Highwaymen (2004)

This could've been a descent movie had someone edited out the nonsense and the unacceptable scenes that made absolutely no sense. Believability is a priority in any movie and a hook to keep em guessing right up to the end, not some safety cop blasting a shotgun for no more reason than shock value. Lastly ....a great cast deserved better. So much of the movie lacked any kind of logic and/or continuity. Maybe some interjection of humor could have helped this dark movie or possibly a surprise ending that set things straight or maybe even a few flashbacks to help balance the meat of the story line. I wanted to care about the characters and their plight but I just didn't.

Fmovies: I just saw Highwaymen here in Texas, and let me tell you all, this movie is worth the ticket. The movie is quite different than any other movie I have seen, except for Wheels of Terror, which has basically the same plot as this one instead the car was the one doing the killings.

This movie grabs your attention from the get-go and does not let you come back down from the adrenaline ride you are witnessing. This movie is very good, and I recommend it to anyone who likes suspense/thrillers to watch it if you get the chance.

Jim Caviezel and Rhona Mitra are spectacular in their roles in this film. The basic plot of the movie is that Jim Caviezel's character's wife gets struck down by the killer who drives a Cadillac El Dorado and goes around major highways killing women with his car. I dont want to give away too much but this movie is worth every penny. Definitely buying it on DVD as soon as it comes out. Too bad it was only released in Texas and Louisiana. I give it 5 stars, since it has all the elements of a great movie.

**SPOILERS** The movie "Highwaymen" that takes place on the wide open roads of California is a fairly entertaining as well as interesting film if you overlook some of the major inconsistencies of it's plot. A homicidal driver Fargo, Clom Feore,who's mode of operations is running down, and killing, young women drives his car into and kills James "Rennie" Cray, James Cavlezel, young and beautiful wife Olivia, Guylaine St.Onge,right before his eyes.

Tracking the killer down James slam his car into him causing Fargo to lose an arm a leg and an eye. That action also puts James behind bars for three years for vehicular homicide. Out of jail and still looking for his wife's killer James connects a string of hit-and-run "accidents" to Fargo and starts to close in on him. Fargo after his accident is more robot then man and as James puts it "His body is his car". Fargo begins to play a deadly cat-and-mouse game with James that soon involves Molly, Rhona Mitra, who herself had been traumatized as a little girl when she survived a car accident that killed both her parents.

James Cavlezel is so glum and serious in the film that he acts as if he on a mission from God to stop and apprehend or kill the mad motorist, Fargo, from his deadly rounds of killing people all over the state.

Clom Feore is both weird and terrifying as the machine-like killer who uses his car as an ingenious and effective killing device. This despite his serious disability is more then a match for the entire California Highway Police Department.

Rhona Mitra is both pretty and courageous as Molly the person who Fargo has in his sights as his next victim and who's used, somewhat unwillingly, as bait by James to trap and catch him. Frankie Falson is a reluctant hero as State Traffic Investagator Will Macklin who doesn't carry and never shot a gun in his life. It was Will who put the crazed Fargo's rampage of murder on the roads and highways to flaming and bloody end.

The movies many action scenes, that are really stunning, includes a heart-stopping car and truck smash-up in a traffic tunnel that seemed to have be done without the use of any computer-enhanced special effects, thats so common in movies like "Highwaymen" today, that made it all that more startling and effective.

Highwaymen fmovies. Granted, this movie seemed as if it went from theater to DVD in less than a blink of an eye, but don't let that dissuade you from ordering a copy from Amazon. HmmmÂ…did it make to theaters? I remember seeing the trailer in theatersÂ… In all honesty, the film has a simple quality, and the acting is almost B-Movie noir, but it was fun nonetheless. It is a simple hero versus bad guy story that severely needs a re-release, special edition DVD on the ten year mark! Believe it or not, the movie is well freaking done (minus a few visually missed queues and a question about the hero and his source of income might come into playÂ…) For some reason, (and I say this because of the close up shots of the actors during the driving scenes) certain camera angles appeared like old movie making scenes, where outside the car, the images looked projected. Outside of that, the movie formula comes to life when you finally have a moment to see Colm Feore, Mister Antagonist himself. He looks like what Darth Vader would have been if the technology was just slightly under budget.

