Shoot to Kill (1988)

Best movie of this year hands down!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Well, this movie's a pleasant surprise; pretty much on every front. "Shoot to Kill" is a taut thriller to to bottom, but I think what sets this apart from other buddy movies is that it crosses genres. It's not just two disparate men on a dangerous mission, but there's also a manhunt and a wilderness movie thrown in for good measure. Still, Poitier and Berenger have a solid chemistry, and their road to mutual acceptance is a rocky one. It's a good cast throughout with a charming Kirstie Alley (to be fair, I haven't (yet) seen "Cheers" and I only really know her as a Vulcan). NIce scenery, too; I got a real "First Blood" feeling with that Pacific Northwest locale. I'm not sure why I hadn't heard of this movie until today, but either way, it's great.7/10

Shoot To Kill (also known as Deadly Pursuit) is notable for signalling the cinematic return of Sydney Poitier, who was absent for a little while preceding this one. It's also a knockout thriller featuring a genuinely frightening antagonist, gorgeous pacific northwest wilderness cinematography, and a taut, well drawn plot. Poitier plays FBI agent Warren Stantin, who tracks a heinous jewel thieving murderer from the big city out to a rural patch. Then, the criminal disappears into the mountains, disguising himself in plain sight amongst a group of hikers touring the wilderness. Stantin enlists the help of rugged outdoorsman Jonathan Knox (Tom Berenger), whose girlfriend (Kirstie Alley) happens to be leading the hikers with the killer in their midst. And so the two embark on a bicker laden trip into the vast mountain ranges to track the party, before the killer starts turning on them. Berenger's belligerent, anti social demeanour towards Poitier provides amusing camaraderie as they both discover that between the survival know how and the criminal profiling, they both need each other. There's solid work from Richard Masur, Andrew Robinson and Clancy Brown as well. It's all shot in the British Columbia area as well and we get to see some truly stunning photography, including an end sequence not only filmed but actually set in Vancouver (lol its adorable that Americans think the seabus is a huge ferry). A lean, mean thriller with a lot of natural beauty to behold, and a cast that elevates that slightly generic narrative into a flick that holds our attention with its resolve and cunning thrills.

In my opinion, Deadly Pursuit is quite a slick movie, but more an adventure and in part, thriller. It's one of those movies, which in it's start, immediately leaves you wondering what's going on, and what's to ensue, when a lone car comes speeding down a rain swept city street. A great night shot. I love those movies. When a very clever psychotic, (Clancy Brown, always reliable as a good performer) escapes hot shot FBI cop profiler, Poitier (marking a solid comeback) and his men after a negotiation, goes to s..t, he makes it his personal, mission to capture this madman, who have two aged hostages plus a maid and heir dog. The killer has taken off with these diamonds, so guilt stricken Poitier needs a guide, loner Berenger, the wilderness, his really own karmic environment. Berenger, not a real people person, who too could use a shower or too, is loathe at first to take Poitier, but really he has no choice. And with his survival skills in the great outdoors lacking here, our inept Poitier becomes the pain in Berenger's arse. Poitier's ineptness is what's funny too, some scenes, involving a horse. But too, Berenger's short fuse, adds more laughs, especially in one scene, involving a stubborn Poitier. Berenger's love (Kirsty Alley) Sarah, is leading a party of men on a hunting expedition, one man escaping the hell of a divorce, another one being the jewel stealing psycho. When too in a chinwag, Brown, keeps asking another of his fellow party, some questions, as if to maintain his guise of normalcy, where if this guy was among you, you wouldn't think for a second, he's weird or dangerous. But these stone cold psycho's are so good at pulling off their act of Mr good and wholesome, they themselves deserve an Oscar. Soon the other men of party are all killed, some of them falling into the river, one of them told by Brown, that he's a cop, before this poor explorer buys it. Now we have a cosey scene with just Brown and Sarah, which is really an inhospitable one. Sarah is a fighter and has an independence about her. She has balls too, as when offered one of the diamonds, she throws it in the river. The film is in the adventure, where Berenger and Poitier, tackle obstacles, one big one, trying to cross a ravine, from one cliff to another where it's means was tampered with, so our two have to do it the hard way using their own ropes and pegs. They encounter a bit of a hiccup, and Berenger goes flying hard against the face of a big rock, (I can still feel it and hear that slap) then manages to climb back up, which really got me exhausted as it did our actors. Another thrilling scene has them chased by a big grizzly, and you'll love how this situation is dealt with. I also loved it when the blizzard hit, that had me thinking, "Are these two scenes part of the same environment". They dig a burrow furiously, under the snow, amidst the wild blizzard. Poitier is so cold that Berenger has to warm him up. Another funny moment. The next day, a fist punches through the snow, where we have a warmish sun of relief. Then we near towards a climax with some things I couldn't buy. 1. Like how they just happened to track Alley and co down when coming onto a mountain road. And 2. Just outside the police station, how they happened to overhear a report that leads to a location, where Alley and her captor were. The climax was powerful, I must say, where it's great to see our Sidney back in action. But despite some flaws, Deadly Pursuit is a good 88' movie I've viewed many times, with beautiful outdoorsy locations, that almost makes you want to take up, being an explorer. But if part of a troupe, you certainly wouldn't want to be in one, killer Brown is part of.

Deadly Pursuit certainly has it's fair share of problems, but as an entertaining little action thriller; it stands up well to criticism, as while some of the dialogue, situations and character drawings don't exactly ring true; the film moves quickly and director Roger Spottiswoode does a good job of ensuring that the film is easy viewing and never becomes boring. Deadly Pursuit is something of a film of two halves; it starts off as a gritty cop thriller, and then mutates into a survivalist themed chase movie. The plot is fairly standard at first, as we witness a man being caught robbing a diamond store. The plot thickens when, after some interrogation from the arresting officers, it turns out that the thief actually owns the store! We then learn that he's stealing the diamonds to pay a kidnapper for the release of his wife. FBI agent Warren Stantin manages to chase the kidnapper down, but he gets away with the diamonds and flees into a forest near Canada; thus meaning that Agent Stantin must chase the killer into the woods, with the help of a rugged local who knows the area.The film does have a number of problems - sometimes, for example, it seems to just jump from one scene to the next without much in the way of a connection. This does keep things moving, but the film can feel a bit disjointed because of it. Still, the plot flows fairly well and enough different angles are created to keep things interesting. The film features a decent cast, headed up by Sidney Poitier. Poitier's character changes a lot through the film, and while the actor sometimes looks a bit silly, he does seem to manage this well. He is joined by Tom Berenger, who also gives a decent performance in his role, while the rest of the cast is filled out by the likes of Clancy Brown, Kirstie Alley and Andrew Robinson. Perhaps the best thing about this movie is the fact that we don't know who the killer is for so long, which builds suspense - and mystery, and the film also carries off a nice twist little twist with the choice of actors surrounding the killer. Overall, I can't really say that Deadly Pursuit is one of the best films of its type - but it's certainly a very good thriller and I recommend watching it!