Thanks for the memories!

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I was never a Patrick Swayze fan, not because of his ability as an actor, but the movies he made. After watching the complete series of North And South, which he made before he became famous, i thought we would be in for some fine films. Next Of Kin in my view was an exception. The usual revenge story line, a member of a family is murdered by the mob and his family want revenge. What i found interesting about Next Of Kin, was the way Bill Paxtons family were portrayed. Not the usual cliché of being eliterite, stupid and being moonshiners. They were portrayed as intelligent human beings not to fool around with. I thought the entire cast played their parts well. Some reviewers criticise Ben Stiller for being miscast as a mobsters son. Well members of the Cosa Nostra do not walk around looking like people with blood dripping fangs and frothing at the mouth, they look like everyone else. Remember what Martin Scosece said in an interview about making Goofellas. A good film to watch on a quiet evening.

Hillbilly-turned-Chicago cop Patrick Swayze sets out to find his brother Bill Paxton's killer. His other brother Liam Neeson comes to the city to find the killer himself -- hillbilly style! It's hillbillies vs mobsters on the streets (and a cemetery) of Chi-town. I'm sure whoever did the casting on this movie had a brief career. I can buy Swayze and Paxton as hillbillies but Neeson? Also, Ben Stiller as a Sicilian mobster?Swayze is a citified hillbilly. We know they've civilized him because he pulls his mullet back into a fashionable ponytail. Neeson is not civilized. We know this because he wears a dirty baseball cap at all times, even when he has on a suit. Helen Hunt is Swayze's city wife. She plays the violin, which Swayze's hillbilly kin refer to as the fiddle. Rest assured, this movie never misses a chance to traffic in clichés.The action is so-so and the performances are about what you would expect. Swayze takes his part very seriously. Adam Baldwin seems to know the score and hams it up appropriately as the villain. There are many quotable lines, which is the mark of a good cheesy action movie. It's not at the top of my list of great '80s actioners but it's worth checking out anyway.

Kentucky native Truman Gates (Patrick Swayze) is a Chicago cop married to violinist Jessie (Helen Hunt). His younger brother Gerald (Bill Paxton) follows him to Chicago but is killed by Joey Rosselini (Adam Baldwin). Joey is trying to take over the Isabella crime family. Briar Gates (Liam Neeson) arrives from Kentucky to seek revenge for brother Gerald.This is the hillbillies versus the mob. It is stupid at times but also gritty good at other times. Patrick Swayze does a good job as a guy trying to straddle two worlds. Liam Neeson is surprisingly convincing as the redneck. I was on the fence for much of the movie. Then we got the final ridiculous shoot-out. I had to take one point away for all that stupidity in the cemetery.

Never believable as hillbillies, Patrick Swayze and Liam Neeson struggle with a one idea script that runs out of steam in the first half hour. Helen Hunt adds little as the violin teacher love interest. A few action scenes, one involving elevated trains, and the presence of the always interesting Michael J. Pollard help, but can't move the film beyond mediocrity. Believability flies out the window and what remains is such a stretch that the movie bogs down. The cops stand by while the vigilante hicks run amok with bows and arrows and shotguns. Then in the finale, the main mobster pulls a no surprise "surprise ending" that does little more than leave the audience more unsatisfied than before. - MERK