Desperate (1947)

Cimino's worst movie
With superb performances from Frederic March, Humphrey Bogart and Arthur Kennedy, a taut script and on the money direction from William Wyler, The Desperate Hours is one of the great thrillers of all time. Unfortunately, this is Desperate Hours, one of the worst films of the nineties, or any other decade for that matter.

The first 15 minutes are great: tight, controlled and fairly convincing, with a surprisingly on-form Mickey Rourke. It doesn't last. As soon as he and his fellow unstable escaped murderers hide out in the home of Anthony Hopkins and Mimi Rogers' dysfunctional family it goes down the toilet faster than bleach. Logic is quickly abandoned, there are some dazzlingly obvious continuity errors and before long you feel almost as much a hostage as the truly obnoxious family themselves.

Mickey Rourke is initially very good, but the performance is not properly thought through and falls to pieces around the halfway mark. Hopkins, the most ridiculous Vietnam vet the screen has yet produced, is just appalling, Crouse bullish and one note while Kelly Lynch displays her breasts at every available opportunity - even in the opening jailbreak! - and to heck with logic or necessity.

With Desperate Hours, Michael Cimino finally made a film as bad as Heaven's Gate was supposed to be (but wasn't). Actually make that two, if you include The Sicilian. On the plus side, David Mansfield's score is very good indeed. Nothing else is. Avoid.

Great Production and Acting Salvage Improbable Plot
`Desperate Hours' calls us to question why do we do the things we do? Or rather why do these characters do the things they do? Neither the villains or heroes actions seem to make any sense.

The plot: Mickey Rourke in the role he was born to play stars as a brilliant armed robber who escapes from prison with the help of his beautiful girlfriend and attorney Kelly Lynch.

Rourke reunites with his henchmen whom are not as smart as the Three Stooges. Together they head for the suburbs of Utah and hold the state's only nuclear family, Anthony Hopkins, Mimi Rogers and their two kids hostage in their mansion.

FBI agent Lindsey Crouse is hot on their trail with an army of cops to take Rourke down without harming the Hopkins family.

Why it works. As I said Rourke truly gives the performance of his career and a hansom devil psycho. Hopkins and Rogers also work especially Rogers as the house wife next door. We really hate Rourke and we really love the family.

The production quality is also very high. From costume design to photography to editing, to the score which is reminiscent of the 1940s noir thrillers on which the film was based. The production quality really is good enough to make the whole film worth while.

The big flaw the film makers have to overcome is WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? Why is the now freed Rourke only exposing himself of more heat be kidnapping the family. While his stated motive is because he is waiting to reunite with Kelly Lynch, a far better idea would be to hide out unseen. Secondly why is Lynch leading to police right to Rourke's front door? Shouldn't she be hiding too? And if Rourke is so psychotically evil why does he not physically harm the family?

That's the annoying thing. There are many lapses in logic. 1. Rourke escapes from a courthouse cell with Lynch's inner thigh pistol and disables the one single guard on duty.

2. Lynch in police custody plans to pretend to be an innocent. Wouldn't she already be guilty of bringing a gun into the court house?

3. Why is Rourke holding the family hostage if not to harm them?

4. The hostages themselves are equally incompetent. They have many chances to escape and do not. Rourke even allows the teenage daughter to go out on a date with her boyfriend. I think most people would change their plans and give up a date save their family by going to the police.

5. The police themselves are silly. They allow the apprehended Lynch to enter the house and warn Rourke of the hundreds of cops outside.

6. The police rather than using sniper rifles use submachine guns at one point spraying the entire house with bullets with reckless disregard for the family. Yet they hit only one of the criminals.

7. Another odd sequence of evens is when one of the gang is told to get rid of the corpse of the family's murdered Realtor. Was the basement full? Why draw more attention? The criminal draws attention to himself by driving erratically and takes to body out into the country. Instead of hiding he goes to the nearest gas station covered in blood asking for help. The first people he meets are Playmates. His lucky day but what are the odds? He then returns to the shallow grave where he is met by dozens of SWAT team members. How'd they get their so fast? And why are they just waiting around for him to show up?

Thriller
I would agree with several other reviewers that this is a moving and captivating thriller! In the rare case that home invasions occur, they are absolutely frightening. Rourke is one of the best actors playing a slimy thug. He is very believable and Anthony Hopkins is as usual, brilliant. Michael Bosworth is a seasoned sociopath (Mickey Rourke), and Hopkins provides a great good vs. evil contrast in this one. Probably not for children under 16.