Banks is a hit man, the best, usually working for Latin American drug cartels. He picks up solitary women, uses them briefly for a job, then kills them. He's in the Southwest, headed toward Mexico, when he picks up Bennie, a woman leaving an abusive marriage, going to Paradise, Arizona. The film follows three tracks: Banks's slow recruitment of Bennie, the set-up for the hit at a swank resort in Mexico, and the FBI's close pursuit of Banks, whom they want alive in hopes he'll rat out his bosses. Bennie may not be who she seems, and there may be a chink in Banks's tough-guy armor. Guns, money, and a chance at Paradise.
Similar titles
Reviews
Best movie of this year hands down!
Simply A Masterpiece
Just perfect...
Absolutely Fantastic
I bought the DVD as part of a promotion package, looking for movies that I would probably not enjoy very much, but that would be entertaining enough to watch while working out on my cross trainer (movies I wouldn't want to waste time at otherwise). But man, was I mistaken. It was complete horror watching this. The positive thing was that the anger and frustration that built up inside of me while watching it, could be unleashed in my workout (although I still have some left to write this comment). But I was close to tearing it out of my DVD player and destroying the Thing. A total disgrace. Beforehand I thought it might even turn out to be an OK movie, as Keifer Sutherland is definitely not the worst actor out there, but I'm surprised he got work after participating in this, this... rrrrr. The acting and screenplay are so painful, I was thinking at one point this must be a spoof. But even then, it would have been a sick, sick joke. If you try and copy from other movies, if you use so many clichés, at the very least (I mean, you have examples right?) try and reach a minimum level of quality. Enough time wasted on this. There's nothing that I can think of that could be a bigger waste of time than this movie. Watching the toilet flush for 88 minutes will be a better investment than watching this mindless, pretentious, lifeless eyesore.
of baseball rules, i.e. three strikes and you're out. Strike one: Pre-credit sequence shows a 007 wannabe checking into a south-of-the-border resort. Suitcase opens and a complete snipers kit is assembled. A long shot shows a large outdoor party very distant in the frame. And then. And then. Cut to the credits. Yes, a hit man thriller that doesn't hook you with a depicted killing! Strike two: 00-1/4 is about to kill a young woman (it's his usual M.O.) He kills vulnerable women who he trains just for a particular hit. But instead of just shooting her, at let's say, 5 feet, he allows the poor thing to sprint into the distance and then, un-holstering his Magnum .41 or .45, he takes aim and gets a clean hit at about 2 to 3 hundred feet. What a shot! He suffers no hearing loss, by the way, holding this huge caliber revolver next to his ear. Then, when he approaches the body, shovel in hand, we find this super professional hit man has done the dirty deed, 100 feet or so, parallelling the major southwest highway he's driven on to get to the place! Absolutely no concern for any other vehicle that might pass by in broad daylight.) (Hmmm. Seems like we're up to strike four.) Strike three: Wanting sex after killing someone he finds an isolated truck stop and takes a comely waitress to his motel room, something he's been doing with this babe for 12 years, and without any foreplay (think lubrication here folks. And unprotected sex, of course.) they attack each other sexually like they are horny teenagers about to schtupp for the first time. Yup. Strike three, four, five and enough, enough and more than enough. A tired, tiring and tiresome movie, all strikes described happening within ten minutes or so.
Richard Greenberg, the director of "Desert Saints", has been involved with a lot of movies as an assistant director. It's clear he has learned his craft well. This film, which he co-wrote with Waley Nichols, came as a total surprise, not having seen it before.If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading here.Arthur Banks is a hired killer. Arthur is an educated man, who has gone to the other side of the law because he is an impeccable man as far as doing his job well for a lot of money. Don't double cross him though, because he will take care of anyone that dares to do so in a cool and detached manner, as we see him do as the film opens.When he meets Beenie, we wonder why is he taking a chance on the hitchhiking girl, or for that matter, what makes the girl go with this stranger, who might be a criminal on the loose. How naive can this woman be? Of course, this chance meeting is what is at the heart of the movie, as we shall see later on. In fact, Banks seems to have hand picked Beenie to mold her into his own plan.In the meantime, we watch as FBI agents are following Banks' trail all over Arizona. They know he is heading south to Mexico, but what is he going to do there? Arthur Banks is planning to take down a Mexican political figure, but things change for him unexpectedly as he prepares to do his thing.The last sequence is intriguing because it's something unexpected, as we watch how Beenie fools the people that want to talk to her. It appears that Beenie has a friend who has been working with her from within, but will Beenie be able to fool Arthur Banks? Well, your guess is as good as anyone's because the ambiguous ending the cunning director has given his story.The film works because of Kiefer Sutherland's take on Arthur Banks. This actor always can be counted to deliver in anything he does. Besides his good looks, Mr. Sutherland projects an intelligence as he plays the character he is portraying on the screen, as proved by his many other films.Melora Walters is also effective as Beenie, an enigmatic figure once we get to see her operate. Jamey Sheridan makes sense of his agent Scanlon, the man pursuing Banks through the desert. Leslie Stefanson's role shows a woman who might not be what she is supposed to be. Rachel Ticotin has a couple of good and hot scenes with Mr. Sutherland."Desert Saints" is a film that surprises because the direction by Richard Greenberg.
This may not be the best or most original movie I've ever seen but it kept my interest for a few hours. And Keifer is always nice to look at. I'm not sure why exactly it skipped around in time... other than that it was your basic stone-faced-hitman-psycho-learns-to-smile-when-he-meets-a-chick film. It was somewhat predictable but suspenseful enough to be interesting. Good way to kill some time on a rainy day. Well, it tells me I have to have ten lines to comment so... did I mention that Keifer Sutherland is hot? It was nice to see him in a cable-TV-worthy love scene. I didn't quite get the thing with the waitress he hooks up with every few years? Why doesn't he use her for a murder and kill her? I would have thought that was a useless plotline but then again it was an excuse for more Keifer-gettin-it-on action.