No Way Out | What to Watch

Sean Young and Kevin Costner flirt at a party

(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

A twisting and turning race-against-time conspiracy thriller. 4/5 stars

Looking very smart in his dress uniform, US naval commander Kevin Costner makes the mistake of having a fling with Sean Young, the mistress of the US Defense Secretary (Gene Hackman). Soon she's dead and he's put in the impossible position of heading the enquiry that will inevitably lead him to uncovering himself as the fall guy for the murder. So, as the net closes in, it's a battle of wits with all escape routes apparently blocked.

A remake of the 1940s thriller, The Big Clock, as a serious political drama this falls flat but as fast-paced glossy entertainment, it all works superbly.

Full of clever bluffs and twists right up to the final denouement, the film managed to kick Costner’s career into high gear making him one of the biggest box office stars of the late 1980s and early 1990s - until Waterworld came along and sunk his career in 1995.

CATEGORIES

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.