to find Jane Greer, the star of Out of the Past, here cast as her original character's mother! However, when all's said and done, this movie runs a wearying 128 minutes. The original, on the other hand, told us basically the same story in a far more terse and involving 98 minutes!

A remake probably works best if it's not just a straight scene-for-scene copy. In that spirit, when the filmmakers remade "Out of the Past", they cross-pollinated a story about washed up pro-football players onto the old missing girlfriend plot. Unfortunately we are presented with a hybrid that just doesn't bloom at all.The film commences with Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges), searching for the beautiful Jessie Wyler (Rachel Ward), through picturesque locations in Mexico. A pulsating score by Michael Colombier accompanies his search along palm-fringed beachfronts, cafés and bars. A flashback explains the reason for his search.Jeff Bridges brings his likable style to the role of Terry Brogan, a pro-football player who has been dropped from his team. His charisma goes a long way to disguising the thinness of the material with much footage devoted to the ex-player part of the story. Amongst the characters is Grace Wyler played by Jane Greer who had Rachel Ward's role in 1947's "Out of the Past".Brogan accepts an assignment from Jake Wise (James Woods) to track down his girlfriend Jessie Wyler, Grace Wyler's daughter, who has disappeared in Mexico. The fact that Wise would send such an appealing and attractive guy to find his hot girlfriend makes about as much sense here as it did when Kirk Douglas sent Robert Mitchum on the same errand thirty-seven years before.When Brogan finds her they have an affair. They tryst in a number of exotic settings including the ruins of an ancient Mayan temple. Sound hot? Not really, the sex scenes register about as much heat as a fragrance commercial – just look at the poster.The plot follows the 1947 version and the characters eventually end up back in LA for a less than exciting denouement.Although there is much talk in "Against All Odds", the motivation of many of the characters is hard to gauge. By the end, Bridges' character attracts little sympathy while Rachel Ward's character attracts none at all. She struggles to make us believe that she is the femme fatale the story says she is. There has to be something engaging even with the most deadly of fatales, but Ward comes across as just too brittle. Not helping much is James Woods who as Jake Wise is relentlessly ruthless and scheming; with the exception of Bridges, everyone is just a little too one-note.Despite interesting locales, and attractive stars "Against All Odds" is a pale imitation – or a suntanned one in this case – of an older, better movie.

This movie is well known primarily for the accompanying Phil Collins song. The bad news is that you'll have to sit through this lumpy mess to hear it play over the closing credits.Bridges plays a football player who gets cut two games into the season despite catching the winning TD pass and to all reports playing well. It's some kind of cost-cutting move, one that his sleazy agent (who now also represents the teams slimy owner) goes along with. So Bridges' sleazy gambler/clubowner/gangster buddy Woods decides to hire Bridges (for whom playing with some other team isn't even considered) to track down his ex-girlfriend who happens to be the owner's daughter. Despite no apparent PI skills, Bridges flies to Cozumel and by wandering around with a snapshot quickly locates her. She's pretty much a beyotch (would have to have something wrong to have been Woods' moll), but since the film needs to move along these two good looking people soon "fall in love". The rest of the film consists of various twists and turns involving point-shaving and blackmail so that the owner can develop some prime LA property. Multiple actions along the way are head-scratchers and the climactic confrontation at the development site is a big let-down.Bridges and Ward look good (her upsweep hairdo notwithstanding), but they have little chemistry. For an 80s film, her role required more skin than she showed and her acting is wan. Woods does show why he became a sleaze archetype. A couple scenes are so stupid as to undercut the entire film, including the secretary trying to get the "treasure chest" in front of a leering Doberman (who were big in film at the time). There is an excellent car race scene though.The biggest WTH moment though is when Bridges and Ward are copulating in a Mayan temple in the middle of freaking nowhere when Alex Karras - Bridges' old coach - walks in on them.Get the song on iTunes but miss this film.

The Argument that You can't Transfer Film-Noir to Modern Times is Weak at best. Talented Filmmakers have Done it Repeatedly and it Can Work. It has been Termed Neo-Noir. Of course, it is a Tricky Transformation and the result has Not always been Successful. There Are some Great Neo-Noirs out there, but this is Not One of them.Director Taylor Hackford said that He did not want to Remake "Out of the Past" (1947), So why did He? It's OK to imagine a Metamorphosis and tailor the Film to Current Sensibilities, Style, and so forth, but Here it Hurts and the Mediocre result is anything but effective.Somehow, the Core of Noir is Lost among the Steamy, Sweaty, Sex Scenes and the Sheen of 1980's crowd pleasing Fads. Music Video Styling and Shallow Representations of the Femme Fatale Fails to intrigue. The Crisp Noir Dialog featured in the Original falls flat and the Actors seem to be Struggling to Make This WorkOverall, Not a Bad Movie, it is Just Unremarkable. Jeff Bridges at His physical Peak of Manhood, seems a bit Whiny on Top of the Tan and Gym Tone and Rachel Ward is a Less than Great Actress and is almost Awful and here Shows No Range of Emotion. James Woods gives the Best Performance but for Him it is a notch Below His usual Show Stealing abilities. Richard Widmark Playing the reprehensible Money Man, a Rich Slime Bucket, is Fine, but again, about Average for His later day Movies.You Know the Movie is Struggling for attention when Just about Everyone Relates to the Film through a Pop Song. A Pop Song? Now that's Definitely Not Noir, in Any Era.