Cheap The Desperate Trail (DVD) (P.J. Pesce) Price

Though The Desperate Trail is hardly a modern Western, this mixture of frontier adventure and con-man conniving is inflected by the plot twists that have driven the post-Tarantino era of low-budget crime thrillers, at least through the first half of the film. It opens with a stagecoach ride that becomes a thrilling runaway escape from bandits, but the passengers are not what they seem and the films spins into a game of one-upmanship between a pair of slick outlaws thrown together by fate. Craig Sheffer, a con man duded up like an Eastern hick and smiling like a chump, spars with lady outlaw Linda Fiorentino, a tough gunslinger with a gift for bluff, while she eludes driven lawman Sam Elliot, whose passion for justice is personally motivated. Through a series of schemes and ambushes (including a Wild Bunch-inspired free-for-all where the posse hits more civilians than criminals), the bickering duo slowly reveal their secrets as the posse closes in. Elliot is perfectly cast as the hate-filled marshal, whose burning dark eyes and simmering persona are unleashed in his ruthless villain with a personable drawling manner, and director P.J. Pesce stages fine action scenes. If there are no surprises in The Desperate Trail, neither are there any lulls--it's a fun ride right to the satisfying if predictable conclusion. --Sean Axmaker

CATEGORY:	DVD
DIRECTOR:	P.J. Pesce
MANUFACTURER:	Warner Home Video
MPAA RATING:	R (Restricted)
FEATURES:	Color, Closed-captioned
TYPE:	Western
MEDIA:	DVD
# OF MEDIA:	1
UPC:	053939676624