The premise of the film attracts. On practice, this premise is half successful and half average. There are scenes when it is good and thrilling and also scenes which it leaves to be desired.
This was the film debut of a young and promising talent named Brad Renfro. And what a glorious start for his career! Not so much for the movie itself which isn't that great, but for his demanding role and especially for his absolutely impeccable performance. He was such a talented young actor, so lively, so energetic and so dedicated to his actings that it's difficult to believe and imagine that his life was destroyed by drug addiction and that, now, sadly he is no longer alive. He was 25 when he died. He was one of those "old school" young talents like you don't see in this generation, one of those really eternal.
Brad Renfro plays Mark Sway, a boy who (together with his younger brother Ricky) witnesses a drunk and out-of-his-mind fat, brute guy trying to commit suicide in the most unusual way: by putting one end of a garden hose in the exhaust pipe of the car and the other end into a rear passenger window, and rolls up the window, so that the carbon monoxide poisoning can kill him.
Mark attempts to prevent that unsuccessfully. But on the 2nd attempt, the insane brute sees what he is doing, grabs him and takes him into the car with him. The entire sequence inside the car is extremely intense. More than seeing, you can feel the tension and panic on Mark Sway: he's sweating, shivering and fearing what that crazy lunatic might DO to him. And his little brother is no less anxious with the stress of the situation. When the 2 brothers escape, the guy shoots himself in the mouth, a horrifying event witnessed by the 2 brothers. The younger brother goes into major shock.
Mark Sway lives a living hell since then. He is threatened by a mafia shark with a knife in case he tells anyone what he knows. The boy becomes so frightened that he is forced to lie and even speaks aggressively. Mark swears often, but even when he swears he's cool and cute.
After the beginning, another tense scene is when Mark is chased by a criminal but he manages to outsmart him. The story has a happy ending.
The best things about this film are the 2 most tense scenes I mentioned, the happy ending and the amazing acting by Brad Renfro and the kid who plays his cute younger brother. Brad Renfro's brilliant acting makes this movie better than it would have otherwise been without him.
This was the film debut of a young and promising talent named Brad Renfro. And what a glorious start for his career! Not so much for the movie itself which isn't that great, but for his demanding role and especially for his absolutely impeccable performance. He was such a talented young actor, so lively, so energetic and so dedicated to his actings that it's difficult to believe and imagine that his life was destroyed by drug addiction and that, now, sadly he is no longer alive. He was 25 when he died. He was one of those "old school" young talents like you don't see in this generation, one of those really eternal.
Brad Renfro plays Mark Sway, a boy who (together with his younger brother Ricky) witnesses a drunk and out-of-his-mind fat, brute guy trying to commit suicide in the most unusual way: by putting one end of a garden hose in the exhaust pipe of the car and the other end into a rear passenger window, and rolls up the window, so that the carbon monoxide poisoning can kill him.
Mark attempts to prevent that unsuccessfully. But on the 2nd attempt, the insane brute sees what he is doing, grabs him and takes him into the car with him. The entire sequence inside the car is extremely intense. More than seeing, you can feel the tension and panic on Mark Sway: he's sweating, shivering and fearing what that crazy lunatic might DO to him. And his little brother is no less anxious with the stress of the situation. When the 2 brothers escape, the guy shoots himself in the mouth, a horrifying event witnessed by the 2 brothers. The younger brother goes into major shock.
Mark Sway lives a living hell since then. He is threatened by a mafia shark with a knife in case he tells anyone what he knows. The boy becomes so frightened that he is forced to lie and even speaks aggressively. Mark swears often, but even when he swears he's cool and cute.
After the beginning, another tense scene is when Mark is chased by a criminal but he manages to outsmart him. The story has a happy ending.
The best things about this film are the 2 most tense scenes I mentioned, the happy ending and the amazing acting by Brad Renfro and the kid who plays his cute younger brother. Brad Renfro's brilliant acting makes this movie better than it would have otherwise been without him.