User Reviews

Almost an oxymoron, isn't it? A well-done serial murderer story? Yet they do come along from time to time. This one isn't as innovative as "Seven," not as well observed, but it's still above average.

The killer, the affable Danny Glover, arranges to take the hitch-hiking, unwitting Jared Leto on a trip through the Colorado mountains in the middle of winter. Glover, whose identity is unknown to any social control agents, is being pursued by a local police department, R. Lee Ermey in charge, and a loose cannon FBI agent, Dennis Quaid, whose son Glover has kidnapped and stashed away somewhere.

Half the film has Glover driving his white El Dorado, festooned with pics of Playmates of the Month, through a convincingly snowy landscape. The other half deals with the reluctant cooperation between Ermey and Quaid. Ermey finally decides to throw the law books out the window and join Quaid in his personal quest. The climax brings Glover, Leto, and Quaid together in the caboose of a freight train plowing its way through a mountain pass and turns the movie into what is more or less a formulaic bang up.

Two things contribute to the quality of the film. One is the location shooting. Everything looks cold, bare, gloomy, and windswept. The landscape seems to be hibernating and waiting for spring. The other thing is Danny Glover's performance as the serial killer. He's great. A Scatman Crothers whose big grin and avuncular manner barely manage to mask the vicious psychopath beneath. Glover's character has worked these mountain passes for the railroad before. Everyone in the small towns along the route and on the job seem to know and love him -- and he's a black guy too. It says volumes about our national change in attitude that someone was willing to cast an African-American actor as a charming murderer of white people, and Glover justifies the risk that was taken.

Quaid is stolid, stuck in the humorless role of the anxious but determined father. Jared Leto can't really act at all. And there are clichés in abundance. The car that rolls off the road and hangs on the edge of a cliff while its occupants try to crawl out of the wreck. It's held up by a single tree, which cracks and allows the vehicle to plunge into the valley, while Leto hangs onto some projecting roots by his fingertips.

But it's Danny Glover who redeems the film. At the start, we only see him as an amiable guy, and only gradually do we come to suspect his identity as the killer. The first time he uses his knife, the victim is an old friend with whom he has shared his childhood. It's a truly chilling scene. Glover's friendly smile fades into a scowl while the puzzled victim simply stares back at him. Then there is Glover's death. He's knocked from a speeding train and does a series of somersaults down a snowy slope, yipping and yelling along the way, like Major Kong riding the catastrophic bomb in "Doctor Strangelove." What a job he does.

At heart, it's just another serial killer story but -- here we must all get on our knees and thank heaven for small favors -- the killer doesn't leave puzzling clues behind based on "Alice in Wonderland" or The Seven Deadly Sins or the first folio of Billy Shakespeare's works or the seven levels of Inuit hell. There's only one teasing clue, and it doesn't require a trip to the library to solve it. There's really very little gore, and no violence except for a few minutes at the end.

You'll probably like it.

The extremely well chosen cast raises the value of this thriller a notch, in this tale of a somber FBI agent, Frank LaCrosse (Dennis Quaid) in relentless pursuit of a serial killer. For Frank the pursuit has become personal because this particularly crafty and odious killer has abducted his son. The movie intercuts between Frank's story and that of drifter Lane Dixon (Jared Leto), who's hitched a ride with gregarious character Bob Goodall (Danny Glover). Eventually the two stories are brought together, and a confrontation occurs on a train passing through some mountains.

As those who have seen this will tell you, "whodunit" is not at all the hook of the story. Debuting filmmaker Jeb Stuart (who had co-written "Die Hard" and "The Fugitive" for the screen) cares far more about his characters - and telling the tale - than trying to dazzle the audience with elaborate action set pieces. Granted, the movie does eventually head in that direction, but this is one of those rare cases where the action serves the story rather than the other way around.

And these characters are people we can actually get to like - even the psycho, who does have a certain charisma about him. You can see how his victims wouldn't feel threatened by him until it was too late. Filling out the rock solid supporting cast are R. Lee Ermey as the small town sheriff who is moved by Franks' predicament, Ted Levine as his loyal deputy, William Fichtner as the smarmy lawman trying to move in on Ermey's job, Leo Burmester as amiable mechanic Shorty, and in small parts, Brent Hinkley, Walton Goggins, Ted Markland, Gregory Scott Cummins, Maggie Roswell, Allison Smith, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Kevin Cooney, Merle Kennedy, and Sandy Ward. Glover is engaging as Bob while Quaid is wonderfully understated.

Those aforementioned action scenes are rousing, and there's a great deal of impressive rural vistas well shot in Panavision.

"Switchback" is lengthy, but worth the effort for fans of the genre.

Seven out of 10.

F.B.I. agent Frank LaCrosse returns home to find his home has been broken into, his son is missing and Missy the babysitter is lying in a pool of her own blood.

Her murder being the hallmarks of a elusive enigmatic serial killer whose slaughter spree stretches nearly two years.

Frank's desperate pursuit leads to Amarillo, Texas, where two more victims matching the killers M.O. have been found slashed to death.

