Slayground (1983)
4/10
Slayground
27 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of those movies where a robbery leads to an accidental murder(the driver's reckless speeding causes a car crash resulting in the death of a little girl; the dead girl's father sending out the hit on those responsible)with those involved paying a steep price for the hit and run. Peter Coyote is Stone, your garden variety criminal who is on the lam after a hired assassin kills his partners. Stone is shot in the back, when the assassin almost guns him down in a seemingly abandoned service station, which leaves metal in his spine that needs surgical repair or else he'll be confined to a wheel chair. He heads for London after sending his wife to Mexico for her own safety. In London is an old pal of his Terry Abbatt(Mel Smith), once an "associate"(in other words, the two worked on certain robberies together), who owes Stone for saving his life. But, the hit-man will follow suit which concludes in Terry's amusement park late at night.

Cold, uninvolving thriller with even Peter Coyote, oftentimes quite reliable, failing to register. Lone asset, in my opinion, is the moody photography by Stephen Smith and Herb Wagreich, particularly the night sequences featuring the enigmatic killer in his hat, where the director keeps, for the most part, his face concealed. The violence is left off-screen and all we get are murky "after the act" shots of the victims.
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