Switchback (1997) coming from Paramount

[DukeTogo84]

Never seen this one, but looks interesting.

Seems to be coming out June 1st, but I have a feeling it will be coming out later, but maybe not!



https://www.moviezyng.com/switchback...r/810072542595

[THS]

This is a huge guilty pleasure of mine. Stoked for the Blu-ray!

[Michael24]

Only saw this once years ago (early-2000s, I think) but remember it being pretty good.

[mikesncc1701]

I haven't seen this since it was first released and my Pops'and I rented the VHS at Blockbuster. Needless to say I don't remember shit about it but will buy <$10. I know that Breakdown announcement is around the corner here stateside!

[danny24]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Never seen this one, but looks interesting.

Seems to be coming out June 1st, but I have a feeling it will be coming out later, but maybe not!



https://www.moviezyng.com/switchback...r/810072542595

It's likely MOD like the recent releases of Dear God, Head Of State, Pootie Tang, The Ladies Man.

[Monterey Jack]

I watched this for the first time on Prime a few months ago...it's seriously dull and uninteresting (albeit well-shot). I'd recommend streaming before buying.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by danny24

It's likely MOD like the recent releases of Dear God, Head Of State, Pootie Tang, The Ladies Man.

Except none of those are MOD, they are all pressed discs.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

I watched this for the first time on Prime a few months ago...it's seriously dull and uninteresting (albeit well-shot). I'd recommend streaming before buying.

Ah, no. I don't care what you find dull and uninteresting. And no, I don't stream something first to determine if it's worthy of a Blu-ray purchase. If I'm going to watch something for the first time I want the experience that Blu-ray delivers. Whether I end up watching a given Blu-ray a second time or not is beside the point.

[trip66]

Holy crap! I thought I'd never see this on Blu-ray, it never even got a anamorphic DVD. I remember the TV spots really had me wanting to see this, especially showing a train sequence heavily on the TV spots. When it came out, the critics DEMOLISHED this film, and it didn't come out in any theaters near me, and I live in the Philly metro area, not a sparse population.

I did see it on the big screen at the one theater that was playing it (on the other side of Philly) with a buddy of mine. We were literally the only two people in the theater. We thought it was gonna be bad because the critics hated it and Paramount just didn't release it anywhere.

Well, I thought Switchback was fantastic, and had no idea why it was killed and buried by Paramount. No, its not some sort of masterpiece, but I loved just about everything about it as a popcorn movie that allows the viewer to piece together the clues without being force fed anything.

There are so many blink and you miss it clues that I think went over a lot of peoples heads. The location footage in snowy Colorado is just gorgeous.The acting is top notch by everybody, but especially R. Lee Emery. He has always been typecast as a badass military type. Here, he gives such a down to earth performance as the venerable sheriff.

There is a surprising amount of character development for all the characters, considering its a serial killer/road movie. Thats given that the screenplay is actually really good! In fact Roger Ebert, who didn't like the movie, stated that all of the stories that characters talked about would have made a better movie!

The writer/director Jeb Stuart had Switchback written in the 80's, and it was titled Traveling West In America. It was never picked up by any studio. But Stuart co-wrote Die Hard and The Fugitive, and had consistent writing work. But, after the success of Se7en in 1995, studios were scrambling to get serial killer movies made. So, Stuart had his screenplay in his back pocket and a good track record, so his screenplay was picked up, re-titled as Switchback, and even given the job to direct it as well. After Switchback....

He would never work again until a small film in 2010, and then disappear again after that.

Switchback is not a perfect movie, mostly, I don't like the ending, and maybe that's what gave critics a bad taste. But, if you like serial killer movies, road movies with excellent scenery (in this case wintery Colorado), likeable and well developed characters, and an awesome cast (don't forget Jared Leto, Ted Levine, William Fitchner, and Wally Goggins round out the supporting cast), you should definitely check it out. Even the score by Basil Poledouris is excellent.

