Against All Odds (1984)

My Review

“Against All Odds” is a neo-noir romantic thriller movie about a former football player hired by a ruthless businessman to find his runaway mistress, who has fled to Mexico. Director Taylor Hackford (“An Officer and a Gentleman” 1982) put together a formulaic melodrama which still has loads of action and suspense to make this an engrossing motion picture. The screenplay by Eric Hughes adapted the story from “Hang My Gallows High,” a 1946 novel by Daniel Mainwaring.

The cast is headed by Rachel Ward as the girl friend, Jeff Bridges as the hired hand, and James Woods as the businessman. They pull their weight in this picture, helped out by co-stars Alex Karras, Jane Greer, Richard Widmark, Swoozie Kurtz, Saul Rubinek, Pat Corley, Dorian Harewood, and Bill McKinney as the head coach. The watchable “Against All Odds” was a modest hit at the box office for Columbia Pictures. It was nominated for one Academy Award for Best Song (“Against All Odds,” music, lyrics, and performed by Phil Collins).