To me, this movie is perfection.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Brilliant and touching

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The story begins with two men escaping from a Texas prison. Of the two, Butch Haynes (Costner) is a career criminal. The other is more of a psychopath and it's only a matter of moments before Terry murders someone without much reason. So, when the pair come upon a family in their home, Butch prevents Terry from committing various atrocities on the family but instead convinces him that they should just kidnap the young son, Buzz. Soon, Terry is about to hurt the boy...and Butch kills him.Despite being a killer and escaped con, he isn't all bad. Oddly, there is a real soft spot inside him for the boy. It seems that, in an odd way, Butch sees a bit of himself in the kid and he wants to make their escape fun, if it's possible, for the kid. After a while, the kid begins to bond with the man and the two set off on some crazy adventure. But remember...it's not all fun and games and Butch is a desperate criminal...so what's next?Even though Clint Eastwood and a group of criminologists and deputies are also in the film, they seemed almost irrelevant and the film could have preceded just as well without them. As for Costner, he was terrific and the film was strange but very watchable.

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to 1993's A Perfect World. Plot In A Paragraph: Butch Haynes (KC) escapes from prison and kidnaps a young boy (T.J. Lowther) In hot pursuit is a Texas Ranger, Red Garrett (Clint Eastwood)A Perfect World is not a great movie, it's an underrated masterpiece that has somehow slipped through the cracks, despite great reviews (I remember one saying "You'll be Unforgiven For Missing A Perfect World) it was overlooked on its initial release, and has been largely forgotten since. On paper, the film should have produced an instant box office hit. KC was Hollywoods golden boy, producing hit after hit (Dances With Wolves, Prince Of Thieves, JFK and The Bodyguard) whilst Eastwood had just won a pair of Oscars for Unforgiven, and had a hit with In The Line Of Fire, yet for some reason audiences stayed away. The trailers didn't really help, as they were uninspiring to say the least, and didn't convey the tone of the movie at all.I urge everybody to revisit it. Not only because A Perfect World features the best performance of KC's career, it may also the best movie Clint Eastwood has directed, yes I am including my own personal favourite, The Outlaw Josie Wales and Oscar winning Unforgiven in that statement. The movie has a prison break, a kidnapping and murders but it's not really about any of their things, it's so much deeper than that. The heart of the movie is the relationship between Butch and Phillip. Butch isn't a nice guy, we see plenty of examples of this, but he is kind to the boy, and Phillip isn't a cute movie kid, and with his natural performance and expressive face, he does not come off as a child actor either (which is the highest compliment I can give) This isn't just KC's best performance, it's probably my personal favourite KC performance too. It's amazing and combines everything that he is so good at. Butch is charming and sincere but also short tempered, (especially if he sees children being mistreated) unpredictable and very dangerous. Most of KC's scenes are with Lowther and the two have such great chemistry together that you really do feel the bond developing between them.Clint takes an unexpected back seat in this one, and that's fine. Also fine is Laura Dern (who I've always being strangely attracted to) playing a criminologist who isn't just along for the ride.While the movie could have easily been a bog standard chase movie, but it's patient pacing and its themes (father and son bonds) elevate it to greatness. Much like Unforgiven the movie is a warning about violence. Especially violence towards children. As a crime drama, it is effective and tense, but as a story of fathers and sons, it becomes something more poignant. It's a a deeply satisfying slow-burner that only improves with age. Worthy of note is the score by Lennie Niehaus (who Eastwood used often) and a track called Big Frans Baby, the location work and Eastwood's use of colours. Criminally over looked at the time of its release. A Perfect World ended the year 54th highest grossing movie of 1993, with a domestic gross of $31 million, to put that into context, Cop And A Half grossed more!! America should hang it's head in shame. Everyone who has seen it, should revisit this gem. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend you do so. 10/10 for this reviewer.

A Perfect World is directed by Clint Eastwood and written by John Lee Hancock. It stars Eastwood, Kevin Costner, Laura Dern, T.J. Lowther and Bradley Whitford. Music is by Lennie Niehaus and cinematography by Jack N. Green.Texas 1963 and having broken out of Huntsville Penitentiary, murderer Butch Haynes (Costner) heads for Alaska taking Phillip (Lowther) a young Jehovah's Witness hostage along the way. Pursued by Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Eastwood), the two begin to bond and learn about each other's experiences and hang-ups.Eastwood had just made the awards darling that was Unforgiven and Costner was off the back of The Bodyguard, the second highest grossing (worldwide) film of 1992. Their next venture would be A Perfect World, a small movie in terms of finance gains and trumpet blowing fanfares. Yet it's one of the most impressive films on either of their respective résumés. For Eastwood it gave him the chance to take a relatively small acting role whilst directing with a smooth assurance often lacking in today's day and age. For Costner it gave him a role to really bring out the actor that he was rarely asked to be, and he delivers in spades with a quite spellbindingly layered performance, for us the chance to watch a character and not Costner the star.On the surface it seemed like it was a standard crims on the run picture, topped up with a Stockholm Syndrome relationship between man and boy. Yet there is nothing normal about the story put forward here, nothing seedy or threateningly child murder like, but based around father and son relationships, the presence "of" in one case, the absence "of" in the other. Once Butch and Phillip (Lowther also terrific under Eastwood and Costner's promptings) are brought together by circumstance, their lives will never be the same, the can opens and out come emotional scars, repressions and childhoods tarnished and being wasted.It's an undeniably moving picture, but Eastwood is aware and subtle enough to never let the picture become mawkish. The pacing is deliberately slow and calm, the long periods of Butch and Phillip holding centre stage are only briefly interrupted by the scenes of Eastwood's Garnett and his police companions (Dern's Sally Gerber the criminologist, Whitford's FBI marksman Bobby Lee) in pursuit and travelling in an airstream trailer. These are necessary breaks that never outstay their welcome, and they add a richness to the Butch characterisation as Garnett, under Gerber's guidance, comes to understand much more about the man he pursues. There's also a little humour in that trailer, giving good characterisations away from the sombre tone waiting around the next corner.There is very little action so the shoot-out loving crowd are advised this isn't the film for them, but the pic never lacks for tension, with the key scene at a black family farm as taut as it gets and acted with supreme skill by all involved. This is a throwback type of film, where narrative strength is first and foremost, something that allows actors to work with characters that have depth, to be part of a relationship that is complex and absorbing to the viewer. It's still the most under rated work of Eastwood the director and Costner the actor, one of the best films of 93, in fact, one of the best films of the decade. 9/10

"A Perfect World", a seldom-mentioned entry in Clint Eastwood's credits is a riveting character study that sees Kevin Costner as an escaped con who takes an 8 year-old boy hostage during his getaway. Giving chase is Eastwood as a grizzled Texas Ranger, and the fetching Laura Dern as his bookworm tagalong. A bond is forged between captive and captor that gives the film its emotional center. Both con and child find something in each other, one a tragic father figure, the other a surrogate sidekick.It's a slow burn, with the only action scenes being a speedy getaway and few gunshots. But the relationship between the two feels authentic, the kid's cute, and Costner even tends towards the likable (even with the lurking undercurrent of menace in his hardened criminal). It's a buildup - one that's quietly suspenseful - to a climactic scene that brings everyone involved to a date with fate, itself. And it's a movie that sticks with you, long after the credits roll. 8/10