"Deadly Pursuit" marked the (acting) comeback of the honorable Sidney Poitier after slightly more than a decade of absence, and he ALMOST couldn't had chosen a better film for it! The first half is a sublime, near-perfect, edge-of-the-seat thriller. It begins with an intense and ruthless home-jacking/armed robbery situation that doesn't end too well, and it infuriates the presiding FBI-agent Stantin (Poitier) so badly that he goes after the psychopath with a personal grudge. The chase leads to the remote Northwestern mountains and forests, as the psycho infiltrates into a guided group of fishers/hikers on his trail to Canada. Stantin and local tracker Knox (Berenger), whose girlfriend (Alley) is the unsuspecting guide, reluctantly team up to go after the group.
The greatest gimmick in Harv Zimmel's script is that, throughout the whole hostage opening, the face of the killer/jewel thief remains unseen, and his identity stays unknown when he sneaks into the fishing party. So, for a while, Kirsty Alley is alone in the woods with five potential psychopaths (and it literally could be any of them), which provides "Deadly Pursuit" with a uniquely uncanny atmosphere.
Alas, the revelation comes too quick (in my humble opinion) and after that "Deadly Pursuit" turns into a routine cat-and-mouse thriller full of clichés, macho-showdowns, with only stupendous locations and landscapes to admire.
The greatest gimmick in Harv Zimmel's script is that, throughout the whole hostage opening, the face of the killer/jewel thief remains unseen, and his identity stays unknown when he sneaks into the fishing party. So, for a while, Kirsty Alley is alone in the woods with five potential psychopaths (and it literally could be any of them), which provides "Deadly Pursuit" with a uniquely uncanny atmosphere.
Alas, the revelation comes too quick (in my humble opinion) and after that "Deadly Pursuit" turns into a routine cat-and-mouse thriller full of clichés, macho-showdowns, with only stupendous locations and landscapes to admire.