Trouble Bound (1992)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Darrell Fetty and Francis Delia
Directed by Jeffrey Reiner
Starring Michael Madsen, Patricia Arquette, Billy Bob Thornton, Sal Jenco, Darren Epton, Gregory Sporleder, and Paul-Ben Victor

Released by: Artisan
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Nope; is relegated to the 1.33:1 format

My Advice: Skip it

Harry Talbot (Madsen) is just out of prison and he's trying to put his life back together. And it looks like he's going to be okay. In a poker game, he manages to take away about five grand and a classic Lincoln Continental. Not only that, but at his first stop for a drink, he hooks up with a hot young thing named Kit (Arquette) who's trying to get to Nevada. What he doesn't know is probably going to get him in a lot of trouble. It seems that he didn't check out the car that good, because there's a dead body in the trunk. To make matters worse, Kit is out to kill a gangster.

The movie is really weird. The major problem is that nothing seems to shake Madsen's character at all. Granted, he spent some time in jail, but he's just always in control...which doesn't make for a really good movie. Some kind of reaction or surprise on the part of your protagonist is always a good idea. Makes them seem, I don't know, human? Then there is the problem of having too many plots going on. There is a group of thugs chasing Talbot and a group of thugs chasing Kit. They each have their motives and reasons for going after their respective targets, but it just gets muddled really fast. The dialogue is just not believable, even for screwball road comedy schtick, and some of the nuances of the characters just flat out don't work. And Billy Bob Thornton, long a veteran of shining even whilst standing amidst fertilizer, is not in the movie long enough to have saved it.

The DVD has no bonus features whatsoever. There is not even a cast profiles section or screens of lame text bios. All we get is scene selections, which after all this time, should not be considered either special or bonus. Granted the movie doesn't really stick in the mind long enough to have any bonus material on the DVD, but still it would be nice to have something else on the disc. How about some interviews with the cast? Or considering they might not want to draw attention to this decade-old blip on their filmographies, the writers or director? It's times like this when the obligatory ten-minute blowing smoke featurette sounds like a good idea. To make matters worse, the film appears in full frame format--and while we understand that a title like this doesn't perhaps warrant a great treatment, it's truly sad that even widescreen is denied it.

So, this movie is not really worth remembering and the DVD does everything it can to make sure that it stays on the forgettable list. If you see it on the shelf take the title as your warning.