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Jeff and Amy Taylor are driving across state towards their
new home when, after a near-miss with another vehicle, they
break down on a desert road. A truck arrives and it's decided
that Amy will catch a lift to a diner phone a few miles down
the road. Jeff soon realises that his new 4-wheel drive has
been sabotaged, but when he arrives at the diner nobody has
seen his wife. Amy has been abducted as part of an ongoing
kidnapping and extortion ring, and it seems that everybody
is in on it. Jeff himself is ordered to have $90,000 that
he doesn't possess wired from his bank to procure his wife's
release. So begins a deadly game of cat and mouse, as he attempts
to seek out and free his wife...
Kurt
Russell has been one of the best modern action heroes, particularly
in the excellent John Carpenter flicks Escape From New
York and The Thing, but that approach wouldn't
work here and, thankfully, Breakdown doesn't attempt
it. Russell plays an average desperate man literally driven
to the edge by a series of hazardous events. We witness the
tumult of emotions (particularly convincing at the point when
be believes his wife to be dead) and occasional ineptitude
when forced to take matters into his own hands. Okay, so hanging
on underneath a moving lorry and manoeuvring along its side
is far-fetched, but you do get the impression that fear and
desperation oblige the character to take ever-increasing risks.
Don't
get me wrong; in the great scheme of things Breakdown
is nothing very special. It isn't a blockbuster or a low-budget
cult film, but something in-between. It borrows from Duel,
The Hitcher and displays many influences; however, you
don't fully realise this until you've enjoyed watching it.
As
a dvd package it's poor. You would think an effort would be
made to enhance this release with as many extras as possible:
isolated music track, star filmographies... anything. With
only a theatrical trailer to its name, there is no value for
money except as a budget release.
Ty
Power
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