Detour (1998 Video) User Reviews

B-movie action in the shadow of Tarantino

[Mikew3001 · 4/10 · 17 December 2002]

A bunch of cool gangsters are robbing a suitcase full of money from an Italian mafia bosses' headquarter and leaving for the country side for another big coup, but the Italian mob is already hunting them for bloody revenge... that's the whole plot of this hardcore action b-movie flick by Joey Travolta, the little brother of big John.

Travolta wants to direct like his big idols - Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma, Walter Hill, Sam Peckinpah, John Woo and the Die Hard movies... but Travolta is none of the above but only a b-movie director which you can see in every single second of this film! The story is to flat and often-told, the dialogues are bland and not witty at all, and the actors seem partially comatose... nobody here really seemed to be too enthusiastic about his job.

Although Joey Travolta collected a lot of second-league stars of hard-boiled undergound and action movie fame around like Jeff Fahey, Michael Madsen, James Russo and Gary Busey, even those rather good actors can't add any quality to this trash. Even the shootings and showdowns are rather boring, and too many slow motions rather serve to say good night to the viewer instead of taking his breath away. This film is alright for two hours of mindless action fun after midnight, but I recommend to choose the originals instead!

Not as bad as I expected

[vchimpanzee · 4 August 2003]

I thought this was just going to be a macho movie full of shooting, explosions, cursing and loud music. But when Danny returned to his hometown for what waitress Inga said was the first time in 10 years, the movie went in a whole new direction (temporarily). The music became more mellow though not necessarily my taste. The pace of the movie became more comfortable and I found myself starting to enjoy it.

After a big robbery in New York City, with the usual action,it is not clear just who has the money. Mo tells Ziggy on the phone that Danny must have it, though Mo is the one having sex on a big pile of cash. Ziggy comes to Danny's town, and he is soon followed by the boys that Grasso sent. Eventually, Grasso has to come himself, in a great big limo.

Danny, meanwhile, has to deal with the death of his mother (although he didn't get the message, his return came, coincidentally, just in time for the funeral). He is left to run the family farm and the family's dairy business (he doesn't want to do either). His former girlfriend Britt has married Danny's stepbrother Burl, who is the bumbling sheriff.

There is quite a bit of comedy in the second half. Ziggy and his friend are staying with Danny, but they must wake up bright and early after Mel, whose only way of making a living is running Danny's farm, is promised that Ziggy will help out. Burl also must deal with an emergency after he has decided to turn off his police radio, so the dispatcher uses a bullhorn (not realizing Burl is standing right in front of him). Mo was also funny with his date. And Grasso and his boys seem to have little conscience when they kill people. A lot of the comedy is associated with the emergency Burl had to respond to.

I liked the scenes with Danny and Britt the best, as well as scenes where Danny spent time with his niece Daniella. There was also a parade near the end where Inga and Daniella were beauty queens, and that was fun too (in this type of movie, though, do you think a parade will go smoothly?). And while I didn't like most of the music, I think the music will be a highlight for a lot of people.

Avoid this Detour into lameness.

[tarbosh22000 · 2/10 · 11 June 2012]

Danny Devlin (Fahey) and his buddy Ziggy Rotella (Russo) are in a small-time gang, and they decide to rob 1.2 million dollars from mob boss Gianni Grasso (Miano). However, Mo (Busey), who works for Grasso, double-crosses him by talking to Danny and Ziggy. Grasso's men go after them, and eventually Danny, Ziggy, and Gillette (Williams), the third gang member, end up in small-town Rosalia, where Danny grew up. It turns out his mother died and left him the family dairy farm, and it's in her will that he must tend to it. While back in his old stomping grounds, he reconnects with past family members such as Mel (Thomerson), Daniella (Wood), and his brother Burl (Madsen), who is the sheriff in town. Will Danny go straight, or will the temptation of future heists and crimes be too strong? When we first saw that there was a movie that had this amazing cast, obviously we were intrigued. And the icing on the cake comes when you're watching the opening credits, and after the extensive list of familiar names, the final credit is "Directed by Joey Travolta!" (I added the exclamation point. Sadly that's not on his actual screen credit). You'd think, "how could this possibly go wrong?" Well, unfortunately, Detour falls prey to Lone Tiger (1999) Syndrome, which we've talked about before, which means that just because a movie has an impressive cast, doesn't mean the movie itself is going to be any good. Sometimes it's even a substitute for good writing and direction, and they hope the audience won't notice.

