The Getaway ------ (Kim Basinger, Jennifer Tilly, and Alec Baldwin)

The Getaway is one of those movies where you will either come away liking it, or it will leave a bad taste in your mouth. It stars quite a few actors who have gone on to much better things after the film, but some of them even shined in this movie. The Getaway came out in 1994, and it pretty much flopped in the box office. Nobody went to see it, and those who went to see it did not have very many good things to say about it. It was Directed by Roger Donaldson who you may know from the movies Cocktail, Dantae's Peak, and 13 Days. He does not direct too often, and it would seem that his style involves making sure that we have under-developed characters that we will not care very much about if they should perish along the way. This was one of my problems with the film, but we will get to that later.

In the beginning of the movie, Alec Baldwin (Doc McCoy) is sent to jail in Mexico. His wife (Kim Basinger), arranges for him to be let out of jail in exchange for his services on a heist at a dog-track. The person heading up the plan is non-other than James Woods. The role Woods plays in this film brings back memories of his role in "The Specialist". He is a very unlikable person, who seems to be out for nobody but himself. He has a lot of power though, and has many people working under him that will do what ever it is he wants. The owners of the dog track used to cut Woods into part of the "action", but now they feel that he is unnecessary to maintain their business. Cutting him lose, turns Woods against them, and he wants to get even. He knows that at a certain time, that the track will have between 1 and 2 million dollars. Enter Baldwin and Basinger.

Baldwin teams up with Basinger, Rudy Travis (played by Michael Madsen), and Burton Gilliam. They have all worked together in prior cappers, and the thought by Woods, is that they will be able to pull this one off just as easily. Woods wants 2/3 of anything they steal with the argument that getting Baldwin out of jail is good enough. So, plans are undertaken to determine when they should break in, what they will need to do it, and how much time that they are going to need to do it. This is where I start to have a couple of problems with the movie. I would have loved to see the characters developed to the point that I knew more about them than what was on the screen. We never learn why all of these people have resorted to stealing for a living, or why they act the way that they do. My theory is that the Director did not want us to read too much into any scene, and that during the action there would be a certain level of suspense to go along with it.

Jennifer Tilly comes into the film about half-way through it as a kidnap victim that turns into Madsen's assistant. Of course, the premise soon becomes that none of the group is going to like each other, and soon enough they are all turning against each other. There is no telling who the alliances will be by the end of the movie. But by the time the ending roles around, you are somewhat satisfied with the way that things turn out.

I should point out that this film is a re-make of a 1972 movie of the same title. I have avoided the first one thus far, because everyone I know who has seen it claims that it is too boring to sit all the way through. The plot does not stray too much though, so if you want to see this film with less action then go for the 1972 version of it. This version of The Getaway gives a bunch of action scenes and sequences that made it worth me purchasing for $5.00 at our local Walmart. I liked it enough to pay that much for it, but I have a hard time believing that I would pay full price for it. There are the normal car chases that go along with any robbery movie, and there is one in particular that I liked very much. It is worth seeing the movie just to see it as well. It takes place about halfway through the movie when Baldwin and Basinger have been spotted in a city where they have stopped for some lunch. The police give chase, and the action that ensues is quite good.

All in all, this movie was pretty good to sit through. Though the character development was not there, if you can get past that, the story will carry you to the end. There are a lot of some-what violent scenes that would make this movie a 100% Rated R flick. I would have to say that anyone under 17 should not watch it alone. I do however highly recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of Kim Basinger. She plays her role very well in the movie, and as always she makes her character seem extremely believable. With the action and the story bringing up the rating I will give it, I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.