Also, just a bit of trivia: the scene on the train takes place on (the now out-of-service) Tennessee pass line in Colorado. This is the exact same rail line that Under Siege 2 was filmed on 2 years earlier. The line was shut down just after Switchback was filmed. Also of note: both films were actually scored by Basil Poledouris.

[deltatauhobbit]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by trip66

Holy crap! I thought I'd never see this on Blu-ray, it never even got a anamorphic DVD. I remember the TV spots really had me wanting to see this, especially showing a train sequence heavily on the TV spots. When it came out, the critics DEMOLISHED this film, and it didn't come out in any theaters near me, and I live in the Philly metro area, not a sparse population.

I did see it on the big screen at the one theater that was playing it (on the other side of Philly) with a buddy of mine. We were literally the only two people in the theater. We thought it was gonna be bad because the critics hated it and Paramount just didn't release it anywhere.

Well, I thought Switchback was fantastic, and had no idea why it was killed and buried by Paramount. No, its not some sort of masterpiece, but I loved just about everything about it as a popcorn movie that allows the viewer to piece together the clues without being force fed anything.

There are so many blink and you miss it clues that I think went over a lot of peoples heads. The location footage in snowy Colorado is just gorgeous.The acting is top notch by everybody, but especially R. Lee Emery. He has always been typecast as a badass military type. Here, he gives such a down to earth performance as the venerable sheriff.

There is a surprising amount of character development for all the characters, considering its a serial killer/road movie. Thats given that the screenplay is actually really good! In fact Roger Ebert, who didn't like the movie, stated that all of the stories that characters talked about would have made a better movie!

The writer/director Jeb Stuart had Switchback written in the 80's, and it was titled Traveling West In America. It was never picked up by any studio. But Stuart co-wrote Die Hard and The Fugitive, and had consistent writing work. But, after the success of Se7en in 1995, studios were scrambling to get serial killer movies made. So, Stuart had his screenplay in his back pocket and a good track record, so his screenplay was picked up, re-titled as Switchback, and even given the job to direct it as well. After Switchback....

He would never work again until a small film in 2010, and then disappear again after that.

Switchback is not a perfect movie, mostly, I don't like the ending, and maybe that's what gave critics a bad taste. But, if you like serial killer movies, road movies with excellent scenery (in this case wintery Colorado), likeable and well developed characters, and an awesome cast (don't forget Jared Leto, Ted Levine, William Fitchner, and Wally Goggins round out the supporting cast), you should definitely check it out. Even the score by Basil Poledouris is excellent.

Also, just a bit of trivia: the scene on the train takes place on (the now out-of-service) Tennessee pass line in Colorado. This is the exact same rail line that Under Siege 2 was filmed on 2 years earlier. The line was shut down just after Switchback was filmed. Also of note: both films were actually scored by Basil Poledouris.

I've always liked Switchback as well. The characters behave as real people, R. Lee Ermey is particularly good in one of his calmer roles. I also had a crush on Merle Kennedy (mostly known as Mouse in Night of the Demons 2) in this film who briefly plays the store clerk, looks like she retired from acting quite awhile ago. The big thing is the scenery which is beautiful, I'm a sucker for anything with a snowy mountain setting, add in trains and choo choo we go! I'll be glad to retire my DVD, as you've said, it's not very good so I'm sure the blu-ray will be a huge upgrade.

My biggest complaint regarding Switchback is there isn't much suspense for most of the movie and no mystery even though they kind of try shoehorning it in. There's no doubt early on that

[Show spoiler]Danny Glover is the killer yet there are threads where they ask the question "is Dennis Quaid's character crazy" or might be it Leto's character, but pretty soon they don't really hide that it's Glover, so now we're just waiting for Quaid to catch up to Glover. Might have been better if they at least hid Glover being the killer throughout the entire thing, make it so it really could have been either Leto or Glover. Heck, it might have been neat if Glover was the killer but was actually an alter ego of Leto's character, so Leto has been alone the entire time, or vise versa (this would have been before Fight Club which famously used this trope).

