Since The Last Seduction, John Dahl hasn't quite delivered the skilful thrills we hoped for. This pacy revamp of Duel and Breakdown is a lunge in the right direction, though. Paul Walker, Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski star as brash young things who turn yellow when a trucker they've taunted chases them cross-country, vengeance in mind. Fast and furious.
The soundtrack from Eminem's gamble-that-paid-off movie has done so well that second helpings have arrived. No verbals from the man himself here, but an irresistible set of just-left-of-familiar hip hop. Among the most inventive work-outs are OutKast's "Player's Ball" and Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya". Accompanying the movie's 'romantic' interlude—a wordless hump against a factory wall—is "You're All I Need" from Method Man and Mary J Blige.
Hal Ashby's deceptively sunny direction of Robert Towne and Warren Beatty's sex-comedy screenplay is brimful of Barbie hair, open shirts and Triumph motorcycles, as libidinous pompadour George (Beatty) juggles four Beverly Hills sirens with his own nascent career plans. Yet the oppressive setting (Nixon's '68 election night), Beatty's stunningly lugubrious performance and his eventual comeuppance all feed a brash vein of cynicism that shapes the entire movie.
