Red Rock West

So I haven't been watching as many of my own movies as I'd like to be, but I have been chipping away at the Netflix instant que for the last week. So here we FUCKING go.

First up is Red Rock West, an effective little thriller from 1993 starring Nic Cage, Dennis Hopper, the great J.T. Walsh and the very ugly Laura Flynn Boyle.

Nic stars as an honest Texas man who has come to Wyoming in hopes of landing a job with a drilling crew. After that falls through, Nic stops at a bar in Red Rock where he is mistaken for a hit man that's been hired by the bar owner to kill his wife. What follows is a movie filled with clever twists and turns and of course a great "ass hole" performance by Dennis Hopper.

One thing that surprised me most about this movie was its confidence. It knows exactly what kind of movie it is, and not in a "winking to the audience" either. It simply revels in its own sketchy characters and situations.

Cage has always been a favorite of mine, but he was especially interesting to watch in 90s as he made the transition from quirky actor to leading man. He is pretty subdued here, but he still manages to hold our attention with a character who wants desperately to the right thing, but for some reason keeps making terrible, terrible choices.

Dennis Hopper and J.T. Walsh are equally as good as Lyle from Dallas and Wayne, respectively. Walsh always soared when playing a scumbag and this is no exception. He's able to bring a feeling of creepiness and believability to the scumbag that few could replicate, allowing the audience to never really be sure what his characters were capable of.

Though its Hopper who steals the show, as he often does, as Lyle. Few can do villains the way Hopper can, and the combination of him and Walsh makes for some great moments onscreen.

The weak link for me though, was Boyle. It's not that she's bad exactly, she fits the role fine. But something about her I just do not find attractive, particularly with the horrible 90s fashion that she wears throughout the movie. I just could not understand how any of these guys would want to be with her.

It's a minor quibble though, as the mood and other performances keep you more than interested the whole way through, making for one of the more surprising movies I've been able to discover through Netflix Instant.