Against All Odds

"Against all Odds" is a 1974 moody remake of the noir classic "Out of the Past" and ultimately less successful. This time around, it's not Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer (though Greer appears in this films as the owner of a football team) but Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward. The film also stars James Woods, Alex Karras, Swoozie Kurtz and Richard Widmark. Ward plays Greer's daughter, who runs away from her boyfriend (Woods). When Bridges is cut from the football team, bookie Wood hires him to find his girlfriend. Trouble follows.

Somewhere post-Thornbirds, the beautiful Ward started playing bad girls. Here she's not so much bad, as Greer's character was in the original, but more of a brat and an ingrate. Totally unlikable. The cast is very good, but too much to type so that there were no surprises in the story. Ward usually plays a user, Woods someone snarky, Widmark bad guys, Greer cold as ice. So after meeting everyone, it wasn't hard to figure out that Bridges was asking for trouble. Oh, and did I mention that Saul Rubinek often plays slime and Pat Corley is usually a crooked politician? It was almost paint by numbers.

Despite some beautiful scenery, some good scenes and good acting, Against All Odds left me disappointed. The plot, as in Out of the Past, is a little convoluted, which would be okay if, at the end, you cared. I didn't.

I expected a cringefest, but actually ended up liking this movie a lot. Befitting its era, it has a sleazy "Miami Vice" atmosphere, complete with Porsches, Ferraris, casual jackets, big hair and a great soundtrack including a live show by the one and only Kid Creole. But there's more. Nice location shoots in Mexico - Cozumel, Tulum and Chichen Itza. Jeff Bridges and James Woods, who play fairly complex characters well. A dark script that delivers some good moments, especially during the final 30 minutes.

Yes, it's a B-movie, and at times it feels like a protracted episode of Knight Rider, the A-Team or the aforementioned Miami Vice. But is that a bad thing?

If you're looking for a real 80s experience, find "Against All Odds" on VHS, pop it in your VCR and soak it in.

The single thing that stand out most for me in this film is the very last shot of Rachel Ward looking at the camera while Phil Collins, singing the title song, says "How can I just watch you walk away, when all I can do is watch you leave".

If you've ever been part of a couple where 2 people loved each other so very much, but it had to end because circumstances like jobs, school, parents, etc. made it impossible to continue, this movie is for you.

If you've lived through a time in your life when you and your friends/lovers were immortal-young lions-with the world at your feet, but one day you sense a change of seasons in the air... a change that for shadows the coming of the real world you always knew was there but that you had hoped against hope to avoid, you'll love this movie.

Great characters, solid performances, top notch script, beautiful natural scenery in Mexico, great soundtrack and a real "LA in the 80's" feel. For the most part the film holds up well today and the "look" is timeless. Very few holes in the plot, if any, and a fine supporting cast.

I thought the plot was far superior to most cardboard cut out Hollywood love triangles. That may be due to the fact that Against all Odds "borrows" a lot of stuff from the movie "Out of the Past" starring Kirk Douglas in 1947. I really enjoyed it, but probably for different reasons. As a kid I loved football. When I first saw this film I had to be 12. The movie combines football with beautiful scenery from Cozumel Mexico, (and of course the beautiful Rachel Ward) just enough to grab my interest and take me away from my miserable existence that is the Midwest. As I watch it now 20 years later I am still filled with joy. Amazing how selective the mind can be. I recommend it. It will take you to another time for a while. A place devoid of terrorists, war, anger, and hate. you know the things our media (local news)crams down our collective throats everyday. Not that the film's subject matter is very glamorous. Just what reality was 20 years ago, which although violent doesn't even come close to what we deal with today. When I lived through the cold war and the fear of nuclear Armageddon, I never thought the situation could get any worse. Boy was I wrong. Show how much we know as children. Check out the movie. Its great to open those time capsules every once in a while and slip out of this unreality. To maybe even draw insight into how we got to this point?

Just recently discovering this on dvd, I'm actually suprised I haven't heard much about it before. A modern film noir that's a very loose remake of "Out of the Past" with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas. The film instead focuses on gorgeous, sunny locations like Mexico and the finer locations of L.A. instead of the dark and grungy look that most film noir's follow. Jeff Bridges stars as a pro L.A. football player that gets cut because of a mild injury. Upset because he has some good years left in him, he attempts to sue the team to no avail. Broke and looking for a job, a shady past friend played by James Woods shows up with a job offer: find his girlfriend who split on him and headed to Mexico. This girlfriend also happens to be the daughter of the woman who owns the L.A. pro football team, a ruthless business woman who is primarily interested in real estate and inherited the team from her late husband. When he decides he needs a vacation and the money, he takes Woods up on his offer. After a couple days of useless searching, he finally finds her...and immediately falls in love. The femme fatale is played by Rachel Ward, a hot commodity back then, coming off of The Thornbirds. A spoiled rich princess-type, she eventually succumbs to him and the following scenes are some of the most beautiful sequences put on film. The only commercial movie that has filmed scenes in the gorgeous ancient ruins of Chichen Itza and Tulum, these sequences make the film. The sex scene is one of the best I've seen, really putting a passion on the screen without becoming too...late night cinemax. Unfortunately, from here, the film plummets into a convuluted mess trying to deal with issues that seem out of place with the film: The L.A. business elite, gambling, real estate, etc. I think the film is definitely worth a watch for the first two-thirds alone. Also, dvd fans are encouraged to listen to the cast commentary. One of the better commentaries I've heard, there is a lot of great anecdotes from a rare track by Jeff Bridges and James Woods. The two leads really seem to come off as real friends joking and ribbing each other, unlike some of the stuffy professional actor commentaries that are usually the case.