Fast cars,
beautiful women, great chase scenes that would put The Matrix
Reloaded to shame and an evil villain that is just purely
frightening - this movie sounds pretty good; too bad it hasn’t been
made yet, because “Highwaymen” is definitely not it. I remember seeing
the trailer for this film in the theaters some time ago, and not being
moved to see it at all. I’m going to say right off the bat that this
film is pure and utter made-for-TV garbage. I felt so empty and dead
watching this film. I didn’t laugh, cry, and jump from fear or any of
those things you’d expect from watching a movie.
I’m going to try to
make this review as quick and painless as possible; and not because
I’m a week late with this review. I’m giving a generic review for a
generic movie. And yes, I know what a synopsis is, and no, this isn’t
one.
CRITIQUE
This is the lowdown
on “Highwaymen”: A sociopath gets his kicks on doing hit and runs. One
day while a couple is on vacation he decides to take his love for
murdering women with automobiles in effect. This doesn’t go over well
at all with the now widowed man. He gets into a chase with the
Highwayman that ends up with him becoming disabled… really disabled
and kind of pissed off.
Five years later
Rennie Clay (Jim Caviezel) is released from jail. He has been on the
search for the Highwayman (Colm Feore) ever since he murdered his
wife. To add insult to injury, the creep was never convicted of the
crime. Now, Rennie is on the Highwayman’s tracks after hearing about
hit and runs of women across America.
Molly (Rhona Mitra)
plays the Highwayman’s next victim. The only thing is that he’s
changed up his game. He photographs Molly letting her live and just
kills her friend in front of her. The dish on Molly is that she just
happens to have a history with car accidents. Ooh, a back story.
Then we have a
traffic safety inspector (Frankie Faison) showing up in the film.
Faison has seen better roles in his career. He’s basically here to add
some minor, and sometimes bad, comic relief and to pull us away from
Rennie and Molly for a few minutes. He’s the “skeptic police officer”
who believes nothing is the truth, just waiting to piss off the
audience. When we’re not following Faison’s annoying character around
we’re stuck with a sort of kidnapping situation. It seems that the
only way for Caviezel’s character to catch the man who murdered his
wife is to keep the Highwayman’s next victim—Molly.
This “film” is only
86 minutes in running time. It would have made a great short, but
dragging out a story like this is just cruel. Everything should have
been resolved in the first act since there is no real conflict and no
logic either.
THE VIDEO
Presented in either
full screen or anamorphic widescreen. I just wish all DVDs were
released with the option instead of having to buy either or. This is
definitely a plus of this lackluster DVD. The visuals are okay, the
darks are dark and the lights are really light. Video quality is
pretty good. Nothing really too special in the overall sense, however.
THE AUDIO
At least the audio
is decent on this flick. I don’t have to worry about things being too
loud or too low. Enriched DTS Surround Sound never fails.
THE EXTRAS
Even the most
horrible straight-to-video movies have decent extras. This one has
none. NONE. Sorry, actually, that’s a lie. You have the option of
English or Spanish subtitles.
