Lou-Jean (Goldie Hawn)visits her husband in prison with the sole intention of helping him escape from prison. Lou-Jean informs her husband Clovis (William Atherton) that she has lost custody of their son and asks her husband to assist her in kidnapping their son from his foster parents. Initially, the plan is working until they take a police officer hostage...
Based on a true story, The Sugarland Express starts out quite fun and Spielberg gives the film a mostly light-hearted and playful touch to it which makes it moderately enjoyable. Unfortunately, the screenplay does little to develop the main characters making them rather one-dimensional, thinly-drawn and rather uninteresting as people. Presumably this is intended as part road-movie and part character-study, but it isn't fun enough to be classed as a good road-movie (a lot of the film sees the couple being followed round Texas very slowly which hardly makes for an exciting picture). It also fails as a character study because there is precious little to study - the film occasionally mentions the state determining that Lou-Jean is a bad parent and her argument to the contrary, but this is never really explored or given any focus which is a shame because this probably would have made the narrative that bit more involving.
Later in the film, there is almost a Stockholm syndrome scenario developing between the kidnapped cop and the couple which again was an interesting direction to take the story in, but again it never really developed into anything; in fact this aspect of the story started out interesting and grew more and more ridiculous as it progressed...
The Sugarland Express isn't all bad and does have a few good points about it; Goldie Hawn once again puts on a good show and is great fun to watch here, the supporting cast are all OK, but Hawn easily outshines everyone. The film also has some amusing moments - the car being pushed to the petrol station was one such example.
Whilst it starts out well, unfortunately The Sugarland Express has already stretched its thin plot beyond breaking point by the midway point in the film and it starts to become repetitive, tedious and a tad boring. The Sugarland Express once again proves that having Steven Spielberg's name against a film isn't always a cast-iron guarantee of a good quality film.
Based on a true story, The Sugarland Express starts out quite fun and Spielberg gives the film a mostly light-hearted and playful touch to it which makes it moderately enjoyable. Unfortunately, the screenplay does little to develop the main characters making them rather one-dimensional, thinly-drawn and rather uninteresting as people. Presumably this is intended as part road-movie and part character-study, but it isn't fun enough to be classed as a good road-movie (a lot of the film sees the couple being followed round Texas very slowly which hardly makes for an exciting picture). It also fails as a character study because there is precious little to study - the film occasionally mentions the state determining that Lou-Jean is a bad parent and her argument to the contrary, but this is never really explored or given any focus which is a shame because this probably would have made the narrative that bit more involving.
Later in the film, there is almost a Stockholm syndrome scenario developing between the kidnapped cop and the couple which again was an interesting direction to take the story in, but again it never really developed into anything; in fact this aspect of the story started out interesting and grew more and more ridiculous as it progressed...
The Sugarland Express isn't all bad and does have a few good points about it; Goldie Hawn once again puts on a good show and is great fun to watch here, the supporting cast are all OK, but Hawn easily outshines everyone. The film also has some amusing moments - the car being pushed to the petrol station was one such example.
Whilst it starts out well, unfortunately The Sugarland Express has already stretched its thin plot beyond breaking point by the midway point in the film and it starts to become repetitive, tedious and a tad boring. The Sugarland Express once again proves that having Steven Spielberg's name against a film isn't always a cast-iron guarantee of a good quality film.