Joey Travolta seems to be more talented in front of the camera than behind it, as evidenced by his role in Wilding: The Children Of Violence (1991). Disappointingly, Detour is just one of many 90's Tarantino knockoffs. It tries too hard to be cool, and every other scene has some annoying "alt-rock" song of the time on the soundtrack. No one in the cast of fan favorites can save the uninspired writing. Busey and Madsen come off best, however - Busey slightly more low-key by his standards, and Madsen does what Madsen does, that is, look bored and contemptuous of even having to be there. But somehow when he does it, it totally works. Fahey goes a bit over the top at times, and even though this is supposedly an action movie of some kind, there are scenes of farm work - yes, FARM WORK - when other stuff should be going on to capture the viewers' interest and imagination.

The movie also falls prey to some other common DTV pitfalls, such as the fact that many scenes are underlit and it's too dark to see anything. That just adds to an overall junky look and feel. But on the bright side, Gary Busey wears pajamas the whole time, and James Russo has an evil hat. Take for instance a scene in a kitchen where Fahey and Thomerson are talking. On top of the refrigerator, there is a can of a Mr. Peanut product that we think are called "Zonks", but it's too dark to really tell. This can of Mr. Peanut Zonks (?) steals focus from the supposed drama going on. "Does that really say 'Zonks'?" "I don't know, I can't read it...I hope it says Zonks...but I've never heard of Zonks..." "Maybe they're only sold in Canada." "Who is a better mascot, Mr. Peanut or the Pringles man?" "Mr. Peanut, because he has a top hat, a monocle, cuffs, a cane, and can do things, like dance around. All the Pringles guy has is a mustache". That's OUR dialogue, not from the movie. In other words, Mr. Peanut out-acts some of our favorite people this time around.

An amazing, once-in-a-lifetime cast is squandered because they didn't have good material to work with. Ultimately, this is wasteful of the talented cast, so avoid this Detour into lameness.

For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Go back to 1945 if you want to see a really good "Detour".

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 2 February 2022]

One thing that's always good in an action scene in the movie is the ability to see what's going on. The opening sequence, lasting about 10 minutes, focusing on a warehouse robbery, is so dark you can't really see what's happening, let alone allow the audience to hear what the characters are saying. It's obvious that this film had a very low budget, and even when they get to the lit scenes outside, it's rather faded and never completely in focus. Jeff Fahey, the poor man's Steve Buscemi, goes back to hide in his hometown after realizing at the warehouse they robbed was owned by the mob, and ends up involved in a hokey story including his mother's dairy farm and her insistence that he running for two years at least to get his share of the estate. So you get a criminal on the run and in hiding, mixed in with a mostly rural setting where the hero, if you can call him that, runs into an old girlfriend.

Gary Busey as one of the mob men, is bland, and the talented Darnell Williams, one of the best soap actors ever (considered the first male black soap superstar), completely wasted in a cliched role. Easy to see why this went straight to video, and it probably sat on sale shelves collecting dust due to its lack of word of mouth and star appeal. Joey Travolta was ambitious and getting this together obviously, but didn't work hard enough to get a good script with fleshed-out characters., with Tim Thomerson and Michael Madsen flushing out a violent story where you really don't care about the characters. Fahey is basically playing a more civilized version of the character that Buscemi played in" Fargo", minus the humor. Easy to pass on.

My First Movie as an extra because I didn't have a SAG card

[mshetherfether · 7/10 · 8 July 2020]

I found my way into the an audition with the Producer, whom was very nice but as the conversation got to "my part" I had to interrupt and inform him I had never acted and I didn't have a SAG card, so he put me in straight and center with more screen time than most. It's hard for me to give an unbiased rating as Gary Bussey was a amazing so I can say we filmed in rough conditions, before they blew the structure we were filming in. That's when I learned how hard actors work. If you can find the movie, I highly recommend

Sexy Crooks

[helfeleather · 8/10 · 1 November 2002]

But are they really bad to the bone? Jeff Fahey, James Russo and Darnell Williams play a gang of thieving thugs in black leather jackets and old blue jeans. Gary Busey is the accomplice with a thing for silk pyjamas. The real badguys are mobsters in suits. Michael Madsen, disappointingly, only gets to play the alcoholic cop who looks like Elvis in decline. Throw in a mob of good-hearted farmers, and there's your cast.

