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List Price: $19.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 21116
Released: August 10, 1999 |
| Our Price: $12.03 |
| Used Price: $4.96 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
With Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, writer-director John Dahl established himself as America's leading maker of tough, twisted, funny little neo-noir pictures. Red Rock West is a spare, tight reworking of noirish motifs--the lone man caught in a web of circumstance and betrayal, the rich femme fatale, the corrupt policeman, the wounded military veteran, the homicidal psychopath--that brings to mind classics from Detour to Out of the Past to Bad Day at Black Rock. Cage--warming up for his career-peak (so far) performance in Leaving Las Vegas a few years later--plays an unemployed former Marine (his leg injured in the truck-bombing of the base in Beirut) who stumbles into a nightmarish situation when he stops at a bar in the isolated Wyoming town of Red Rock West. With one fateful step, he's trapped; and no matter how hard he tries, he just can't seem to leave town. The late J.T. Walsh is (as always) splendidly corrupt as the bar owner who harbors some deadly secrets, and Dennis Hopper does a variation on his patented Blue Velvet/River's Edge psycho that suits the treacherous environs of Red Rock West just fine. --Jim Emerson
Red Rock West Reviews:
Nicholas and the terrible horrible no good very bad day 
2008-07-11 - Red Rock West is intended as a "Hitchcockesque" psycho-drama but really ends up being more of a "Black Comedy" of errors. Nicholas Cage, plays the same character he often does ( the down on his luck man with principles) and does it pretty well, this time his character's luck starts out bad then things go downhill sharply from there. Dennis Hopper plays the same character we often see him as (the cartoonish, mentally unbalanced man capable of anything) and again, does it well.
So here's the deal...
This film is a pretty good pop-corn movie and not a bad way to spend an hour and a half or so. If this was a book I'd be upset that I wasted my time, but as a movie it works pretty well.
3 ½ *
Unknown gem here! 
2008-06-24 - In Red Rock West, Nicholas Cage plays a down-on-his luck drifter who comes to town looking for a job. Getting a tip from a man in a gas station, he heads to a town called Red Rock into a small bar, where the owner inadvertently gives him a job as a hit man who is supposed to kill his wife. Before Michael (Cage) can say no to the man, he is handed a wad of money and instructions on how to kill the bar owner's wife.
What makes this unknown thriller such a great movie is the feeling of mystery it projects. Like many other reviewers said, this film feels like a noir mystery in a western setting. Just when you think you have a piece of the plot figured out in your head, there is another twist. Cage's character plays the only truly noble character, as all characters have motives and hidden secrets that keep you guessing.
This film didn't get much publicity when it was released, and I just happened to catch this title on the shelf of the video store years later. I remembered liking it before, so I had to watch again. It was even better the second time. Another great thing about this film is that there is a smart angle in presenting the mystery. There isn't an overdone or ludicrous plot, or any cheesy lines from the actors. It is an intelligent, low-budget film. How about that!
Definitely a must see for those who love a good, edge of your seat suspense!
Red Eye West 
2007-12-18 - This is one of those thrillers where the protagonist, down on his luck, Nick Cage, cannot get out of a jam no matter where he turns. The inertia of a black crime drags him ever deeper to dastardly consequences. Does the femme fatale, Lara Flynn Boyle bed him or murder him? Does the homicidal husband do Cage in? Will the hired killer, Lyle from Dallas, Dennis the Menace Hooper, knock off everbody? Then there's the bag of money buried in a cemetery; moreover, there's that town, Red Rock West that nobody can leave, making for a good thriller, almost a throw back to Noir adventures.
And again...
2007-11-22 - ...a real good movie, I watched it several times, and it does not get boring! Great stuff, a must see for all Cage fans.
Very Very Good
2007-08-09 - Excellent story, not a big Cage fan, but he was superb and Dennis Hopper, what can you say. Worth it for mystery/action fans.
