‘One Way Out’ (2002)
First things first – let’s lay out the dirty linen: I avoided this thing during normal waking hours, given the ‘noir’ log-line and the Jim Belushi principal. But between 3 and 5 am, this film was pure gold. Sometimes things just work out that way, especially if you miss the first 10-20 minutes, as I did; years of insomniac viewing have taught me that some beginnings are better missed than seen.
Such was my approach to ‘One Way Out’ – and it paid off.
How could I have expected Jim Belushi to pull off a Michael Chiklis-like transformation and play a corrupt cop, caught between a rock and a hard place? In fact, the performance is so compelling that it threw me off of the main arc of the plot: While the story may be a bit formulaic, Belushi’s performance is a wonderful distraction – I didn’t even see the denouement coming, until I was watching it on screen.
In my opinion, this was a far, far better film than the Paltrow/Douglas/Mortenson vehicle, ‘A Perfect Murder‘ (1998), since the actors here play against type, and triumph over the material.
Highly recommended! Furthermore, Angela Featherstone, Jason Bateman and (the recently deceased)Guylaine St. Onge provide excellent support. Not a dull moment.
While I’m not sure that I could recommend this film for viewing during the light of day, I *highly* recommend this movie for it’s late night/early morning consumption.
Rating: 
