{"id":10856,"date":"2025-01-28T15:25:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10856"},"modified":"2025-01-28T15:25:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:25:35","slug":"ricochet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/28\/ricochet\/","title":{"rendered":"Ricochet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ricochet<\/strong> (1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence and sensuality, nudity, language, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Russell Mulcahy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steven E. de Souza\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alan Silvestri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Levy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 4, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, Ice-T, Kevin Pollack, Lindsay Wagner, Mary Ellen Trainor, Josh Evans, Victoria Dillard, John Amos, John Cothran Jr., Jesse Ventura, Linda Dona, Matt Landers, Viveka Davis, Kimberly Natasha Ali, Aileaha Jones.\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $21.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0It’s not that Ricochet<\/strong> is a bad movie. It\u2019s really not. It’s just that the dilemma at the center could have been easily resolved and the protagonist wouldn’t have had to go through all the unpleasantness thrown at him by the villain. In that case, we would either have a very short movie or none at all. Where would that leave audiences looking to be entertained?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ricochet <\/strong>opens with young rookie police officer Nick Styles (Washington, Training Day) making a name for himself by capturing a vicious, psychotic hitman Earl Talbot Blake (Lithgow, Cliffhanger) who has just murdered a bunch of drug dealers. His escapade is caught on somebody’s home video camera and comes to the attention of the Los Angeles District Attorney (Wagner, Nighthawks) and a local councilman Farris (Cothran, Yes Man).<\/p>\n

\u00a0The lives of the two men take different directions. Styles and his partner Larry Doyle (Pollack, The Usual Suspects) are immediately promoted to the rank of detective. Talbot is sent to prison with a gunshot wound to the knee. Styles graduates law school and becomes a successful prosecutor with the D.A.\u2019s office. Talbot vows revenge from his prison cell. He becomes obsessed with the idea, eventually escaping with the help of the Aryan Brotherhood. His plan to ruin Styles\u2019 life is both brilliant and insane. In street vernacular, it\u2019s f***ed up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now let\u2019s talk about the plot hole that makes Ricochet<\/strong> a shaky ride. In order to execute his evil plan undetected, Talbot fakes his death shortly after escaping. He does that by murdering the guy who helped him escape and burning the corpse. He makes sure to shoot him in the knee beforehand. Here\u2019s where the problem lies. Is it not possible to tell the difference between an old gunshot wound and a freshly inflicted one? At the very least, the bullet would still be in the body. Wouldn\u2019t that raise a few red flags at the medical examiner\u2019s office?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander 1 & 2), Ricochet<\/strong> veers into sordid territory with the things Talbot does to destroy Styles\u2019 sterling reputation. I won\u2019t say exactly what he does, but the movie appears to wallow in the filth and sleaze. It makes for an unpleasant viewing experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thankfully, Mulcahy redeems himself with a satisfying finale in which Styles strikes back at his adversary with the help of the only person who believes his story, his childhood friend Odessa (Ice-T, New Jack City), now a major drug dealer. They used to be like brothers, but Styles had to stop associating with him when he joined the force. Now he needs his help.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Denzel is always good. He\u2019s one of the most versatile actors I\u2019ve ever seen. He does a great job with any role he plays whether it\u2019s a noble figure (Glory), real-life person (Malcolm X), romantic lead (The Preacher\u2019s Wife), drug-dealing gangster (American Gangster) or dirty cop (Training Day). He can do it all. In Ricochet<\/strong>, he adds action hero to his impressive resume. He convincingly portrays a man whose life and state of mind are unraveling due to the machinations of a vengeful psycho. Lithgow makes a really good scumbag. He\u2019s insane and intelligent, a lethal combo that makes him an extremely dangerous nemesis. You really want to see Styles blow this a**hole away.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ice-T is one of the very few rappers to make a successful leap into acting. He\u2019s got attitude. It shows in everything he does. He\u2019s a legit tough guy with street smarts and a commanding presence. There\u2019s a reason he\u2019s been a part of Law & Order: SVU for 25 years. He brings all that and more to the role of Odessa, a criminal who isn\u2019t such a bad guy. John Amos (Die Hard 2) has a small but memorable role as Styles\u2019 preacher father.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There’s plenty of action and tension in Ricochet<\/strong>. It\u2019s a stylish piece with a cool cast and a well-written screenplay by Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard). Mulcahy keeps it tense and interesting. I just wish he spent more time on the action and less on the degradation of the main character. I think it turned a lot of people off. A friend of mine went to see this movie and walked out about half way through because he couldn’t take what the protagonist was being put through.<\/p>\n

\u00a0With all its strong points, you\u2019d think Ricochet<\/strong> would be a great movie. Alas, it\u2019s not. It\u2019s a pretty good one that\u2019s not always pleasant to watch. It\u2019s hard to watch a good man\u2019s life fall apart. Still, it has its moments. The trip through all the ugliness is almost worth it just to get to the exciting conclusion. It works more often than it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s a decent entry in the 90s action genre.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ricochet (1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence and sensuality, nudity, language, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Russell Mulcahy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steven E. de Souza\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alan Silvestri\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Levy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 4, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, Ice-T, Kevin Pollack, Lindsay Wagner, Mary Ellen Trainor, Josh Evans, Victoria Dillard, John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Ricochet-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10856"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10913,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856\/revisions\/10913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}