Revenge of the Nerds/The Woman in Red/Red Dawn/Tightrope

"There's a darkness inside all of us ..."

Flawed but fascinating film noir & Eastwood pushes to the limit his star status...

Could have been fascinating...but now it's deadening.

Bourbon Street, French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke in The Gauntlet (1977)

Clint Eastwood in White Hunter Black Heart (1990)

Clint Eastwood and Kyle Eastwood in Honkytonk Man (1982)

Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds in City Heat (1984)

Clint Eastwood in Any Which Way You Can (1980)

Wes, Beryl Thibodeaux from the rape something or other wants to see you.

Clint Eastwood, Alison Eastwood, and Jenny Beck in Tightrope (1984)

Clint Eastwood and Dan Hedaya in Tightrope (1984)

Clint Eastwood

Geneviève Bujold

Dan Hedaya

Richard Tuggle

New Orleans single dad and cop Wes Block goes after a serial rapist-killer, but when he gets too close the hunter suddenly becomes the hunted.

Tightrope

Just call him Kinky Harry.

&quot;Tightrope&quot; is indicative of how veteran star Clint Eastwood has so often been willing to take chances with his film vehicles. Here Clint plays Wes Block, a New Orleans detective investigating the case of a sexual predator. The case gets more personal when both cop and killer realize that they&apos;re not so different. Wes, you see, does like to frequent after hours joints, and he&apos;s a known customer to some French Quarter ladies.

While not altogether successful - it lacks the style and tension to make it something truly special - it is, at the least, a fairly interesting character study, of a character who&apos;s not squeaky clean. We see Wes&apos; happy home life - he&apos;s a single father to two girls, and owner of several dogs - contrasting with the less appealing aspects of his existence. Writer / director Richard Tuggle, who&apos;d scripted the earlier Clint vehicle &quot;Escape from Alcatraz&quot;, does his best to give us a film that attempts to take a look at the &quot;dark within all of us&quot;. There&apos;s even a line to that effect, spoken by a minor character played by Janet MacLachlan.

We do see the psycho (character actor Marco St. John, &quot;Friday the 13th: A New Beginning&quot;, &quot;Thelma &amp; Louise&quot;) in the act of stalking a woman right from the get go, so there&apos;s no mystery about what he looks like. That does put a crimp in the suspense.

Clint does well in this unconventional hero role, doing solid work as always. He co-stars with his real life daughter Alison, and Jennifer Beck, as his kids, the typically excellent Dan Hedaya as his partner, and Genevieve Bujold as a tough talking counsellor at a rape centre, who naturally places herself in harms&apos; way by becoming involved with Wes.

Where the film is its strongest is in its depiction of N.O., capturing the night life in an American city known for its atmosphere.

Not a great film by any means, but worth a look for Clint fans.

Seven out of 10.

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"Tightrope" is indicative of how veteran star Clint Eastwood has so often been willing to take chances with his film vehicles. Here Clint plays Wes Block, a New Orleans detective investigating the case of a sexual predator. The case gets more personal when both cop and killer realize that they're not so different. Wes, you see, does like to frequent after hours joints, and he's a known customer to some French Quarter ladies.

While not altogether successful - it lacks the style and tension to make it something truly special - it is, at the least, a fairly interesting character study, of a character who's not squeaky clean. We see Wes' happy home life - he's a single father to two girls, and owner of several dogs - contrasting with the less appealing aspects of his existence. Writer / director Richard Tuggle, who'd scripted the earlier Clint vehicle "Escape from Alcatraz", does his best to give us a film that attempts to take a look at the "dark within all of us". There's even a line to that effect, spoken by a minor character played by Janet MacLachlan.

We do see the psycho (character actor Marco St. John, "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning", "Thelma & Louise") in the act of stalking a woman right from the get go, so there's no mystery about what he looks like. That does put a crimp in the suspense.

Clint does well in this unconventional hero role, doing solid work as always. He co-stars with his real life daughter Alison, and Jennifer Beck, as his kids, the typically excellent Dan Hedaya as his partner, and Genevieve Bujold as a tough talking counsellor at a rape centre, who naturally places herself in harms' way by becoming involved with Wes.

Where the film is its strongest is in its depiction of N.O., capturing the night life in an American city known for its atmosphere.

Not a great film by any means, but worth a look for Clint fans.

Seven out of 10.

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