[ANNPRMEOW] No Way Out

[Mike]

This is the discussion thread for the All New Nerd Pride Radio Movie of the Every Other Week!

This thread is only for those who have seen the movie recently. Commentary from people who haven't seen it will be deleted.

This Every Other Weeks Movie: No Way Out, selected by Kyle

WARNING- ALL SPOILERS FOR THIS MOVIE ARE ALLOWED! For real, if you haven't seen it, don't read any further!

Discuss!

[Mike]

I saw this movie when it first came to video/HBO back in 1987 or 88. At the time, it was probably the greatest thriller I had ever seen (I had not seen many thrillers prior to this). Because of this movie, high school me thought Sean Young was the sexiest woman alive. The twist ending caught me off guard (this may have been my first real 'twist ending' movie too), and I was blown away. I never watched it again until last week.

Three decades later, it doesn't hold up as well. It's not terrible, but it is dated. Especially that very 80's score. For the first 20 minutes, every time I heard synthesizer, I was taken out of it briefly.

My biggest complaint, really, is the twist ending. The level of sheer coincidence is mind-boggling. And maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, but the only real clue we had was the one phone call he makes from the Pentagon when he tells someone he will meet with them. We've seen all the players up to that point, and we know where all of them are, and there's no one he could logically be calling. Unless he really IS Yuri... duhn duhn DUHN! But other than that one "who the hell is he calling" moment, there's no reason to suspect that he's a Soviet agent. I feel like the twist wasn't really earned.

On the other hand, the story plotting, political machinations, and character motivations were actually all pretty solid. The intrigue of it was good. I appreciated that.

As far as acting goes, I thought the supporting cast were all great. And Kevin Costner is one of those guys who has one type that he plays really well and everything else he does is shit. No Way Out is Costner's type. But then Will Patton as Scott Pritchard... this fucking guy. In Patton's first scene, Aidan says, "Man this Jim Carrey knock-off is freaking me out." I was baffled. He says, "You don't see it? It's in his eyes. His expressions." I still didn't see it, but Aidan kept commenting on it. And then at about the halfway mark, it clicked. Holy shit that guy bears an uncanny resemblance to Jim Carrey! It was super distracting after that. I mean, he was great as the villain, but as the film progressed and he got more over-the-top, he became more Jim Carrey-esque. It was weird.

Let's note that in the first 30 minutes of this film, especially as the romance between Tom and Susan is developing, Costner's navy officer character might as well have been Maverick from Top Gun. That same swaggering confidence, the same sorta-rapey pick-up techniques. That part hasn't aged well.

Okay, that's all I got off the top of my head.

[buckett]

This was kind of a blast to me because I felt it was a really bad movie and a really good movie mashed together.

The first act with Costner in softcore super seduction mode is legitimately awful. I don't think there's anything particularly problematic about it, everything seemed consensual to me, it's just cheesy and bad and hinges on the presumption that Costner is irresistible. But it's laughably bad and so still entertaining.

But then! Once the game is actually afoot and we get a wary, cagey Costner, an increasingly desperate Hackman, and a completely MANIACAL Will Patton I thought this was genuinely pretty great. Costner staying just one step ahead of the investigation is good for some laughs but also effective at amping up the tension.

The final twist is ludicrous but coming on the heels of Pritchard's suicide I'm not sure it's any more ludicrous than alot of the rest of the movie. I let out a hearty laugh at Costner's tortured attempt at speaking Russian. Overall, a fun time.

[Tahlvin]

It was my first time seeing it. I enjoyed it. It was definitely dated, and some of the nudity definitely was gratuitous, but par for the course for a movie from that time period. It did make it a little bit awkward to watch it on the airplane (but it met the R-rated requirement set by the airline, and I was watching on my iPad with it laying flat, so the only people who could really see it were people sitting beside me or standing right above me in the aisle).

The seduction scenes at the beginning were definitely un-Costner. The twist at the end was a surprise; I'm with Mike in that it probably wasn't warranted given the lack of clues they laid earlier in the film, but I was okay with that. It didn't matter much to the main plot for most of the movie.

Overall, it was a good watch, I'd give it 3 of 5 starts.

[Kyle]

I agree with most everything Mike and Jon said. When they're having sex in the limo and the title song, "No Way Out" is playing, and you realize it's a ballad set to saxophone and synth- whew. That did not hold up well. [imitation Michael McDonald crooning]And there's nooooo wayyy outttt![/imitation Michael McDonald crooning]

My real problem with the movie is that it clearly hates women. I mean- it so hates women, y'all. Sean Young is the only real female character (Iman is paper thin and doesn't count). She's the manic pixie dream girl before that term was ever coined, and then she's murdered. And the other women in the movie? Oh wait. That's all of them. So the movie was problematic for me in that way. I originally tried to say to my self, "It's a product of the 80s action/thriller genre" but y'all- they murdered the manic pixie dream girl. That's pretty vicious. And to boot- she was murdered for the sake of serving as the plot device.

All that said, I loved the over-the-top thriller part of this in the same way that others have expressed. I kept trying to figure out if the movie was good or bad, but decided I was enjoying it a ton (even knowing the twist)- so it was good.

I disagree with Mike that they didn't let on Costner was Yuri. Knowing the twist, I looked for the clues and there were a ton. Unfortunately I watched this two weeks ago and I can't remember all of them anymore. But the first one is when he goes to the bar at the first party and orders a Stoli with no ice. I can't remember the others, but it was littered with tiny hints like that which you won't recognize unless you know the twist.

So I can't figure out if this movie is progressive or homophobic. On the one hand, it was cool to see a gay character in 1986 that wasn't: (1) flamboyent; or (2) defined by the fact that s/he is gay. He wasn't the gay best friend, or the over the top hairdresser. He was just a character. That was cool. But then he was also the sociopath who would do anything for his boss. But I don't think that had anything to do with him being gay, so I'm landing on the side of progressive, but I'm curious about other peoples' thoughts on it.

[Mike]

I think it was both progressive and homophobic at the same time. They depict a complex gay character not defined by his sexual identity, but because the mid 80s saw lots of protests against films deemed to be "promoting a gay lifestyle", having him be obviously evil and then die at the end was a way to represent queerness while still courting mainstream acceptance.

[buckett]

Being kind of facetious here but isn't Pritchard basically the good guy? Sure it seems like he's motivated by a completely insane devotion to his boss but maybe he just sees a convenient out to eliminate Yuri, and he turns out to be right.

Of course this goes out the window when he executes the wheelchair guy in cold blood, but kind of funny to imagine him as the real protagonist.

[buckett]

Look at this fun fact I learned yesterday