Out of Bounds * (1986, Anthony Michael Hall, Jenny Wright, Jeff Kober, Glynn Turman, Raymond J Barry, Pepe Serna, Meat Loaf) – Classic Movie Review 12,919

Anthony Michael Hall stars as an innocent Iowa farm boy newly arrived in Los Angeles, who gets accidentally mixed up in murder and drugs, in Richard Tuggle’s contrived 1986 fish-out-of-water thriller film Out of Bounds.

The personable Anthony Michael Hall stars as an innocent Iowa farm boy newly arrived in Los Angeles, who gets accidentally mixed up in murder and drugs, and goes on the run from both the cops and the drug dealer villain, in Richard Tuggle’s contrived and hard-to-believe 1986 fish-out-of-water thriller film Out of Bounds.

The parents of 18-year-old Daryl Cage (Hall) send him to Los Angeles to live with his brother, but a baggage mix-up at the airport puts Daryl in possession of a drug cache of heroin that the dealer wants back. The dealer murders Daryl’s brother and his live-in girlfriend, and pursues Daryl, whom the police suspect of murdering his brother.

There is not a great deal of conviction in the acting, of credibility in Tony Kayden’s script or of style in the filming, but there are perhaps just a few traces here and there. Anthony Michael Hall remains personable and appealing though, giving a likeable, game performance. And, like the star, the film tries hard enough.

The cast include Anthony Michael Hall, Jenny Wright, Jeff Kober, Glynn Turman, Raymond J Barry, Pepe Serna, and Meat Loaf.

The film features a cameo from Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Tuggle said his film is: ‘A combination of two genres that I’ve always been attracted to. One is the fish-out- of-water genre. The other part is basically the innocent person in jeopardy, the Hitchcockian person-on-the-run kind of suspense.’

The film was the idea of executive producer John Tarnoff, who hired TV writer Tony Kayden to write the script. Richard Tuggle, who was best known for writing the Clint Eastwood films Escape from Alcatraz and Tightrope, worked on the script with Kayden.

Anthony Michael Hall (born April 14, 1968) is best known for starring in films with John Hughes, including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science. It was his first non-comedy film, trying to escape typecasting. He joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (1985–1986) but his appearances were apparently not well received.

The film performed poorly at the box office, taking $5,099,316 (US) against a budget of $9 million, and heading for the VHS bin in the UK.

The super soundtrack features songs by Stewart Copeland & Adam Ant, Robert Berry, Night Ranger, Belinda Carlisle, The Smiths, The Cult, The Lords of the New Church, Sammy Hagar, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. It’s a bit of a time capsule all round.

The cast are Anthony Michael Hall as Daryl Cage, Jenny Wright as Dizz / Darlene, Jeff Kober as Roy Gaddis, Glynn Turman as Lieutenant Delgado, Raymond J Barry as Hurley, Pepe Serna as Murano, Michele Little as Crystal, Jerry Levine as Marshall, Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Lemar, Kevin McCorkle as Tommy Cage, Linda Shayne as Chris Cage, Maggie Gwinn as Mrs. Cage, Ted Gehring as Mr. Cage, Meat Loaf as Gil, and Allan Graf as Biker.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,919

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