Next of Kin

After the success of Dirty Dancing Patrick Swayze embarked on a string of tough guy films. All of which were bad beyond belief. Mr. Swayze may know how to dance but his acting prowess leaves a lot to be desired. Next of Kin is one of those bad beyond belief films. Swayze plays Truman, a Chicago cop who is searching for the killer of his brother. To make a long story short Truman comes from a white trash background in hillbilly country and he seems to be the only one who made it out and the rest of his family is well...hillbillies. The ending of this film was so hard to believe I was laughing my head off. Do you suppose that a group of backwoods rednecks would be able to come to Chicago and be able to find their way around? Well that is what they did plus help in finding and killing the people responsible for killing Truman's brother. Liam Neeson must have been hurting for money to be in this one.

Okay...this is not a perfect movie, and it is hard to categorize because it is not violent enough for today's action movie label, funny enough for today's comedy tag or serious enough to earn the drama moniker. We also have to realize that this is early in the career of some of the performers. Helen Hunt, liam Neeson, Ben Stiller and Bill Paxton are big today, but you cannot measure this movie by today's standards. What a lot of people seem to have missed here is the theme about family and friendships. You had the hillbilly vs. the mob family -- hard to compare -- not really. The movie accented that their were more similarities than differences. There are too many examples to be worth singling any of them out. You also had the loyalty/friendship theme. Think of how Michael J. Pollard, living in the basement of society, had high morals, or how the guys in the hillbilly bar could family up. You could measure that to the members of the bosses crime family against the character of Adam Baldwin. All in all, this is not a great movie...good at best. But there are some interesting points worth pondering. And seeing an Irishman, Liam Neeson, playing a classic redneck hillbilly is worth seeing it all by itself. Finally...another overlooked part of this movie is the excellent soundtrack. It is among my small collection of movie soundtracks, that should sum it.

Here is an Example why Patrick Swayze (who? the haircut!) Never went Beyond His 15 Minutes of Fame and Liam Neeson is Still Going Strong. Talent and Ability. Director John Irvin Lost His Edge on this One and Delivered a Laughable, Clumsy, Shallow, and Listless Movie. The List of Name Actors going through the Motions here is Impressive and Long, but Doubtful that Any of Them Used this One on Their Resume. This Dog Don't Hunt. Occasionally the "Action" is Overscored by an FM Soft Rock Ballad with Lyrics about Family (or Kin) that make the Eyes Roll and a Knee Slap Inevitable. The Hillbilly and Mob Clichés abound and the Trademark Cultural Flourishes are on a Level Lower than Dirt. Adam Baldwin, Helen Hunt, and Ben Stiller all Compete with Swayze for the Razzberries. The Climactic Shoot Out is so Bland and Pretentious it can be a Hoot if You let it. There are Snakes on a Bus, Bear Trap, Bows and Arrows, Crossbow, Machine Guns, 45's, Shotguns, Grenade Launcher, Knives, a Hatchet. Hound-Dogs, and for the Really Big Ending...A Fist Fight. One of the Worst Action Movies of the Decade. The Only Attraction is the Big Name Cast and the Chicago Locations. Both are Misused and Mishandled. This One Misses all the Marks.

Well, this movie wasn't serious enough to be a drama, too serious to be a comedy and only your grandma would think it was an action movie. I realize that Patrick Swayze isn't the best actor in the world but when you see a movie with Liam Neeson and Ben Stiller you'd expect that it wouldn't suck... you'd be wrong.

Truly a horrible motion picture. I can't believe I wasted almost 2 hours watching this piece of crap. The acting was second rate at best by all involved. Should have been listed as a comedy. I see that this is the only movie script that was written by Michael Jenning, I can understand why. John Irvin must have been short of cash to agree to direct this. Found it kind of amusing that the Stiller and Baldwin characters last names came out to Isabella Rosselini and their first names equaled Joey Lawrence. This movie has no redeeming value even with a cast of well known actors. They should have all donated their salary's to the Chicago PD or Appalachian relief fund. I can't say it enough, horrible, horrible movie.

A hot-headed mob hitman (Adam Baldwin) kills the brother (Bill Paxton) of a cop (Patrick Swayze) and starts a war between the mob and Swayze's country kin folks. Liam Neeson comes up to Chicago to take care of the problem while Swayze is torn between his duty and his blood. The film then turns ugly as more deaths occur and by the end a showdown between Swayze's people and crime boss Andreas Katsulas' associates is the only possible outcome. A good cast gets wasted real quick with a silly story that becomes nothing more than a revenge flick that has no creativity. Helen Hunt, Michael J. Pollard and a then-unknown Ben Stiller complete the film's players. 2 stars out of 5.

Patrick Swayze stars as Truman Gates a police officer who is torn between justice and loyalty to his brother Briar (Liam Neeson) who is provoking a war with a mobster(Adam Baldwin) who killed their younger brother Gerald (Bill Paxton) in this surprisingly engaging action flick. Patrick Swayze makes for an appealing hero and the actionscenes are tight and spectacular however Next Of Kin doesn't quite meet it's potentional.

Next of Kin There's a lot of potential wasted here in this story of a redneck (Liam Neeson) whose big city brother (Bill Paxton in a brief cameo) is killed by crime lords (including a very young Ben Stiller). Taking revenge into his own hands, the redneck makes the trek to the big city and there finds his other brother, a cop (Patrick Swayze), doing virtually nothing about the case. Swayze tries to stop his brother from comitting murder--vengeance is up to the law--but he won't hear any of it. This could have been an amazing sort of culture clash revenge movie fueled by some great performances (we've got a top-notch cast here!), but it's wasted because the film is (a) too long, (b) too stupid, and (c) far too inept to notice that the potential for great film is somewhere deep down below. What a disappointment. Rated R for violence and language. **

This film is a very average 80's action/thriller. There really isn't a lot of action until the end, but I can't imagine it being categorized as anything else because the plot was so transparent and shallow that it couldn't be considered a drama or anything. This one has it all: Cheesy lines, the aforementioned bad plot, horrid and forced acting and really bad special effects. The movie's upside, which most people already pointed out, is the cast. What were these people thinking when they agreed to be in this stinker? There's tons of big names in this film from when they were very young. Ben Stiller as a mobster, Liam Neeson as a 'hillbilly', Helen Hunt as the girlfriend...Adam Baldwin, Bill Paxton, and obviously Patrick Swayze. Speaking of Swayze, it's movies like this that really stopped his career from going from 15 minutes of fame to possibly 15 or more YEARS of fame. Bad accents, forced acting, out of place casting and everything else mentioned above made this movie a below average film even for its time. Unless you're a Swayze nut, stay away from this movie.

The acting is fine. The cast is great. The script is lame, lame, lame. And did say it was lame? If the writers could exploit any ethnic stereotype in shameless fashion, they did. This story about culture clash and crime could have been told intelligently without resorting to over-the-top, sniggering, Hollywood-style bigotry. How could anybody take seriously a crime drama where two of the young mafia types' last names are Isabella and Rosselini? The only thing worthwhile to me was looking at all the Chicago exteriors and spotting the errors in geography. It is kind of fun to see a young Ben Stiller as a baby mafioso. I am relieved that this movie didn't wreck Adam Baldwin's or Liam Neeson's careers.