- Actors: Jason Patric, Rachel Ward, Bruce Dern, Rocky Giordani, Tom Wagner
- Directors: James Foley
- Writers: James Foley, Robert Redlin, Jim Thompson
- Producers: Cary Brokaw, Ric Kidney, Robert Redlin
- Format: NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: U
- Studio: Lions Gate
- DVD Release Date: 26 Mar 2002
- Run Time: 114 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005Y6XA
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 59,530 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
Product details |
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
A great film version of this classic noir thriller. Perhaps Jason Patric's finest performance to date as the boxer/drifter 'Kid Collins'. A clever plot that keeps you guessing, questioning. This is old school - the femme fatale, the stooge, the fall guy, the caper, the twist - everybody has an angle, a secret but just when you think you know this story it pulls your feet away and shows you something new.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"Whether she was watching me or not, I don't know. I only knew that I was moving again...away from her and Uncle Bud. I felt kinda sad in a way, but at the same time, I felt good."
Kevin Collins (Jason Patric), a basically nice, honest guy who isn't dumb but who doesn't think so fast, should have kept going. But he returns to Fay Anderson (Rachel Ward), a sexy, tired, long-legged woman, and a friend of hers, Uncle Bud (Bruce Dern), a schemer who has been thinking about a way to get some big money for quite a while. All it involves is kidnapping a little boy from a rich family. What Fay and Uncle Bud don't know is that Collie is an ex-boxer who can be set off, and he has walked away from a mental institution.
This is a fine neo-noir based on a story by Jim Thompson, one of the best of the crime pulp writers of the Fifties. Collie is a noir hero moving inevitably toward tragedy. Fay Anderson is close to being a worn-out alcoholic in a big house, hard to trust and hard to believe. She answers questions with more questions. She's as fatalistic in her way as Collie is unpredictable. "I'm glad you came back, Collie," she says. "I wish you hadn't...afraid you wouldn't."
Uncle Bud is anything but fatalistic. He's an untrustworthy schemer who most likely will scam anyone to get what he wants. He can be funny in a sly way, fast with an explanation and a smile. Collie agrees to the plan because of Fay, and when complications arise there's always Uncle Bud to make things seem right. "He let me know that after thinking it over," Collie says, "we should go ahead with everything just as planned. Fay wouldn't be in the car to help with the kid but he was convinced I could handle it on my own. I could see from his point of view how the situation had actually improved. I'd never meant anything to him and now that I didn't mean anything to Fay either and since I'd practically told him how he could fake the whole thing and still cash in, you'd have to be blind not to see what was coming. I was due to get killed and Uncle Bud was due...or thought he was...to be a hero."
And at the end, when people die..."You and me, together forever," Fay says. "You really believed that, Collie. You really believed there could be a you and me." "I know it, Fay."
This is a well-made movie that moves along with the inevitability of great noirs. The three main actors do a fine job of getting across the exhaustion and bleak prospects of the characters they play. The movie made scarcely a ripple when it was released. It deserves far better, and is well worth adding to a person's movie collection. The DVD has no extras. The picture looks just fine.
Kevin Collins (Jason Patric), a basically nice, honest guy who isn't dumb but who doesn't think so fast, should have kept going. But he returns to Fay Anderson (Rachel Ward), a sexy, tired, long-legged woman, and a friend of hers, Uncle Bud (Bruce Dern), a schemer who has been thinking about a way to get some big money for quite a while. All it involves is kidnapping a little boy from a rich family. What Fay and Uncle Bud don't know is that Collie is an ex-boxer who can be set off, and he has walked away from a mental institution.
This is a fine neo-noir based on a story by Jim Thompson, one of the best of the crime pulp writers of the Fifties. Collie is a noir hero moving inevitably toward tragedy. Fay Anderson is close to being a worn-out alcoholic in a big house, hard to trust and hard to believe. She answers questions with more questions. She's as fatalistic in her way as Collie is unpredictable. "I'm glad you came back, Collie," she says. "I wish you hadn't...afraid you wouldn't."
