Kansas

Where was most of this movie taped at? I know the Tee-Pee gas station scene was shot at Us HWY 24/40 AND 59 in Lawrence, Ks, and a lot of the other scenes where also shot not far away in Leavenworth County and Douglas County. I live close by, in Leavenworth County. I like seeing movies that have been tape close by kinda like Article 99 which was taped mostly in downtown Kansas City, Mo. I know a lot of stand ins from my area where a part of this movie. The chase scenes and other driving scenes where shot in the rural areas around Desoto,Ks. Not a bad movie, I like it because it was based on a robber in my home state. I wish movie makers would start doing this again more, taking their movies into the heartland and into other locations to film. There where a few more movies that I know that where shot around here, but I can't remember them right off. Still a good movie to watch, and or buy.

Wade Corey (Andrew McCarthy) rides the rails hobo-style to get to NYC to be the best man in his friend's wedding. He befriends fellow rider Doyle Kennedy (Matt Dillon). They stop at Doyle's Kansas home town. Wade is pulled into Doyle's break'n enter and then a bank robbery. While hiding under a bridge, Wade comes to the rescue of the governor's daughter trapped in a sinking car. He runs away after the rescue only captured by the governor's photographer's camera. He is caught trying to steal by Lori Bayles (Leslie Hope) and her father gives him work on their farm. Wade's heroism becomes a media sensation inflamed by the governor's men while the cops continue their search for the one suspected bank robber.

The movie starts like an old-timey movie and it never really shakes that feeling. I don't know if people are still riding the rails like hobos but Andrew McCarthy never strikes me as somebody who would do that. He's more apt to hitchhike with his pretty face if push comes to shove. Matt Dillon has good criminal undertones and delivers on his part. Honestly, this movie would improve if Wade and Doyle first meet on a Greyhound bus. At least, that wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.

Wow, hard to imagine the positive reviews for this misbegotten turkey. The script makes a hash of character and motivation: unbelievable that anyone would do the things these characters do or speak the cliche lines they are given. Small town Kansans are treated like idiot rubes. Writer does not seem to know how to end the story, so tacks on a ridiculous wrap-up.

Director seems to cut to moody shots of farm machinery whenever he can't figure out what else to do. Special mention for a soundtrack that is a crime against humanity.

Dillon does Dillon (broody and crazy), McCarthy does McCarthy (inappropriate awkward grins). No other actors even register.

Except for a gratuitous and cringeworthy sex scene, feels like a poor basic cable TV movie. By the end, I was actually angry at how bad it was.

I'm only giving this six stars because the two leads are true legends, and Brynn Thayer as Connie is so unbelievably gorgeous in her every single scene in this movie, it can't be less than a six.

But this movie doesn't make sense in a lot of ways.

This is another one of those Hollywood productions that comes along every now and then, even then, that tries to show us how Americans not on a coast, live, work and think.

And it usually doesn't work.

And it certainly doesn't seem authentic or real.

This is also, yet again, another movie that proves the actors, no matter how great they are, are only as good as the material they are provided with.. Is Andrew McCarthy supposed to be salt of the earth or a scoundrel, or is he the Great Gatsby?

For most of this movie we can never tell and it's confusing and unconvincing in all directions.

Matt Dillon can play mean but here it just doesn't seem right.

The ladies all look way to dry, clean and made up with their hair down to be riding on horseback out in the backwoods somewhere.

It's funny because it seems the Brat Pack, at least some members of it were all taking grittier-sounding scripts and parts in this era to maybe distance themselves from that image.

You had Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore in Wisdom (1986).

You also had Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy in Blue City (1986).

And then you have this. Though I don't consider Matt Dillon part of that group.

The actions of these characters just doesn't seem believable. Then or now.

Certainly there is much behavior in 80's films that seems creepy or even stalker-ish.

Then it was portrayed as romantically persistent.

There are often tiny actions taken here by characters here that is simply unsafe in any era.

Turning your back on a stranger.

Being alone with a stranger. Even provocative.

No.

Doesn't make sense when you try to dose it in reality and not just an actress with a leading man.

And the editing leads much to be desired.

A character is drinking with somebody at a bar. Next scene, he's under a bridge with that person stripped down to the skivvies.

Wait.

What?

What happened?

What's going on here?

We're not in Kansas anymore.

Or are we?

This was a total waste of Dillon and McCarthy in their prime.

McCarthy, coincidentally enough, has a documentary coming out soon about the Brat Pack called, Brats (2024).

Good enough. Matt Dillon does a great sociopath. If you know or want to know something about the mid-west, Kansas, Nebraska, small farming towns, then it's worth the watching. Filmed on locations that look real, are real, with a reasonably realistic portrayal of that life. It's a cheap rental if you can find it and a better waste of your time than the latest "reality show". They want ten lines of text for a comment, which explains to some degree, why there is so much drivel in the user comments that you find in IMDb. It doesn't take that much text to give you an idea of whether or not you'll like a film, really. Like crime drama? With a "just out of prison sociopath" that you'd really not like to meet? Then you'd likely enjoy this. If you've got any Midwestern farmer roots, you might also like it. I said that before I got to the significant "Ten Lines of Text..."