As Frank searches for his suspect the local Sheriff Buck Olmstead and his Deputy Nate Booker investigate the killings in-between a heated election feud, with his competition police chief Jack McGinnis.

All the while drifting former doctor Lane Dixon is picked up by ex-railroad man, Bob Goodall.

As a local Mechanic, Clyde 'Shorty' Callahan becomes the latest victim.

Frank hopes and prays to find this sociopath before he disappears perhaps forever into the rocky mountains...

It's a good movie with some great performances from the cast, but if you have common sense, you should know that Glover is the killer from the start because such a prolific actor wouldn't be in a role where the character has no real meaning in the film.

He only picks up Leto, and thats his part in the narration of the film, and acting like an old school cowboy, I would have been very surprised if he were innocent.

But despite that flaw, it's quite a tense film, with lots of beautiful locale, and red herrings.

Quaid lets the side down a little, if only for the fact that he has an expression of 'no toilet for the next 20 miles' on his face.

When Glover and Leto are on screen, the film is full of energy, and this is the problem too, the film seems dull and lifeless when they are absent.

But all in all its a good effort, but never challenging, thanks to advertising and Glover playing the obvious choice for guess the killer.

Serial killer thriller starts off well and is really exciting for it's first hour or so, but then kinda collapses.

Dennis Quaid is FBI agent Frank LaCrosse, who is in search of a serial killer. This serial killer hasn't been killing for a couple of months, but then starts killing again in the district of Sheriff Buck Olmstead, and him and LaCrosse try to catch him.

That's one side of the story. The nice touch here though comes from the other side, the killer's. You see, we have two men cruising the country (Jared Leto and Danny Glover). One of them is the killer... but who is it?

This set-up works pretty well for the first hour or so, but once we know who the killer is there isn't much to enjoy anymore. In particular because the movie has some side-elements that don't make much sense (I won't bore you with them now, but they include kidnapped sons and an election). The ending really was too much... too bad as it started out so good.

Conclusion: slightly above average, but could've been better: 6/10.

I'd have to say that Switchback could have been great, instead its good enough. Danny Glover was great, and I think he played his character perfectly. Afterall...if they had chosen someone else to play his part, and had them play it like every other serial killer, then it wouldnt have been that hard for the FBI to find him now would it? Leto and the Sheriff..everyone really except Quaid did a good job. Quaid needed to be a little more passionate..avenging..afterall..he had every reason to be p***ed, but they way he played his character didnt make that much sense. Mr. Sensitive FBI guy shouldnt have had the balls to be a rogue FBI agent seeking revenge, but he did...it seemed inconsistent with his character. Someone should have kicked him in the ass to get his blood flowing or something. Aside from some plot holes to mislead the audience, I'd say this movie is good enough to suggest to other people. I gave it a 7.

I really enjoyed this film. There are plenty of imperfect action/thrillers out there that fell much, much shorter than "Switchback." I've always enjoyed typically protagonist actors reverse roles, and I thought that Danny Glover did great. He wasn't Robin Williams in "Insomnia" (or "One Hour Photo" for that matter) but he was strong. I felt that delivering his performance in typical good guy fashion really added. Dennis Quaid wasn't phenomenal in the film, but he did fine. There was some real tension in most scenes, and though you knew what was going on, there was the occasional shadow of doubt. Sure the ending was the usual good triumphs over evil scenario, but so was "Terminator," "Die Hard," and for that matter "Braveheart." Sure the plot had some holes, but all-in-all I thought this was a solid movie.

Formally a thriller, this film is in fact a rather substantive morality play about the price of integrity. Everyone in the film is called upon to make a moral choice that reflects who and what they are. And choosing has a price. Sheriff Olmstead played masterfully by R. Lee Ermey--once observes that "He--FBI agent Frank La Crosse--told the truth, and once you tell the truth, everything else is just cheap whiskey." Olmstead's observation pretty much sums up the film. Virtue is good whiskey. Laughably, Ermey delivers this line spot on with a bottle of Jim Beam--definitely not good whiskey--in the background. Olmsteads's integrity costs him the sheriff's election. His elective replacement, Chief McGinnis, played by William Fichtner, initially comes across as a pompous ass: but even he makes a virtuous choice that eventually costs him. Jared Leto who plays Lane Dixon, a burned out physician who strangely bonds with the killer, is another case of self-discovery through moral agency. Even Bob Goodall--a.k.a Danny Glover--the clearly insane serial killer, has a kind of warped integrity. Twisted, yes; but true to his "twistedness". FBI agent La Crosse's observation that the killer, Bob Goodall--the name is hardly accidental--may be a murderer but is not a liar simply underscores the film's larger Stoic themes. As Epictetus put it: "Be one man, bad or good." This film, written and directed by Jeb Stuart should have received more critical attention. It is a thoughtful and philosophically reflective film that paid a price for its quirky moral subtext and integrity: it flopped at the box office. Philosophical films, even subdued ones, are generally not money makers--even with decent writing such as this and a popular genre that should have been an appropriate vehicle for its message. However, even for an unreflective viewer this is an entertaining film directed and written by the same guy--Jeb Stuart--who wrote the screenplays for "Die Hard" and "The Fugitive".