If you're a story writer (shorts, screenplays, novellas, etc.) who needs a push, or a spark, then rent or buy this DVD. You will spend time thinking of what you could do to make it better – but in all – you will appreciate the movie for its worth and merit. The story is David versus Goliath, and the only advantage our hero has is his revenge for his wife's death, and the bad guy – well he's just plain nuts. This review may seem a little mixed – but I based it on the way I approached the film. I wanted to see a simple, low budget action flick that could hold my interest – and this one did that. Mind you, there are some slight plots issues and some character development needs, but then if I had the amount of money that was budgeted for this film, then I probably would make it the same way. Check it out for yourself – you'll have fun – but then you'll pick through the parts that seemed a bit trite – just as you would pick through your teeth after a good meal.

It's been 18 years and a long time in the TV movie/Van Damme C-list wilderness since Robert Harmon screeched onto the big screen with the acrid blend of scorching oil and hot blood that was The Hitcher. With Highwaymen, he's back in the familiar territory of eerie desert landscapes, lonesome blacktop unspooling to the horizon and two men engaged in a dance of death so ritualised and implausible that it's near-mythic. Rennie Cray (Jim Caviezel) is a vengeful fury, prowling the interstates in a battered Plymouth Barracuda as he stalks the hit-and-run killer who brutally murdered his wife five years previously. This deadly game of tag has left his nemesis James Fargo (Colm Feore) a spite-filled human wreck of broken flesh and prosthetic limbs lashed together with harnesses and straps in his customised Cadillac, taunting Cray with newspaper cuttings of his fresh kills. Caught in the middle is Molly (Rhona Mitra), a survivor of Fargo's latest attack and most likely his next target. Harmon doesn't get bogged down in logic and back story for this fusion of Duel and Crash; indeed, his sketched-in biographies for each protagonist feel welded on as an afterthought. Mitra's got nothing to do but look very fetching as she plays buffeted pawn-in-the-middle, but that's okay because Caviezel and Feore are only required to look grim and tormented as they have at each other time and again on the battleground of the highway. It's a tight 72 minutes but the director still takes time to capture the alien mood of the desert, a landscape further imbued with mystery by Mark Isham's effective electronic score. In marked contrast is Harmon's eroticisation of the car, the camera's lingering fascination with the scars of road accidents, wince-inducing moments of impact and the gunning engines pouring from the soundtrack like the howls of coupling dragons. The climax is appropriately downbeat save for a crummy last scene kiss-off and plot holes the size of Arizona open up when you stop to think about it, but this is a movie best enjoyed in the moment.

As if driving the city streets wasn't killer enough add to the terror of car pooling the new thriller by Robert Harmon (The Hitcher / They). Driving from state-to-state from sea-to-shining-sea is a new maniac Fargo (Feore). Fargo is an ex-insurance agent stalking women via hit and run with none other than a 1972 El Dorado. His newest mark is Molly (Mitra), a poor girl if ever there is one, who lost her parents in a car crash and is being toyed with by Fargo. Her only chance of survival is Rennie (Caviezel) who has also suffered loss because of the motor maniac when his wife became one of his early victims. Hunting down Fargo has become Rennie's one and only obsession and no one will get in the way of his vengeance.

Director Robert Harmon returns to the road with this his new (albeit long delayed) thriller. I didn't expect a whole lot due to the releasing woes the film has had which culminated in it being dumped on home video after a woeful limited release. Strangely enough it was a good, fast paced revenge flick that moved about as fast as the souped-up Barracuda driven by none other than Christ himself. Some nice camera-work adds to the tension of several sequences involving car wrecks and attacks. The film also had some nice photography of the open toad too. The sound design was a hit with a very powerful dts track to highlight all that car action. The acting was what you expect from a script that isn't driven by characters but by steel and asphalt.

If you are able to overlook some glaring plot inconsistencies and an occasional implausible set piece then you might like Highwaymen. I was pleasantly surprised. But if you are DVD aficionado the disc offers no special features. Well worth a look.