DESPERATE HOURS
(director: Michael Cimino; screenwriters: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Joseph Hayes/novel & play by Joseph Hayes; cinematographer: Douglas Milsome; editors: Christopher Rouse, Peter R. Hunt; music: David Mansfield; cast: Mimi Rogers (Nora Cornell), Anthony Hopkins (Tim Cornell), Mickey Rourke (Michael Bosworth), Kelly Lynch (Nancy Breyers), Elias Koteas (Wally Bosworth), David Morse (Albert), Shawnee Smith (May Cornell), Danny Gerard (Zack Cornell), Lindsay Crouse (FBI agent, Brenda Chandler), Gerry Bamman (Ed Tallent), Matt McGrath (May’s boyfriend Kyle), James Rebhorn (Prosecutor), John Christopher Jones (Neff), Dean Norris (Maddox), Mike Nussbaum (Mr. Nelson); Runtime: 106; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Dino De Laurentiis, Michael Cimino; MGM/MVD; 1990)
“I would like to think I wouldn’t recommend this film even if I had a gun pointed at my head.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Michael Cimino (“Heaven’s Gate”/”The Sicilian”) directs this awful sequel to the 1955 so-so thriller directed by William Wyler and starring Bogie and Frederic March. In this updated version both stars, Anthony Hopkins and Mickey Rourke, are miscast. Cimino bases it on the novel and play by Joseph Hayes. Contributing writers include Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal.
A convicted sociopath murderer Michael Bosworth (Mickey Rourke) escapes from a Utah court room when his smitten attorney Nancy Breyers (Kelly Lynch) slips him a pistol and he takes her hostage. After roughing her up and dumping her in the woods so she won’t be suspected of aiding him, he makes contact with his brother Wally (Elias Koteas) and his brother’s moronic unhinged criminal lover Albert (David Morse). His plan is to flee to Mexico. The boys randomly chose to break into the suburban house of the wealthy Tim Cornell (Anthony Hopkins) and his younger estranged wife Nora (Mimi Rogers), and their two children–the 15-year-old May (Shawnee Smith) and 8-year-old Zack (Danny Gerard). They have just sold the house and are getting a divorce after her affair with a woman and his infidelities.
Hopkins is hammy and Rourke’s Method Acting is awkward. It doesn’t get better with the centerpiece FBI rescue scene, when the no-nonsense FBI investigator played by Lindsay Crouse takes charge and stiffly uses FBI jargon to berate the local lawmen.
I would like to think I wouldn’t recommend this film even if I had a gun pointed at my head.
REVIEWED ON 9/5/2025 GRADE: D
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