Starring: Kim Basinger, Terence Stamp, Val Kilmer, Gailard Sartain,
Zach English
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Producers: Martin Bregman, Willie Baer, and Michael S. Bregman
Screenplay: William Davies and William Osborne
Music: Brad Fiedel
Released by Universal Pictures
For six months, Karen McCoy (Kim Basinger) has been serving time for a bungled bank robbery she committed for Jack Schmidt (Terence Stamp). Naturally, Karen isn't too fond of the man she blames for her prison sentence, and he's mad that he didn't get the contents of the vault. Upon her release, she finds herself surrounded by corruption, all of which is designed to get her back into the burglary market. Her parole officer (Gailard Sartain) is in Schmidt's employ, and, very soon, her son (Zach English) has been kidnapped. Her only friend appears to be Schmidt's cousin's son, J.T. Barker (Val Kilmer), who agrees to help her.
At first, I wasn't sure if The Real McCoy was supposed to be a thriller, a drama, or a comedy. It quickly became apparent that it doesn't matter. Encumbered by a plot that has no conception of reality and a bunch of stale characters, The Real McCoy has little, if anything, to recommend it. In fact, this movie is bad enough that Kim Basinger's lackluster performance doesn't hurt it. The interaction between Karen and her son is horrendous, matched only by the supposed romance between Karen and J.T. Basinger and Val Kilmer have nothing that remotely resembles chemistry.
The Real McCoy is overburdened with cliches. After escaping the clutches of the bad guys, Karen and her son flee to their hidden getaway car -- which obviously fails to start right away. Karen's ex-husband is, of course, a complete and total sleaze. The cops are all either interminably stupid or on the take. And the list goes on... except I can't reveal the most absurd of these without spoiling the ending (as if it really makes any difference).
With movies like this, I always wonder why they were ever made in the first place. Even Basinger fans (are there really such people?) will likely be disappointed by this production. It's one of the summer's least entertaining movies, exhibiting lifelessness as its chief characteristic. When it comes to bad films, there's no doubt that this is the real McCoy.
© 1993, 1996 James Berardinelli