Anne Benton (Jodie Foster) suffered a flat tire while driving and doesn't have a spare. She has hardly left the car when she witnessed a murder. Spotted as she runs away, multiple goons fire at her, but she narrowly escapes. Of course, the goons can figure out who she is from her car. FBI Agent Pauling (Fred Ward) is ecstatic when he identifies the murderer from her description; it's mob boss Leo Carelli (Joe Pesci). Of course, Anne will need to go into witness protection and her art career will need to end. Anne runs off. Soon after, some incompetent hitmen come to her apartment, but she again escapes. Better yet, she once again skips from the police and Pauling. Now it is a question of who can find her first.
Lino Avoca (Vincent Price) is the bigger mob boss of the area. Unimpressed with Carelli's handling of the situation, he sends Milo (Dennis Hopper) to eliminate Anne. Milo immerses himself in Anne's art, her pictures, her life history. By the time he locates her, he has fallen for her. He can't kill her. Instead, he gives her the choice: life as his possession or death. She chooses life. Now for the least convincing love story since Queen Amadala fell for Anakin Skywalker.
The movie is uneven. There are instances where it seems like a comedy. When Anne is running from Agent Pauling by dashing through a minigolf course and hiding in a random structure, who should be inside waiting? Milo. Seriously? He was hiding in this minigolf structure? And then she runs away, successfully avoiding a score of FBI agents as well as Milo. What in the world was Oscar winner Jodie Foster thinking when she accepted this part? Much of the dialogue is laughable. Anne's Stockholm Syndrome (where a kidnap victim falls for the kidnapper) turns on like a light switch. One moment his forcing her to put on sexy clothes and the next scene they are giggling in bed together. Yeah, kind of sudden.
Charlie Sheen, who had already done Platoon (1986) and Wall Street (1987), has a tiny role as Bob, Anne's boyfriend. He performs like this is his first acting gig. Vincent Price's role is about the same size and he too comes across flat. John Turturro was about to catch fire after this film. Here, he is a goofball gunman who wears red shoes without socks. It looked like he was wearing high heels at one point. What? In addition to being the lead actor, Dennis Hopper was also the director. However, the studio hacked up the film to where he asked to have his name removed, thus Alan Smithee is listed as director. Perhaps a better movie was left on the cutting room floor, but the parts that remain are bad in and of themselves. The bad acting doesn't go away if there is more movie, even if the missing parts are better quality. Hopper wasn't the only one who didn't want credit. Joe Pesci is uncredited.
Fans of any of these actors should avoid this as it can only hurt your opinion of them. Bad story, bad acting, just plain bad. Hard pass.
