I grabbed this because of Hopper and it paid off in that department. However, coming from the director of Rolling Thunder, John Flynn, this felt rushed, disjointed and rather shoddy at times.
We're rather rushed into a situation that leaves hardboiled cop Harry Niles (Hopper) out for revenge over the murder of his partner. The set up was terribly weak and disjointed. Once things got going, however, it all sort of fell into place. Or, once the clunky intro was over, Hopper spread his wings and took over as a lead would wont to do.
Hopper probably improvised some of the better scenes here (the shower scene is nuts!). Remember he did an "Orson Welles" move when he took over Out of The Blue. Still, his input can't really save this film from being a pretty classless affair. The surrounding cast should have been more front and center in the action, but for whatever reason it just fizzles.
The relationship between Niles and his ex (Anne Archer) is almost completely pointless. Niles' roleplaying sexual hijinks are utterly out of character and never once advance the story. It sort of connects Niles to the politician character (Cliff De Young) and his henchman (David Keith), but too just fizzles in the background. But that never builds to anything satisfying.
There's a lot of great manic Hopper moments, but those can only carry the film and audience so far. They definitely carried me to the end of the film! Otherwise, I probably would have turned this off in the first 15 minutes.
