One Way Out (1996) Poster

(1996)

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6/10
We just got to take back what's ours Snook!
sol121824 May 2005
(There Are Spoilers) Unintentionally funny crime film about these five misfits, one who joined after she was kidnapped by them, in a robbery spree that goes from New Jersey to Texas and ends up with the bunch foiled by this old geezer, he looked to be at least 90, and his wife who's out of the way general store they were shoplifting in.

Getting out of prison after serving three and a half years Frank, Jack Gwaltney, is picked up by his former cell-mate Bobby, Jeff Monalhan, and driven back home to New Jersey. Picking up Bobby's girlfriend Eve, Annie Golden, at a Brooklyn strip joint where she works the three later get to Franks late mothers farm and are met by his not to attentive and mind addled brother Snooky, Robert Turano.

Frank to his utter dismay finds that the slow witted Snooky left everything in shambles while he was away in the pen and that the bank was about to for-close on the farm for non-payment of the mortgage. Working for Frank's former boss Walt, Michael Ironside, who was the reason for Frank being put away, Snooky was constantly ripped off and in many cases not paid at all by the unscrupulous Walt that led to the farms foreclosure.

Frank and Bobby decides to go to Walt's gas station and garage to rob him of his payroll in retaliation for his taking advantage of the poor and doltish Snooky. The pantyhose hooded robbers, to their shock and surprise, found that Walt had just under $150.00 in his safe and only one dollar in his wallet!

Tying Walt up the bunch, with Snooky and Eve outside in the car, the robbers try to make there get-away but they find out that the get-away car is out of gas and also Eva has to go to the bathroom, probably because of all the beer she's been drinking. The not too sharp Eve is then grabbed by Walt, who untied himself, who puts a gun to her head and now he's the one with all cards as the helpless Frank and Snooky have to give up the robbery plan in order to save Eva's life. Walt turns out to be even more brainless then the two not too bright robbers since he failed to notice that the # 3 man, Bobby, of the gang was still outside.

Catching Walt from behind by surprise Bobby blasts the befuddled gas station owner away as the four take off and take Walt's bookkeeper Besty, Isabel Gillies, hostage as she just happens to come on the scene. The rest of the film has the Frank & Bobby gang drive down south robbing hardware and convenient stores whenever they needed cash for gas or food with the cops, in about a half dozen states, totally clueless to whats happening.

Besty who at first resisted the robbers, and who's boyfriend in a local sheriff, later begins to suffer from the "Stockholm Syndrome" and not only gets very friendly with the highway robbers but even joins them in their adventures.

It seemed that the reason for the trip down south was a plan that Bobby concocted, while behind bars, to rob this curtain bank in Texas but at the last moment he chickened out. The crooks decided to knock off this broken down grocery store run by this elderly couple;the robbery turned out the be the last time the bunch would rob, or try to rob, anyone.

The movie " One Way Out" came across a lot like a Robert Altman directed film with lots of improvisation in the acting and what seemed to be no real script at all. Most of the scenes looked like out-takes that we used to see, put in just for laughs, during the ending credits of a Burt Reynolds movie back in the 1970's and 1980's. Also the music in the movie was so load and annoying that it made it hard to follow the story, whatever it was. There was a scene at a Texas bar late in the film that had the music played so load that it drowned out all the dialog that had to do with the impending bank robbery.

Not at all believable with an ending that looks totally out of place to the movie that you watched up to then. How could Snooky & Besty get away Scott-free where in the case of Besty she was actively involved in a number of robberies with the gang! Snooky who at least didn't participate in any of the gangs crimes, and to his credit tries to talk them out of committing them, was still with them voluntarily and as a willing participant in all their shootings and hold-ups all across the American north and southwest!
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5/10
I got jerky Frank!
kinojunkie6 July 2005
You can say a lot of things about One Way Out but you can't say it's normal. The film tells the story of a group of misfit criminals working their way south towards their ultimate goal, a bank robbery. On the way they hold up a variety of gas stations, general stores and restaurants. Sounds pretty standard huh? Well it's not. This kind of feels like a cross between Jim Jarmusch and John Cassavettes except that it doesn't really work. There's an attempt at a ultra naturalistic approach to the acting (a la Cassavettes) but it usually fails, the only exception being Jeff Mohanan's strong performance (which is far better than his script). Basically you have a lot of scenes of people sitting around doing nothing (a la Jarmusch) except there's no charm or naturalness to it. The film is packaged as an action flick but it offers very little in that department either. The originality appeal of the film is often lost as the script is loaded with clichéd dramatic plot points that go nowhere and are ultimately meaningless to the almost non-existent story. This movie does have some beautiful images in it. A lot of the shots are wonderfully composed and most scenes are covered in only one or two shots. Michael Ironside makes a fun but brief appearance. The ending is refreshingly down beat (although it doesn't tie the loose script up in any way). It's obvious that One Way Out was made on a low budget and it's strangely fascinating to watch it's failures and occasional successes. Five out of Ten… six if I was feeling generous.
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1/10
What a load of C**P!!!!!!!!!!!
herbstnebel2ss17 June 2006
The fact that financing was actually found to make this travesty is appalling and miraculous. That Michael Ironside would lend his name to this abomination is nothing short of heart stopping, no one can possibly be that hard up for cash. The script, if you can call it that, deals with an ex con teaming up with a bunch of other misfits and they then proceed to go on a multi state crime spree whose main objective seems to be stealing as much junk food as possible. Scenes seem to have been shot in back alleys, hovels and condemned property. Shoot outs and chases are everything but, and acting isn't even third rate. The cameraman seems to be having a seizure throughout. The lighting, sets and soundtrack are minimal and if you've heard of any of the performers, you're way ahead of me.
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1/10
Unwatchable!
dgaither22 February 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I suppose at some level this is a poor man's Bonnie and Clyde, except there is absolutely no plot. Man gets out of prison and returns home to find the local baddies have stolen the homestead from his mentally challenged brother, so he, the brother, the friend and a stripper plan to get revenge with a big bank heist. They pick up another girl along the way, who's engaged to the county sheriff. I think the main reason she is added is that the stripper is too ugly to provide any skin interest. The bank heist never happens. In fact, nothing ever happens, until the requisite bad ending they all come to. The acting is all conducted at the level of screeching and no character rings true for even one scene. The audio of the DVD I watched had been transferred so poorly that even the music (which is supposed to be the high point of this movie) was distorted beyond enjoyment. The packaging makes a lot of Michael Ironside appearing in the film, but he's in it for about 10 minutes. Avoid this at all costs. Destroy as many copies of it as you can.
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