Uncle Bud is anything but fatalistic. He's an untrustworthy schemer who most likely will scam anyone to get what he wants. He can be funny in a sly way, fast with an explanation and a smile. Collie agrees to the plan because of Fay, and when complications arise there's always Uncle Bud to make things seem right. "He let me know that after thinking it over," Collie says, "we should go ahead with everything just as planned. Fay wouldn't be in the car to help with the kid but he was convinced I could handle it on my own. I could see from his point of view how the situation had actually improved. I'd never meant anything to him and now that I didn't mean anything to Fay either and since I'd practically told him how he could fake the whole thing and still cash in, you'd have to be blind not to see what was coming. I was due to get killed and Uncle Bud was due...or thought he was...to be a hero."
And at the end, when people die..."You and me, together forever," Fay says. "You really believed that, Collie. You really believed there could be a you and me." "I know it, Fay."
This is a well-made movie that moves along with the inevitability of great noirs. The three main actors do a fine job of getting across the exhaustion and bleak prospects of the characters they play. The movie made scarcely a ripple when it was released. It deserves far better, and is well worth adding to a person's movie collection. The DVD has no extras. The picture looks just fine.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
23 reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Will Grow In Stature Over Time
4 Jan 2002
Format:DVD
It was easy not to notice this in theaters a decade ago, but time has been exceedingly kind to AFTER DARK & likely will continue to be. Already it stands as one of the 90s best films.
Though its Southwestern locations (Indio, California was used) are both a bit too sparse and modern, in every other way this captures the ineffable aura of Jim Thompson's prose (and anyone who's actually READ "The Getaway" knows how utterly impossible a task translating his best effects to film really is). Director Foley has done a splendid job in setting a tone of dreamlike, sunburned melancholy and maintaining it throughout, aided immeasurably by fine performances by Rachel Ward & Bruce Dern and an absolutely riveting one by Jason Patric. I had faint hopes for this film before seeing it, due mostly to Patric in the lead; I was floored watching it, and all DUE to Patric's performance. Though a little young for the part, he captures perfectly the likable ambivalence and roiling inner pathology of the Jim Thompson Hero: you never stop feeling for the guy even as you know he will inevitably be compelled by his inner torments to do monstrous things before the story ends. Patric's complete immersion into "Kid Collins" steals a little thunder from one of Bruce Dern's most chillingly indelible portrayals of slime personified, "Uncle Bud". (Fans of Dennis Hopper's "Frank Booth" from BLUE VELVET would take to Uncle Bud immediately, I think.)
More than any other film adaptation of Thompson, AFTER DARK -even more than THE GRIFTERS - embodies that peculiar cowtown existentialism of his that tells us we're each of us alone in a world where things start bad and only get worse, pretending we're sane the way kids pretend there's a Santa Claus. A film without an audience in 1990, but little by little, year by year, a growing and appreciative audience is building. See this movie.
Though its Southwestern locations (Indio, California was used) are both a bit too sparse and modern, in every other way this captures the ineffable aura of Jim Thompson's prose (and anyone who's actually READ "The Getaway" knows how utterly impossible a task translating his best effects to film really is). Director Foley has done a splendid job in setting a tone of dreamlike, sunburned melancholy and maintaining it throughout, aided immeasurably by fine performances by Rachel Ward & Bruce Dern and an absolutely riveting one by Jason Patric. I had faint hopes for this film before seeing it, due mostly to Patric in the lead; I was floored watching it, and all DUE to Patric's performance. Though a little young for the part, he captures perfectly the likable ambivalence and roiling inner pathology of the Jim Thompson Hero: you never stop feeling for the guy even as you know he will inevitably be compelled by his inner torments to do monstrous things before the story ends. Patric's complete immersion into "Kid Collins" steals a little thunder from one of Bruce Dern's most chillingly indelible portrayals of slime personified, "Uncle Bud". (Fans of Dennis Hopper's "Frank Booth" from BLUE VELVET would take to Uncle Bud immediately, I think.)
