Father Hood (1993)

Simply A Masterpiece

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Father Hood is an entertaining tale of an unwilling Father who is definitely a HOOD! Patrick Swayze plays Jack Charles who is a hood always on the look-out for the one big "score" that is going to put him on easy street. His wife died while he was is prison and his two kids were put in foster care. When he "got out" he thought they were probably better off in foster care – besides he still had to score his fortune. His daughter Kathleen Charles (played wonderfully by Sabrina Lloyd) breaks out of a foster care institution that is abusing the kids and misappropriating money that is suppose to be being spent on the kids. She hunts down her father; tells him about how bad the place was and that her brother, Eddie Charles (played by Brian Bonsall) , "just a little 7-year-old kid" was being moved to the institution that she had just broken out of and convinces her father to kidnap him. The three start off on an adventure across country, all the while Jack keeps telling himself that he has to get rid of the kids! Patrick Swayze is really good in this comedy, playing a "hood" (probably a little understatement for this criminal character) who is similar to his Johnny Castle character of Dirty Dancing except Jack is appropriately funnier in this comedy and more optimistic than Johnny Castle. Swayze is funny and rally does comedy pretty well! Halle Berry plays Kathleen Mercer who is a reporter trying to get at the truth of the foster care system who becomes Sawyer's ally. Diane Ladd plays Rita the con-artist mother of Jack Charles.

Patrick Swayze stars as a father who is lost to beer, woman and the bad boy life. One day, out of the blue, his children find him but are ripped away by the system. In typical character, after seeing his children handcuffed to a waist belt into the bus back to the home for disturbed children, Swayze decides enough is enough and hijacks the bus, which leads to a cannon ball run trek across America to New Orleans, where the next heist of money will get Swayze the good life.On the way there, he starts to fall in love with his kids and helped by Halle Berry, the reporter who has tried to stop the home molesting children and billing for trips out with the kids that never really took place, Swayze has to decide whether he should take the money and run or look out for his new found family's interests. I really enjoyed this film and recommend watching it, if you missed it back in '93, and the music played during the chases is soulful and funky throughout, which gelled nicely with the plot, especially the last track (wonderful one, if thats its name) which took me right to the end of the credits. I just hope in the next few years we get another version of 'Father Hood' and they stick to the northern soul tracks that blessed this version. Just please please please shut the blonde loud mouth kid up, his character played too well and was as annoying as he was paid to be!!!!!

This is, in simple terms, one of the worst films ever made. The story goes way beyond being tasteless and judging by the actors performance, they know it. There just in not one single redemming quality of this film. Patrick Swayze will have to overcome some major obstacles in his career, before people forget about this turkey.

"Father Hood" is an overlooked little gem of a "road movie". Fine performances by Halle Berry, Sabina Lloyd and Brian Bonsall, two really fun "over-the-top" ones by Diane Ladd and Michael Ironside,and a downright outstanding one from Patrick Swayze. The movie is helped by an unconventional storyline, but badly undercut by it's flashback framing which results in a formulamatic, abrupt ending. "Father Hood" would have worked MUCH better without these "bookends". Nevertheless, the movie brings up important issues of "family responsibilities" and the consequences of state intervention. As long as the foster system rewards state institutions for NOT placing children, such abuses will exist.Pick this one up. It's worth the "ride."