The Film: No Way Out (1987)
The Principles: Roger Donaldson (Director). Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Will Patton, Sean Young, George Dzundza, Iman, Howard Duff, Jason Bernard, Fred Dalton Thompson, etc.
The Premise: A Naval commander is charged with investigating the death of the Secretary of Defense’s mistress, who was supposedly murdered at the hands of a Russian spy. Problem is, the commander was sleeping with her too.
Is It Good?: No. Absolutely not. Despite having a nice premise, a good twist ending, and a great cast, No Way Out is a dud. It is considered by most to be the film that made Kevin Costner a star. Excuse me. I promise I will continue after I stop laughing. Are you serious? The man makes Fandango, Silverado, and The Untouchables…the latter of which also came out in ’87…and THIS was his breakout role? Something is wrong with you, America. This film is vanilla from top to bottom. Try as the cast might, this is a clunker. The script is tepid and the direction is lifeless, which was a disappointment for me considering how great Roger Donaldson’s second film with Kevin Costner, Thirteen Days, turned out.
In many ways, this truly is a precursor to the John Grisham and Tom Clancy adaptations of the ’90s. Problem is, No Way Out isn’t even as good as most of the lesser adaptations in that grouping. I would rather sit down and watch Runaway Jury ten times than give this one another look. Okay, that’s a bit extreme. Apologies for the exaggeration. Still, I really would rather give Runaway Jury a second go than sit down with No Way Out again. Speaking of Clancy, Mace “Jack Ryan” Neufeld produced this particularly flick. Thankfully he learned from his mistakes here when he brought The Hunt For Red October to the screen three years later.
I’ve slowly been playing catch up on Kevin Costner (and Tom Cruise) films I’ve missed over the years. Whereas I had a wonderful time with For Love of the Game (might write that one up at some point) and lamented the fact that I had waited so long to see it, I had the opposite reaction to this one. I really would like two hours of my life back. Normally I prefer to write up films here that I’ve always liked or a recent first time viewing of something that I really took to. I usually shy away from dumping on a film unless it’s a “so bad that you REALLY should see it”-type deal because reading negative reviews of old films just isn’t fun a lot of the time. I’m making an exception in this case because I’d been led to believe over the years that this was a worthwhile effort. It’s not. Not even for Sean Young’s beyond ridiculous slow-mo death scene. This is exactly the kind of flaccid film that we would attack our current stars for making if it were released today.
Is It Worth A Look?: Please don’t.
Random Anecdotes: This is a remake of the 1948 noir, The Big Clock.
Contains Brad Pitt’s first onscreen role.
Costner performed the majority of his own stunts.
Cinematic Soulmates: Basic, Broken City, The Chamber, The General’s Daughter, A Painted House, Rules of Engagement, Runaway Jury. All of which are terrible films, but probably worth a look if you actually like this one.
5 comments
This is one of those films I saw long after the fact. I always remembered it as being this flick that critics loved and always made a point to see it but kept putting it off. I think one day I was at the library, something like 20 years later, and saw there was nothing else to watch. This flick seemed like a well-worn DVD case so I thought to myself, “This movie must get a lot of love to survive VHS and now DVD to be so tattered.” Checked it out. It was okay. No big deal. I’d already knew what the ending was though so I really didn’t have that to look forward too. But I think this is one of those movies that made entertainment sense in 1987. Today, it sort of loses a lot. Partially, the Maurice Jarre score. Even his music was outdated back in 1987. It was like he was scoring WITNESS again.
I remember seeing this lesser-known movie I loved around the same time called THE PACKAGE with Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones. Many years later I started to watch it with a couple friends and it really felt dated. I couldn’t tell you if I still liked it because we watched something else to keep up the momentum. But I guess some movies only make sense for the time they’re made.
Us DC residents laughed when Costner went to the Georgetown Metro station (there IS NONE in real life), slid n down the escalators (real Metro escalators) and got onto a train ( Philly subway system, cause Metro said NO).
Love this movie.
I really dig this movie as well. I liked it a lot when I saw it back in the 80s and was afraid that it would age badly when I saw it again a few years ago, but no, I still really enjoyed it. I would purchase it if it ever came out on Anamorphic DVD or Blu-Ray.
A dud? That’s absolutely laughable. No Way Out is, to this day, an absolute belter – a tight, razor’s edge thriller that’s the perfect calling card for its ascendant star. I’d say the critical consensus is more than favorable (97% on Rotten Tomatoes), so I’d have at least been interest to read a thoughtful, well-argued riposte to the consensus rather than someone making cheap jokes about how it’s worse than Runaway Jury.
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