{"id":2334,"date":"2024-08-17T05:13:45","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T05:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2334"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:30:43","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:30:43","slug":"next-of-kin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/17\/next-of-kin\/","title":{"rendered":"Next of Kin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Next of Kin <\/strong>(1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Irvin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Jenning\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Nitzsche\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Steven B. Poster\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 20, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin, Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Ben Stiller, Andreas Katsulas, Michael J. Pollard, Ted Levine, Del Close, Valentino Cimo, Paul Greco, Vincent Guastaferro, Paul Herman, Don James.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $15.9M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0If you think a family feud is just a game show on TV, Next of Kin<\/strong> will come as a real shock to the system. In this case, the feud in question involves hillbillies and the Mafia. You can bet a lot of blood will be spilled before it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by John Irvin (Raw Deal), Next of Kin <\/strong>stars Patrick Swayze (Road House) as Truman Gates, a Chicago cop from Kentucky who finds his loyalties being tested after his younger brother is murdered by vicious mobster Joey Rosellini (Baldwin, Full Metal Jacket) during an attempted hijacking. His family back home, older brother Briar (Neeson, Taken) in particular, wants to handle it their way with a traditional blood feud. Truman tries to convince them to let the law deal with it to no avail.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Briar makes his way to the Windy City where he attempts to track down the guilty party. Truman tries to convince mob boss Papa John (Katsulas, The Fugitive) to turn the murderer over to the police in order to avoid real trouble with his vengeful clan. The crime boss refuses on general principle although it\u2019s a certainty he\u2019s also trying to protect his son Lawrence (Stiller, There\u2019s Something About Mary) who was present when cousin Joey pulled the trigger. Truman has to bring his brother\u2019s killer to justice before Briar deals with it his way, an action that will likely result in more bloodshed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I went to see Next of Kin<\/strong> on a Saturday evening with my mom (Swayze\u2019s #1 fan) and we both enjoyed it. I recall thinking Swayze had the potential to be as big an action star as Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Earlier that year, he established himself as a true-blue bad ass in Road House. As an actor, he was multi-faceted. Just a couple of years before, he danced his way into the hearts of legions of women (Mom included) in Dirty Dancing. He went on to star in the smash hit romantic fantasy Ghost (1990). The late actor had quite the career. I still miss him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Next of Kin<\/strong> tends to go unnoticed among Swayze\u2019s movies. It certainly didn\u2019t generate a lot of attention at the box office. Granted, it doesn\u2019t reach the level of pure awesomeness as Road House, but what does? He doesn\u2019t break quite as many bones in Next of Kin<\/strong>, but he still manages to get his point across. In addition to his awesome fighting skills, he relies on weaponry both conventional (gun) and unconventional (crossbow). In short, it\u2019s a good action flick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While I like Next of Kin<\/strong>, it does have pacing issues. It takes a little too long to get to the really good part, when the whole Gates clan comes to Chicago to help Truman fight Joey and his men. The climactic clash takes place in a dark cemetery. It involves crossbows, dogs and a bus load of snakes. It\u2019s the best part of the movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Swayze has a decent supporting cast to back him up. Helen Hunt (As Good as It Gets) plays his wife Jessie, a classical violinist who doesn\u2019t understand the Appalachian way. She\u2019s not happy about the notion of Briar putting her family\u2019s life at risk. Character actor Michael J. Pollard (Bonnie and Clyde) shows up as the desk clerk at the flop house Briar calls home during his stay in the big, bad city. He\u2019s the guy tasked with calling the family if something happens to Briar. He brings an element of humor to the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Baldwin makes a great psycho. That\u2019s the only way to describe his character here. With that malevolent look in his eyes, he\u2019s one scary SOB. Neeson, in an early role, shows why he\u2019s a big name star today. He successfully sheds his Irish brogue for a Kentucky twang. Stiller fares decently in one of his first roles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The storyline is a good one. Irvin brings a fresh approach to the cop movie genre with the idea of a hillbilly blood feud. Next of Kin<\/strong> has a decent amount of action and a few cool chase scenes. I\u2019m particularly fond of the scene where mobsters chase Briar in and out and on top of the Chicago El. I realize any action movie set in Chicago will involve the El at some point. It\u2019s been effective in a few movies (e.g. Code of Silence, Running Scared) and works well here too. The country music heard throughout the movie blends well with the gritty Chicago settings. It gives Next of Kin<\/strong> a distinctive and unique flavor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll say this for Next of Kin<\/strong>. It has artistic integrity. It doesn\u2019t try to be anything more than an entertaining Saturday night action movie. It has a certain purity you don\u2019t find in films today. That\u2019s something I truly admire.\"\"<\/p>\n

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Next of Kin (1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Irvin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Jenning\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Nitzsche\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Steven B. Poster\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 20, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin, Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Ben Stiller, Andreas Katsulas, Michael J. Pollard, Ted Levine, Del Close, Valentino […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Next-of-Kin-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\/2334","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=2334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3343,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334\/revisions\/3343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}