Ever watch a movie that was a lot better in your memory than what it actually is as confirmed by a second viewing?
Trying to find something to watch on Netflix is often a challenge when you exclude any content that is pushing what the Critical Drinker calls “the message,” so sometimes you have to default to an oldie on the streaming platform.
One such is Against All Odds (1984), which stars Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges, and James Woods.
Jane Greer, Richard Widmark, and Alex Karras (a real-life NFL player before becoming an actor) appear in supporting roles.
Against All Odds is remake to some extent of Out of the Past (1947), a highly regarded film noir starring Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas in which Greer played the femme fatale.
In the 1984 movie, Greer plays the femme fatale’s mother.
Against All Odds is probably best known for the Phil Collins title song of the same name (which you may remember from the lyric “take a look at me now”) that accompanies the end-credits sequence.
[Spoilers follow]
In a nutshell, the Woods character (kind of, sort of gangster Jake Wise) hires pro football player and friend Bridges (Terry Brogan) to go to Mexico to find Wise’s girlfriend Jessie Wyler (Ward).
Wyler’s mom (Greer) happens to own the football team that just cut Brogan. [Widmark has the role Ben Caxton, who is either Jesse’s step-father or merely her mom’s hardnosed business partner.]
Wise wants her back even though she shot him and ran off with $50,000 of his cash, allegedly.
Brogan’s sleuthing is very low tech — mainly showing her photograph that he gets from Wise to random pedestrians around town..
After he finds her, Brogan predictably gets involved with the would-be femme fatale and things unfold from there.
Despite what a lot of the IMDB folks assert, Ward is stunning in the movie even if her attire is frumpy, at least by present-day standards. That was probably an error by the wardrobe department.
The first half or so of the movie with Brogan and Wyler in Mexico is interesting with some beautiful on-location shooting.
Once the action shifts back to Los Angeles, the movie breaks down even with the solid cast.
As one IMDB user wrote, “This movie proves the maxim that even good actors cannot save a bad script.”
Like so many films, especially contemporary ones, someone should have given the script a common-sense audit first.
The narrative in the second half seems kind of convoluted and not at all convincing. Kind of dull, in fact. It involves some evil real estate developers as well as politicians and others compromised by sports gambling and associated points shaving.
As a footnote, even although it’s not entirely clear, it seems that even the virtue-signaling, pro-environment elected official winds up corrupted by gambling.
Moreover, one of the characters are particularly likeable. And there’s a pointless car chase that has nothing to do with anything.
Ward and Bridges do deliver decent performances.
Woods, whose Twitter/X feed is top notch, is always good, but the challenge here is he’s not believable for this particular role as a menacing bookie and nightclub impresario, in part maybe because he lacked the necessary physicality.
Nor is he surrounded by lumbering henchman as you would expect other than the equally non-threatening Tommy (Dorian Harewood).
Widmark should have been in more scenes. That would have helped.
The patriarchy — which in this scenario includes Wise, Brogan, and Caxton — all go way out of there way to protect Jessie and jeopardize themselves even though arguably she murders two dudes in the movie.
Self-defense could be an alternative explanation, but she gets away with it, or close to it, perhaps owing to hot-girl/rich-girl privilege, if not male obsession.
You could make the argument that she manipulates the principal characters throughout the movie and is hardly a victim.
In fact, maybe the James Woods character is the victim.
Another dude gets murdered by someone in a high-rise office building that some reason leaves all entry doors open at night.
Several other things occur in the movie that don’t add up.
After all this, for some reason Bridges’ character wants to reunite with Jessie, despite her track record of mayhem.
In general, the film’s production values apart from eye-catching Mexico scenes seem clunky, but maybe that’s just an 80s thing.
Director Taylor Hackford must also have been really enamored with Rachel Wood because the end credits roll next to a close up of Ward who goes through a range of emotions before the movie settles into a freeze frame.
Given the way sports betting has exploded, Against All Odds may be one of the rare examples where a remake of a remake might be justified, but with a much upgraded storyline.
This time around, perhaps Rachel Ward could portray the femme fatale’s mom, bringing it full circle.
Against All Odds, in summary, just doesn’t hold up upon on a second viewing.
As one IMDB user wrote, “While most of the convolutions are resolved at the end, most of the suspension of disbelief of the viewer has been lost.”
Another user wrote “Although it seems that the film will develop into some big mystery, it clumsily turns into another 80s blackmail con affair that’s void of any true urgency, danger or excitement.
On a separate Netflix-related issue, the streaming service’s miniseries Baby Reindeer, which supposedly millions of subscribers watched after its April 11, 2024 premiere, has stirred up controversy which may or mat get the streaming service hauled.
The alleged real-life stalker, who was apparently doxed shortly after the show got released, claims that the true story is anything but.
She talked about in a recent interview with Piers Morgan.
From Deadline Hollywood:
“…[British lawyer Chris] Daw is assembling a team of lawyers in the UK and U.S. to pursue Netflix, producer Clerkenwell Films, and Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd, but has yet to be formally instructed by [Fiona] Harvey. He believes that Harvey may have a case for defamation after Baby Reindeer was billed as a ‘true story’ and featured her pleading guilty to stalking and being sentenced to prison. Daw said he has yet to see evidence that Harvey has been convicted of stalking and harassment, adding that Netflix had failed to back up the claims made in Gadd’s hit series…Daw added that Harvey may also have a claim for misuse of image rights…”
