adkturn Ever since the late Michael Cimino made everyone's worst-of list with 'Heaven's Gate' and sunk a studio in the process, it's been too easy to bash his post-HG work. This is an electrifying remake that proves Cimino could still direct action films like no other. The famous synergy between the director and Mickey Rourke is in full supply, while Hopkins and Rogers sympathetically act out a disintegrating marriage amidst the terror of being taken hostage with their 2 kids. Only Lindsay Crouse overdid the uber feminist FBI agent in charge: too much male-bashing and not enough criminal collaring. As for Rourke's portrayal of Michael Bosworth being too over-the-top: of course it is! He's playing a psychopathic killer at the end of his rope! There's something here for everyone: bravura performances and stunning cinematography that stretches from the claustrophobic isolation of a home under siege to the infinite reach of Utah's natural beauty. Don't come to the movie with preconceived notions, just let Cimino's direction work its magic. Even if the film was butchered by the studio in postproduction it still rocks!

SnoopyStyle Lawyer Nancy Breyers (Kelly Lynch) is defending robber and murderer Michael Bosworth (Mickey Rourke) for killing a guard in prison. She helps him escape but she falls behind. Albert (David Morse) and his brother Wally Bosworth (Elias Koteas) drive the getaway. Brenda Chandler (Lindsay Crouse) releases Nancy to track down Bosworth. Tim (Anthony Hopkins) and Nora Cornell (Mimi Rogers) are splitting up their family with their children (Shawnee Smith, Danny Gerard). He's broken up with his girlfriend and looking to reunite but she insists on selling the house. Michael and his men take over the house and keep the Cornells hostage. He makes contact with Nancy as he waits for her to join them.Director Michael Cimino remakes the 1955 film. He's trying way too hard to be stylish. Some of the acting is too over-the-top. If he could dial some of it back, the movie could be an intense crime thriller. Micky Rourke can be an intense bad guy without any help but Cimino insists on pushing it. Everybody is overacting. The worst is probably Lindsay Crouse. Cimino is using every camera move and dramatic music. It's a little ridiculous to release Nancy but the call to her apartment is a little more ridiculous. The cops could easily be listening on the other end. It's not as if the message is in code. The movie could have been great but Cimino's relentlessness squanders the work of some great actors.

bleex Cimino is a hack.There, I said it. Deal with it.So he gets lucky with one film, The Deer Hunter - having great actors like De Niro, Steep and Walken doesn't hurt. But Desperate Hours is like a High School film project - only worse.It is terribly put together with jump cuts, poor camera angles and perspective, terrible continuity, poor story, time-frame mismanagement, unbelievable plot holes and poor characters.The action sequences are a joke too. For example, one minute you have squads of highly trained and armed professionals who literally can't shoot the bad guys right in front of them with automatic weapons. Then a couple of scenes later said professionals now all have red-dot sights all over bad guys and can shoot with pinpoint accuracy - all in the very same location as the scene before. Stupefying.I could go on and on with the problems in many scenes but I have better things to do. Like count the number of piles in my living room carpet.Bottom line: Desperate Hours is one of those movies that's so bad it becomes an unintentional comedy.

czarnobog Michael Cimino delivers another unfocused, meandering "epic."Like Cimino's "The Sicilian," this movie is an adaptation of a novel. And like that earlier film, this one is dragged down by elliptical and illogical story points.Cimino's weakness as a director is his inability to distinguish between cleanly complex story lines and unnecessarily complicated story machinations. Like "The Sicilian" this film sputters forward in stuttering starts and maddening stalls.How so many fine actors came to agree to be in this movie is a mystery. The script is so illogical at times that it stops you cold with wonder. Didn't anyone notice how inconsistent Mickey Rourke's character was? How unbelievable the characters' motivations and actions were in so many scenes?A few glaring examples: when the teenage boy shows up demanding to keep his date, it would have been simple to have the father tell him she was sick and asleep and couldn't be disturbed. Instead, the consummately cold-blooded and brilliantly devious villain sends the girl out on the date, trusting her not to run right to the police for help? Even worse, she complies.And when the boy does first arrive, he mentions not one word about the massive police barricades he just passed on his way to the house.The interaction between the law officers is just as nutty. Lindsey Crouse is a shrill feminazi barking orders, until her lamely contrived "character change."With three screenwriters on board, it would normally be hard to fathom exactly what went wrong. But checking the credits, we find that two of them had previously collaborated on several much better movies. The third is the original writer, who had a hand in the screenplay, as well as having penned the novel and a play based on it. My guess is that Cimino deserves the blame. Based on his earlier works, he seems to think long and rambling equates to epic. One telling scene set in a beautiful outdoor setting, with music ripped off from a John Ford western, testifies to Cimino's self-grandiose vision.This film wouldn't be nearly as painful to sit through if Cimino was less talented at handling actors and placing his camera. It's too bad he has such rotten story sense. Apparently he needs a stronger, more intelligent producer than DeLaurentiis and better story development executives to reel him in.