Desert Saints (2000)

There's lots of desert in this made-for-cable caper, but not many saints. Banks (Keifer Sutherland) is a hit man for hire and Bennie (Magnolia's Melora Walters) is the abused wife he takes on as an accomplice. She just wants a ride out of town. If it means driving the getaway car while Banks makes his next hit--so be it. As the duo drives from Arizona to Mexico for his next assignment, Banks turns out to be more sensitive than he at first appears, while the seemingly ditsy Bennie turns out to be smarter. Jamey Sheridan (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) plays the FBI agent who's hot on their trail. Desert Saints, which was coproduced by Meg Ryan and premiered on Cinemax, is a taut thriller with a twist at the end. What it lacks in humor and excitement, it makes up for with solid performances and an abundance of lost highway atmosphere. --Kathleen C. Fennessy Amazon.com

Worth a look

Smart enough to have seen it once on cable and rented it afterwards. The writing and the lead performances are smart and natural. Not entirely persuaded by the very last twist - of two - though, as if director Richard Greenberg had had second thoughts of an already fair resolution.

Reminds me of director Carl Colpaert's 'Delusion' (1991), starring Jim Metzler and Jennifer Rubin. An accountant (Metzler) drives through the Nevada desert after having embezzled his underworld bosses; he helps out attractive girl (Rubin) and her boyfriend (Kyle Secor), a couple whose car has broken down in the middle of nowhere. The accountant is unaware that Secor, who'll figure out his scam, is a professional killer. Although he'll live to regret both his ill deed and his humanitarian gesture, will turn out more resourceful than any of his mobster adversaries - and get to keep the girl, too. Jerry Orbach makes a memorable turn. Why this thoroughly enjoyable surprise of a movie is out only on VHS still, I'll never know. September 2, 2008

It's all Kiefer Sutherland!

Desert Saints brings to the screen the story of a hit man who teams up with a young woman in order to drive down to Mexico and assassinate a Mexican politician who is waging war on the drug cartels. All the while the FBI is after them. It's going to be a bumpy, and yet interesting ride indeed...
The major setback is in relation to the supporting cast who are not that great!
Kiefer Sutherland does a great job on his own in trying to keep this film afloat, and his performance is AMAZING!
In a nutshell, it's probably not a movie you would want to add to your collection, but it will surely provide for an evening's entertainment.
August 8, 2006

Great film noir in the desert - with many twists !

Even though Kiefer Sutherland turns in yet another standard Kiefer Sutherland performance (although somewhat less annoying than in 24), the inventive and surprising script combined with the superior way Melora Walters shapes her pivotal role make for an extremely entertaining and nailbiting, grossly underrated movie, which should by all standards have had a theatrical release. Melora Walters is the centrepiece of the movie, and she carries it off sublimely, switching her performance on demand from irritating to extremely competent and forceful. A definite must-see for the film noir fan ! February 28, 2006

Desert Saints

I really liked this movie and watched it in the first place cos i'm a fan of kiefer sutherland. I liked the way Banks got his own back in the end as well. I didn't give it a 5 star rating because i couldn't help finding Bennie quite annoying at times. July 26, 2004

Excellent

This is a superb movie in regards to portraying a contract killer. It's almost just like a -How-To- manual from Rex Feral's controversial book Hit Man with the way the story goes. I'm pretty sure the writer and director who made this movie were strongly influenced by that book. What I really appreciated from the flick was that it tried to be as realistic as possible. Sutherland's character constantly forging IDs, being invisible using common creative methods, as well as the movie used common weapons seen today rather than James Bond like gadgets, or giant machine guns so commonly seen today in many dimwitted Hollywood blockbuster style movies.

To me Banks is more of a regular person instead of the James Bond/Rambo type or mafia assassin which may exist but however those people are extremely rare. Because of this it gives a new twist to these types of stories. It's realistic and shows how people are who do this type of work for a living...as bizarre as that seems. Although Sutherland's character is a very ordinary like man to me he's truly playing a realistic professional. Some people who seem to be interviewed about being in this type of work such as "The Iceman"/Richard Kuklinsky seen on HBO whose type is always caught because these type of people aren't concerned with their freedom/life causing them to get into the trade because of that, as well as wanting to be a infamous tough guy often easily seen by true criminals like him or John Gotti type personalities, etc.

Anywayzzz....to stay on topic anyone enjoying this there are two more classics to go with it in my opinion. They're -The Day of the Jackal- (73' Version of course) and -The Mechanic- with Charles Bronson. The Mechanic isn't very popular I guess because it's not simple minded Steven Seagal BS like so many of his movies were.

I highly recommend this movie to people who like to see the mental aspects of subjects like this. It's not going to be the best movie you've ever seen for most people but if you like movies like this then you'll enjoy. March 4, 2004

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