More than any other film adaptation of Thompson, AFTER DARK -even more than THE GRIFTERS - embodies that peculiar cowtown existentialism of his that tells us we're each of us alone in a world where things start bad and only get worse, pretending we're sane the way kids pretend there's a Santa Claus. A film without an audience in 1990, but little by little, year by year, a growing and appreciative audience is building. See this movie.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
A great little film noir
20 Feb 2007
Format:DVD
Film noir focuses on desperate people doing desperate things. And that is exactly what this movie entails.
Others have gone over the plot here so I will not do that. I will say that all actors did exceedingly well in what can be very difficult roles to play. They all acted off each other in a believable manner.
Bruce Dern was never seedier than he is with this character. Jason Patric and Rachel Ward also excel at thier characters.
What is decieving here is the setting....somewhere in the southwest, desert area. Film noir is typically dark and shadowy but here there is lots of sunlight. It takes the focus off the setting and puts it on the plot, which I found to be an interesting twist and quite effective.
In the heat, the emotions bubble over. Lust, greed, deception, lies, mistrust and paranoia all play out in layer upon layer and is accented by Jason Patric's character very effectively.
For those who like film noir with a twist you will certainly like this little known gem. It is immediately captivating and magnetic. I don't know how I missed it on it's original release but certainly glad I caught up to it. Take a chance folks... you won't be disappointed.
Others have gone over the plot here so I will not do that. I will say that all actors did exceedingly well in what can be very difficult roles to play. They all acted off each other in a believable manner.
Bruce Dern was never seedier than he is with this character. Jason Patric and Rachel Ward also excel at thier characters.
What is decieving here is the setting....somewhere in the southwest, desert area. Film noir is typically dark and shadowy but here there is lots of sunlight. It takes the focus off the setting and puts it on the plot, which I found to be an interesting twist and quite effective.
In the heat, the emotions bubble over. Lust, greed, deception, lies, mistrust and paranoia all play out in layer upon layer and is accented by Jason Patric's character very effectively.
For those who like film noir with a twist you will certainly like this little known gem. It is immediately captivating and magnetic. I don't know how I missed it on it's original release but certainly glad I caught up to it. Take a chance folks... you won't be disappointed.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Jim Thompson on film--and punchy!
14 Sep 2006
Format:DVD
Very nice piece of work with strong casting. How can you do better than have Bruce Dern play an ex-cop sleazeball? Or Rachel Ward as a dangerous femme fatale? Or Jason Patric as a semi-addled former boxer with smoldering sexuality?
Answer: you CAN'T. Yep, we're in Jim Thompson land--aka Desperation City, and each one of these three characters has some kind of desperation going on, as do just about all of Thompson's characters. This is neo-noir at its best; you reduce the story down to fundamental elements and have James Foley directing--a rock solid director--and you got yourself one humdinger of a flick.
So yeah, there's sex and violence and yeah, they both come out of Desperation. Oh yeah. The flashbacks of Patric (as Kevin Collins), a former boxer, when he was in the ring, add just the right element for cementing the story and its Thompsonesque flavor. So there's a planned heist and stuff, but the formula isn't important. What's important is the atmosphere, the acting, the emotional punch on display. And it's definitely here.
Great piece of work. Go for it.
Answer: you CAN'T. Yep, we're in Jim Thompson land--aka Desperation City, and each one of these three characters has some kind of desperation going on, as do just about all of Thompson's characters. This is neo-noir at its best; you reduce the story down to fundamental elements and have James Foley directing--a rock solid director--and you got yourself one humdinger of a flick.
So yeah, there's sex and violence and yeah, they both come out of Desperation. Oh yeah. The flashbacks of Patric (as Kevin Collins), a former boxer, when he was in the ring, add just the right element for cementing the story and its Thompsonesque flavor. So there's a planned heist and stuff, but the formula isn't important. What's important is the atmosphere, the acting, the emotional punch on display. And it's definitely here.
Great piece of work. Go for it.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
