A prisoner is being transported for a last-second hearing that may save him from execution, if the psychologist (Alfred Molina) can make a convincing argument. At the same time a disparate group of people find themselves stranded at a shitty motel in a downpour. Among them, an ex-cop turned limo driver (John Cusack), a family of three (the father played by John C. McGinley), a pair of newlyweds, a sex worker planning to open an orchard (Amanda Peet). Oh yeah, and a cop transporting a prisoner (Ray Liotta and Jake Busey, respectively.)
Then people start dying.
This may be the shortest of these entries, but I did give my copy of this movie to Alex years ago, then accept it back on an impulse when he was about to get rid of all his DVDs, so maybe that's to be expected. The movie revolves around a twist. Possibly two twists, though the second builds off the first. Once you know the first twist, there's not much else going for it. The characters are broadly-sketched outlines - actress disconnected from reality, hooker with a heart of gold, creepy convict, burnout ex-cop, cherub-faced little kid, etc. - so it's hard to say I feel any investment in their attempts to survive. Especially knowing the first twist.
The attempts to find the killer isn't really the focus, because the movie is busy dropping hints and clues leading towards the twist. Busey escapes and thinks he found a place to hide in another building he spied in the distance. Once inside that building and looking out the window, he's back at the motel. Dun-dun-dunhhhhhhh! And how is he on the loose at the motel, but another prisoner shows up for the hearing? Why do they all have the same birthday?
In practice, Cusack and Liotta spend a lot of scenes walking past motel rooms as rain pours over the gutters, while Peet periodically gets fed up with the suspense and runs into the rain to scream at the guilty party, whoever they are.
The ending is second twist, in that you thought there was a happy resolution but, surprise! It's not! You know what? Fuck beating around the bush, the movie is 23 years old. I'm spoiling ALL the twists. The people at the motel are personalities within the mind of the prisoner on death's row, (mostly) unwittingly fighting it out to see if an innocent one can survive. You think Peet was the last one standing and is going to have her orchard (inside this serial killer's head, but whatever), but no, here's McGinley's cherub-cheeked little kid, not blown up as the others suspected. Because the prisoner was traumatized as a kid, so that's where the murderous rage is. The kid engineered all the deaths and he kills Peet. In the real world, he now has sole control of the body, kills Molina and the transport driver. End movie.
Except, he's a pre-pubescent kid and she's a grown woman. He is standing there, holding some sort of rake, looking menacing, so it's not like he struck from the shadows. Beat his ass with a sack of your oranges. Or the limes, whichever. Give him a wedgie and then jam him headfirst into your fertilizer pile until he suffocates. Run over his throat with a wheelbarrow. Fucking do something other than cower, goddamnit!
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