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Desperate Hours

Play trailer Poster for Desperate Hours R Released Oct 5, 1990 1h 46m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
29% Tomatometer 14 Reviews 22% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
With the help of his defense lawyer (Kelly Lynch), who is madly in love with him, psychotic killer Michael Bosworth (Mickey Rourke) escapes prison and goes on the run with his brother (Elias Koteas) and his partner in crime (David Morse). Killing time before his lawyer can meet up with them, the three invade the home of Tim (Anthony Hopkins) and Nora Cornell (Mimi Rogers), a bickering couple on the brink of divorce. Now the couple must fight to save their marriage, and their lives.
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Desperate Hours

Critics Reviews

View All (14) Critics Reviews
Jake Cole Slant Magazine Michael Cimino’s direction has his razzle-dazzle moments, but the film, a patchwork of awkward and cliché conversations, never generates tension. Jul 26, 2022 Full Review Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: D Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Desperate Hours is an attempt to take a 1950s crime classic and remake it by turning up the heat, but Cimino has set the heat too high, and the result is an overwrought melodrama with dialogue even a True Detective editor would question. Rated: 2/4 Jul 24, 2001 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Pure drivel, with director Michael Cimino perhaps setting a record by coaxing so many bad performances out of so many good actors. Rated: 1.5/4 Aug 7, 2022 Full Review Peter Canavese Celluloid Dreams Michael Cimino at his strangest and most bizarre. A lot of good actors here but the premise has become tiresome through repetition and the many head scratching choices it in as the plot lurches along don't help. Rated: 1.5/4 Jul 21, 2022 Full Review Craig J. Clark The Dissolve It's an overblown remake of William Wyler's 1955 film The Desperate Hours. Rated: 2.5/5 Jun 17, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (73) audience reviews
Steve D Miscast and predictable but entertaining enough. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/09/23 Full Review Ravenswood R This movie is quite bad. Very little makes any sense. There are some good camera shots and interesting camera angles and occasional other filmic artistries, but there are no other good things to mention. Things happen that are utterly inexplicable. "Two girls on Waxman road?" What? The acting is bad, the story is very stupid, and the music does not fit the scenes. Emotions suggested by the music are in such contrast with what is on the screen that your mind is cognitively at war with itself until you wish you were not watching this. A mess from start to finish. Movie making failure. Disastrous. BUT: two stars for being a train wreck oddly watchable enough to get through 1 hour and 45 minutes without giving up. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 09/02/23 Full Review Steve L Tense, gripping, overlooked thriller, fairly or not, panned by critics beholden to the original. Hopkins is superb in his first foray into playing characters not "dead from the knees down." Rourke is suitably scummy and threatening, as is the rest of his ragtag crew. Worth a watch. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/28/22 Full Review delysid d quit hating on this movie, it was great Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/17/21 Full Review Audience Member Very 80's feel to it, and a cool vibe to it. It could have been similar to Body Heat. But, it was not. Acting was not very good and the storyline was quite contrived. Too bad. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member What a strange, strange movie. I'm guessing we're supposed to like or at least be won over by Rourke's charisma in this, but nah, he's just an unrelatable psycho. So without a central character to connect to, this ends up being a fairly bland thriller. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/21/20 Full Review Read all reviews
Desperate Hours

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Cast & Crew

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Michael Cimino

Director

Mickey Rourke

Michael Bosworth

Anthony Hopkins

Tim Cornell

Mimi Rogers

Nora Cornell

Lindsay Crouse

Brenda Chandler

Kelly Lynch

Nancy Breyers

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Desperate Hours

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Movie Info

Synopsis With the help of his defense lawyer (Kelly Lynch), who is madly in love with him, psychotic killer Michael Bosworth (Mickey Rourke) escapes prison and goes on the run with his brother (Elias Koteas) and his partner in crime (David Morse). Killing time before his lawyer can meet up with them, the three invade the home of Tim (Anthony Hopkins) and Nora Cornell (Mimi Rogers), a bickering couple on the brink of divorce. Now the couple must fight to save their marriage, and their lives.
Director
Michael Cimino
Producer
Dino De Laurentiis, Michael Cimino
Distributor
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp., MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc.
Production Co
Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Rating
R
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 5, 1990, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 1, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$2.6M
Runtime
1h 46m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby
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