I thought I'd worked out the ending half way through, but I was wrong.

This is a difficult one...

[Corno-2 · 4 January 2000]

Being a giant fan of Fahey and Busey I found this impossible not to miss.

The film itself has many bad qualities. The sound is all over the place. The levels peak mid shot and the mics pick up annoying chunks so sound, like Fahey leather jacket making that leather-jacket-sort-of-noise. The amount of footaged re-used is amazing. I can think of a least 5 glaring examples.

However, then there is the cast and plot. Fahey (who supports the film perfectly) is great is a role that he can play in his sleep. Busey limited usage shows and his pyjamas are exceptional. Russo really only shines in the action sequences. Madsen give a good as he wants (which I don't believe is very much) as the charater has very little to do and didn't require someone like Madsen to play it.

If you can manage to endure the technical problems this turns out to be a fairly enjoyable waste of time.

A SMOKIN' GOOD MOVIE

[userray2305 · 10/10 · 2 November 2004]

Danny is brought into a scheme by his trusted friend and confidant, Ziggy Rotella to steal 1.2 million dollars from a warehouse safe owned by tough mob boss, Gianni Grasso. But the inside job turns out to be a trap set-up by Ziggy's informant, Mo Lasker.

The safe has already been cleaned out and worse. Grasso and his thugs show up to catch the apparent thieves. Guns are pulled, bullets fly and Danny and the gang narrowly escape a brutal shoot out.

Now on the run from Grasso and his cruel son, Rosy, Danny decides to go his own way and takes refuge in his hometown of Ellenso, a place he ran away from ten years ago.

This movie rocks and if you rent it or buy it, I promise you won't be disappointed!!!

Poor even by Fahey's standards

[bob the moo · 4 January 2002]

When Danny and his gang attempt to rob the warehouse of a mob boss, they find themselves on the run. Danny goes back to his hometown to find his mother has recently died leaving him the farm on the condition that he must open the dairy and run it for two years. However the gang is double crossed by Mo and the mob begin to hunt them down, meanwhile Danny and his gang consider robbing the mill in his town.

This is a very low rent film! It's a thriller that is very slow and dull, with no tension or action to write home about. The story is mostly about Danny going home and learning to be a nice guy again and starting to farm - the plot about the mob and the temptation of the "one-last-job" is almost a sideplot. That makes it feel so boring and slow. The action itself is uninspired - a house blows up, big deal.

The characters are stereotypes - the mob guys are a joke - and the performances match the material. I like Jeff Fahey, however this type of stuff is part of the reason he never gets big roles, he is poor in a poor film. And what is it with Gary Busey in Fahey films? In Lethal Tender he appeared to be in a different film and the same is true here. His character Mo only has a few scenes and all of them in his flat - to Busey this must have represented an easy week on set at most. Michael Madsen shows why he hasn't build on his cult success in Reservoir Dogs in a very, very lazy role.

Overall a very dull film that is bookended by action to try and make it interesting. This is bad even by Jeff Fahey's dubious standards.

Another one good movie from Raymond Martino.

[Knight Of The Cross · 22 August 1999]

Raymond Martino hasn't got bad movies. I like "Skyscraper", "Da Vince's war" and "To the limit". He wrote a script to "Detour" and this one directed Joey Travolta who acted in "Da Vince's war" and "To the limit". The plot of "Detour" is very simple. Two bandits - Danny (Jeff Fahey) and Ziggi (James Russo) decided to rob a famous mobster Grasso. But they're didn't know that the man who suggested them this business,Mo (Gary Busey), has already robbed Grasso. But Grasso think that Danny and Ziggi made this. And he started to hunt for them. There aren't too much shots in this movie as in "Skyscraper" and "To the limit" but the plot here much better then in "Skyscraper"