Basically, it's a pretty straightforward movie and I think that's why it wasn't popular when it came out.

[DW5x1]

I recall the trailer, -or perhaps it was the TV ad, -where a moment is shown in reverse so that a character who is falling from the train looks to be making a super-human leap onto the train.

[BluRay Bandito 69]

Great flic

[DukeTogo84]

I was going to get this one way or another, but glad to hear that almost everyone seems to really like it. I love me some Danny Glover.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by AmishParadise

And no, I don't stream something first to determine if it's worthy of a Blu-ray purchase. If I'm going to watch something for the first time I want the experience that Blu-ray delivers. Whether I end up watching a given Blu-ray a second time or not is beside the point.

I'd rather know if it's good before blowing money on a purchase, but whatever...

[WaverBoy]

I saw this in the theatre and remember absolutely hating it, but from some of the comments here, now I’m curious to revisit it and see if I hate it any less.

[marblearch]

Awesome. At last 90's thrillers making a blu debut. Great movie. Glover nails it here.

[philip74]

I was so excited to see this announcement but now I realize this only seems to be listed on MovieZyng.
I thought they only do burned discs. Also they don`t seem to ship to Europe

[trip66]

Originally Posted by DW5x1

I recall the trailer, -or perhaps it was the TV ad, -where a moment is shown in reverse so that a character who is falling from the train looks to be making a super-human leap onto the train.

Yup! I specifically remember that shot in the TV spot too! Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-GPk_xLVaI

[trip66]

Originally Posted by deltatauhobbit

I've always liked Switchback as well. The characters behave as real people, R. Lee Ermey is particularly good in one of his calmer roles. I also had a crush on Merle Kennedy (mostly known as Mouse in Night of the Demons 2) in this film who briefly plays the store clerk, looks like she retired from acting quite awhile ago. The big thing is the scenery which is beautiful, I'm a sucker for anything with a snowy mountain setting, add in trains and choo choo we go! I'll be glad to retire my DVD, as you've said, it's not very good so I'm sure the blu-ray will be a huge upgrade.

My biggest complaint regarding Switchback is there isn't much suspense for most of the movie and no mystery even though they kind of try shoehorning it in. There's no doubt early on that

[Show spoiler]Danny Glover is the killer yet there are threads where they ask the question "is Dennis Quaid's character crazy" or might be it Leto's character, but pretty soon they don't really hide that it's Glover, so now we're just waiting for Quaid to catch up to Glover. Might have been better if they at least hid Glover being the killer throughout the entire thing, make it so it really could have been either Leto or Glover. Heck, it might have been neat if Glover was the killer but was actually an alter ego of Leto's character, so Leto has been alone the entire time, or vise versa (this would have been before Fight Club which famously used this trope).

Basically, it's a pretty straightforward movie and I think that's why it wasn't popular when it came out.

Yeah, the thing is they advertised Switchback as a thriller, when it was really more of a drama. But, as far as the twists go,

[Show spoiler]even my wife thought that Leto was the killer, and all of the clues lead to him doing it. So many people hated that we find out that Glover is the killer half way though, but what I like about the film is, even though we know Glover is the killer, Leto could be the one who gets taken down, because he looks like the guilty one. But, that leads to my problem with the film.

Glover could have let Leto get taken down, and Glover could have started his game up again, but then Glover just attacks Quaid on the train, and it becomes an action scene. Its a pretty great scene on it own, especially since I love train scenes, but it almost feels like the film could have had a downer/bad guy wins situation like se7en. But, there could have been studio meddling (this is about the same time Paramount ruined Even Horizon), and Stuart could have been forced to re-write, and make a dumb action movie/happy ending.

But, even so, the film as a whole is enjoyable, and is elevated by the cast, dialogue, film locations, and even the score.

[philip74]

Could someone who receives their copy be kind enough to let us know if it`s a pressed or burned disc. Thanks in advance!