If I could tidily sum up "Against All Odds" in a witty or clever review I surely would, but it's not that kind of film. If you read the other user reviews you'll see that everyone has their own different opinion, loving the movie or hating it for their own personal reasons. And now I'll share my personal reasons with you...
I was just a kid when the movie was released, and far too young to see it. I was, however, aware at the time that every man in America was in love with Rachel Ward and that the Phil Collins title song (and video) was played incessantly. From what I had heard and seen of the movie it seemed very adult, even taboo... unusual in the (mostly) family-friendly 1980's.
Flash forward twenty years... I finally saw the movie on cable... it was great, not just as a film but because I'd been waiting so long to see it. It's an adult movie, a loose remake of an old film noir but "Against All Odds" never gets too heavy. The mistake so many noir-wannabes make is to have the characters so dark, so doomed, so DAMNED, that you lose all sympathy for them. This film avoids that, carefully showing how decent people can do terrible things and still remain... decent people.
Jake Wise (James Woods, great as always)- is the skunky, understated gangster who hires his footballer buddy Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges) to find his missing girlfriend Jess (Rachel Ward). Terry finds the sultry, irresistible girl in South America but decides not to tell Jake, opting instead to take her to bed and spend two weeks with her in paradise. Trouble finds them, as it always does, and the rest of the film is spent unraveling the web in which all three find themselves, with enough surprises to keep you guessing.
This film also fits nicely into my favorite sub-genre: The 80's Cocaine Nightmare. Such films- including "Bright Lights, Big City," "American Psycho," "Tequila Sunrise," and "Less Than Zero"- feature successful, beautiful people whose greed, ambition, and love of the flake eventually bring them to their sticky end.
You may love it, you may hate it, but "Against All Odds" to me is a definitive 80's movie. It just works. And the final scene- scored by Phil Collins' title song- is perfection.
I was just a kid when the movie was released, and far too young to see it. I was, however, aware at the time that every man in America was in love with Rachel Ward and that the Phil Collins title song (and video) was played incessantly. From what I had heard and seen of the movie it seemed very adult, even taboo... unusual in the (mostly) family-friendly 1980's.
Flash forward twenty years... I finally saw the movie on cable... it was great, not just as a film but because I'd been waiting so long to see it. It's an adult movie, a loose remake of an old film noir but "Against All Odds" never gets too heavy. The mistake so many noir-wannabes make is to have the characters so dark, so doomed, so DAMNED, that you lose all sympathy for them. This film avoids that, carefully showing how decent people can do terrible things and still remain... decent people.
Jake Wise (James Woods, great as always)- is the skunky, understated gangster who hires his footballer buddy Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges) to find his missing girlfriend Jess (Rachel Ward). Terry finds the sultry, irresistible girl in South America but decides not to tell Jake, opting instead to take her to bed and spend two weeks with her in paradise. Trouble finds them, as it always does, and the rest of the film is spent unraveling the web in which all three find themselves, with enough surprises to keep you guessing.
This film also fits nicely into my favorite sub-genre: The 80's Cocaine Nightmare. Such films- including "Bright Lights, Big City," "American Psycho," "Tequila Sunrise," and "Less Than Zero"- feature successful, beautiful people whose greed, ambition, and love of the flake eventually bring them to their sticky end.
You may love it, you may hate it, but "Against All Odds" to me is a definitive 80's movie. It just works. And the final scene- scored by Phil Collins' title song- is perfection.