Next of Kin

Appalachian Clan vS. The Chicago Mob Patrick Swayze stars in an action revenge thriller in the same year that he also made Road House, the following year he made Ghost, these were two years after he had made a sensual splash with Dirty Dancing. Thus it's safe to say that Patrick did not pigeon hole himself. Next of Kin holds no great hidden gem rewards, but it's a rock solid thriller boasting a splendid cast list featuring Liam Neeson, Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Adam Baldwin, Andreas Katsulas, Ben Stiller (in a serious role), Michael J. Pollard, Ted Levine and Paul Greco. Plot finds Swayze as a Chicago cop who after the murder his younger brother desperately tries to uphold the law while one of his brothers from the "sticks" would rather enact all out revenge on the mobsters that killed the younger sibling. Suffice to say things go pear shaped and blood, loyalty and life altering decisions do follow. The trajectory is simple , honest cop tries to do the right thing by the law in spite of the hurt in his heart, hillbilly brother (Neeson getting the best role in the film) would rather deliver some "deliverance" type justice - all while the rest of the "Gates" family clan await the call to come wading down from the hills to aid the retribution flow. The action scenes are well enough staged by director John Irvin, there's a whole bunch of fun in the characterisations - even if they are standard 101 scripted - while if you can get past Swayze's ponytail you will find a very restrained and cool performance. Hardly a must see, but definitely no stinker and worth your time as a time filler, if only to see such a fresh faced young cast of well knowns turning tricks before bigger things awaited. 6/10

Like its hero, Next of Kin is an anomaly — a thriller about a family feud between hillbillies and wiseguys that brings together Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin, Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and Ben Stiller. Truman Gates (Swayze) is as elusive a cryptid as the Frozen Caveman Lawyer; born and raised in Appalachia, Truman emigrated to Chicago where he is now a plainclothes cop with a violinist wife (Hunt), a sports car, and a mullet that's pompadour on the front and a ponytail on the back; what we have here is a Civilized Redneck. And yet Swayze makes the character work, precisely because he is the last person we would imagine as a hillbilly; thus, the otherness that Truman projects when he returns to Kentucky for the funeral of his younger brother Gerald (Paxton) feels genuine. Elsewhere, Neeson is one of the few actors who could convincingly play a both a Highlander as well as a hillbilly; Paxton unfortunately only appears in a couple of scenes, and like Stiller has the thankless task of being a sacrificial lamb; as for Hunt, she is predictably reduced to a Damsel in Distress). On the mob side, Baldwin is effective as main villain Joey Rossellini, playing him something like Full Metal Jacket’s Animal Mother back home from Vietnam. Being at least a head taller than the rest of the cast except Neeson, Baldwin looms menacingly over everybody else. By contrast, Johnny Isabella (Andreas Katsulas) is one of those mob bosses who hasn't forgotten his humble origins and, accordingly, isn't too proud to roll up his sleeves and cook himself some traditional Italian dish — but with a nickname like Pappa John, what could you expect? (to be fair, Katsulas wasn’t copying Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas, which was released a year after Next of Kin.) This is possibly the first of the now seemingly unending films where Neeson becomes a lone vigilante who decides to take the law into his own hands, in this case as Briar, Truman and Gerald's older brother not named after a former president. Following Gerald's funeral, Truman and Briar return to Chicago separately; without the restrictions of the penal code, the latter’s investigation progresses more quickly than the former. Everything comes to a head in a graveyard shootout that includes throwing knives, bows and arrows, dogs and snakes, and which may or may not have inspired the climax Sam Rockwell envisions for the movie Colin Farrell is writing in Seven Psychopaths. All things considered, Next of Kin is like those oddball relatives we all have; as such, we can’t help love it even if we don't always like it.