Film

Next of Kin (1989)

Director: John Irvin

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

When his brother is killed in a mob-style hit, Truman Gates (Swayze), an Appalachian hillbilly turned Chicago cop, is torn between his duty and family loyalty which requires that he opt for Old Testament revenge. But even if he can locate a black witness to the slaying, or prove that a smooth mobster's ambitious son (Baldwin) was implicated, can he do so before vengeful brother Briar (Neeson) takes the law into his own hands? On the loose with a shotgun and a belly full of hate, Briar is unwittingly setting the scene for a showdown between the urban mobsters, with their state-of-the-art firepower, and the good ol' country boys who favour crossbows, axes and snakes. Together with Hamburger Hill, this illustrates that Irvin probably couldn't stage an action scene if you held a gun to his head. Even more turgid and unconvincing are the quieter 'dramatic' scenes, which serve only to arrest the plot's minimal momentum and prolong the agony.

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