LeonLouisRicci Here is an Example why Patrick Swayze (who? the haircut!) Never went Beyond His 15 Minutes of Fame and Liam Neeson is Still Going Strong. Talent and Ability. Director John Irvin Lost His Edge on this One and Delivered a Laughable, Clumsy, Shallow, and Listless Movie. The List of Name Actors going through the Motions here is Impressive and Long, but Doubtful that Any of Them Used this One on Their Resume. This Dog Don't Hunt.Occasionally the "Action" is Overscored by an FM Soft Rock Ballad with Lyrics about Family (or Kin) that make the Eyes Roll and a Knee Slap Inevitable. The Hillbilly and Mob Clichés abound and the Trademark Cultural Flourishes are on a Level Lower than Dirt. Adam Baldwin, Helen Hunt, and Ben Stiller all Compete with Swayze for the Razzberries.The Climactic Shoot Out is so Bland and Pretentious it can be a Hoot if You let it. There are Snakes on a Bus, Bear Trap, Bows and Arrows, Crossbow, Machine Guns, 45's, Shotguns, Grenade Launcher, Knives, a Hatchet. Hound-Dogs, and for the Really Big Ending...A Fist Fight.One of the Worst Action Movies of the Decade. The Only Attraction is the Big Name Cast and the Chicago Locations. Both are Misused and Mishandled. This One Misses all the Marks.

utgard14 Hillbilly-turned-Chicago cop Patrick Swayze sets out to find his brother Bill Paxton's killer. His other brother Liam Neeson comes to the city to find the killer himself -- hillbilly style! It's hillbillies vs mobsters on the streets (and a cemetery) of Chi-town. I'm sure whoever did the casting on this movie had a brief career. I can buy Swayze and Paxton as hillbillies but Neeson? Also, Ben Stiller as a Sicilian mobster?Swayze is a citified hillbilly. We know they've civilized him because he pulls his mullet back into a fashionable ponytail. Neeson is not civilized. We know this because he wears a dirty baseball cap at all times, even when he has on a suit. Helen Hunt is Swayze's city wife. She plays the violin, which Swayze's hillbilly kin refer to as the fiddle. Rest assured, this movie never misses a chance to traffic in clichés.The action is so-so and the performances are about what you would expect. Swayze takes his part very seriously. Adam Baldwin seems to know the score and hams it up appropriately as the villain. There are many quotable lines, which is the mark of a good cheesy action movie. It's not at the top of my list of great '80s actioners but it's worth checking out anyway.

dwissba After the success of Dirty Dancing Patrick Swayze embarked on a string of tough guy films. All of which were bad beyond belief. Mr. Swayze may know how to dance but his acting prowess leaves a lot to be desired. Next of Kin is one of those bad beyond belief films. Swayze plays Truman, a Chicago cop who is searching for the killer of his brother. To make a long story short Truman comes from a white trash background in hillbilly country and he seems to be the only one who made it out and the rest of his family is well...hillbillies. The ending of this film was so hard to believe I was laughing my head off. Do you suppose that a group of backwoods rednecks would be able to come to Chicago and be able to find their way around? Well that is what they did plus help in finding and killing the people responsible for killing Truman's brother.Liam Neeson must have been hurting for money to be in this one.

screaminmimi The acting is fine. The cast is great. The script is lame, lame, lame. And did say it was lame? If the writers could exploit any ethnic stereotype in shameless fashion, they did. This story about culture clash and crime could have been told intelligently without resorting to over-the-top, sniggering, Hollywood-style bigotry. How could anybody take seriously a crime drama where two of the young mafia types' last names are Isabella and Rosselini? The only thing worthwhile to me was looking at all the Chicago exteriors and spotting the errors in geography.It is kind of fun to see a young Ben Stiller as a baby mafioso. I am relieved that this movie didn't wreck Adam Baldwin's or Liam Neeson's careers.