One of my all time favorites.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

In Los Angeles, the professional cold blood killer Lee Woods (James Spader), and his loser partner, the hit-man Dosmo Pizzo (Danny Aiello), are monitoring the house the aspiring Olympic skier Becky Foxx (Teri Hatcher) that is sleeping with her ex-husband Roy (Peter Horton). During the night, the killers break in the house and Lee dopes Becky with an injection and kills Roy. They flee and Lee shots Dosmo and blow up their car with Dosmo inside. Then he escapes from the crime scene with his Norwegian girlfriend Helga Svelgen (Charlize Theron). Meanwhile the bigoted veteran vice detective Alvin Strayer (Jeff Daniels) wants to bust an Asian massage parlor to deport the women, but his partner, the rookie and ambitious Wes Taylor (Eric Stoltz), does not agree with his attitude. When Becky awakes covered in blood, she runs to the street and stumbles upon Alvin and Wes that drive to her home to investigate the crime. Dosmos is wearing a bulletproof vest and survives; then he seeks shelter at the mansion of the wealthy and snobbish art dealer Allan Hopper (Greg Cruttwell). Allan has kidney stones and his assistant Susan Parish (Glenne Headly), who is permanently humiliated, is taking care of him. Meanwhile the washed-up and suicidal director Teddy Peppers (Paul Mazursky) is at the cemetery with his beloved dog Bogey visiting his mother's tomb with the intention of committing suicide. He sees the nurse Audrey Hopper (Marsha Mason) and offers Bogey to her. She invites him to visit her half-brother Allan that might be interested in the dog. Throughout two days, the lives of these characters are entwined and truth is disclosed."2 Days in the Valley" is one of the best unknown and underrated films that uses a sophisticated screenplay and many well-developed characters in the style of "Pulp Fiction". The combination of crime, thriller, action and comedy is perfect. "2 Days in the Valley" is also the debut of the hot Charlize Theron, in the role of a Norwegian woman. The direction is tight and the performances of the stellar cast are top- notch. What is more incredible is the lack of interest of distributors that have neglected this vintage film that was not released on Blu-Ray; in Brazil, "2 Days in the Valley" was only released on VHS and the imported DVD is very rare. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Contrato de Risco" ("Risk Contract")

'2 days in the valley' is, as many films are, modeled after the work of Quentin Tarantino. A complicated crime story mixed with a lot of (near absurd) comedy on a deadpan level. And this one, like some others do as well, gets away with it. There are plenty of fun characters, the entanglements are fun and at times even pretty original, and the actors do pretty good jobs, especially Danny Aiello, Gregg Cruttwell, Jeff Daniels, James Spader and Charlize Theron - though I have no specific complaints about anyone in particular.A crime story, as said, and with a lot of comedy, but, also, there are some dramatic touches here and there, which pushes '2 days...' into the sentimental, but never too much. Nearing the end, there are a few too many happy coincidences for my taste, but alas.7 out of 10.

Within the space of a couple of days, the lives of a disparate bunch of characters collide in circumstances that are so bizarre and unpredictable that it's impossible not to be drawn into the rather convoluted plot of "2 Days In The Valley". This is a crime movie which features an unusual mixture of violence, romance and comedy as well as a large number of characters who are all eccentric, dangerous or troubled in various ways and it's these characters that make this film so compelling and entertaining to watch.Lee Woods (James Spader) and Dosmo Pizzo (Danny Aiello) are the professional hit men who break into the home of sleeping Olympic skier, Becky Foxx (Teri Hatcher) and after giving her an injection that knocks her out, kill her unfaithful husband Roy (Peter Horton) who was lying in bed next to her. After making their escape, Lee shoots Dosmo and leaves him in a burning car so that the money they're due to be paid won't have to be split two ways.Unknown to Lee, Dosmo (who was wearing a bulletproof vest) survives and takes shelter at the nearby home of wealthy art dealer Allan Hopper (Greg Cruttwell) whose Kidney stones are causing him great pain. Initially, Dosmo holds Hopper and his assistant Susan Parish (Glenne Headly) at gunpoint and later, when Hopper's sister Audrey (Marsha Mason) arrives with a guy called Teddy Peppers (Paul Mazursky), they're also taken hostage.When Becky regains consciousness, she's covered in blood and horrified to find her estranged husband's dead body. In sheer panic she runs out into the road and asks the occupants of a nearby car for help. The two men in the car turn out to be vice cops who get drawn into the subsequent murder investigation, as well as two other homicide detectives who are officially assigned to the case. Lee returns to the scene of the crime to collect his money and this puts the lives of all the police officers in extreme danger. Not too surprisingly, the movie comes to its very violent conclusion when most of the surviving characters eventually meet up.The circumstances that Dosmo and Teddy found themselves in were similar as they were both older men who were seriously down-on-their-luck. Dosmo was a washed-up hit man who was only hired by Lee because he wanted to set him up as a fall-guy and Teddy, after many years as a TV director had seen his career degenerate to such a low point that he'd become suicidal. Against all the odds, in this story, both men found the promise of something better for their futures when they met Susan and Audrey. Aiello and Mazursky both do a great job in conveying their characters' humanity and despair.James Spader provides the movie's standout performance as the sadistic Lee who even uses a stopwatch as an instrument to inflict further pain and anguish on his helpless victims and Charlize Theron makes a strong impression as his equally evil girlfriend, Helga. Eric Stolz and Jeff Daniels add considerable colour to the proceedings as the two vice cops with very different attitudes to their jobs and Teri Hatcher is convincing as the treacherous Becky."2 Days In The Valley" was given mixed reviews when it was first released as many reviewers understandably compared it unfavourably with "Pulp Fiction" which had been released just two years earlier. However, in view of the number of years that have elapsed since the release of Tarantino's masterpiece, maybe it's now more pertinent to judge this movie on its own merits and recognise its positive values a bit more clearly.

Here is an example of a film that tries too hard to be something it isn't. In this case, 2 Days In The Valley tries to be several different things at once. It tries to come off as this sleek crime film that has numerous characters whose lives interconnect over the course of 2 days. It's cast includes Jeff Daniels, Eric Stoltz, Charlize Therone, James Spader and Teri Hatcher, just to name a few.James Spader tries to emulate this cool talking bad-ass who gives his victims one minute to think about their life before they die. He literally takes out a timer and does this before shooting someone. It's a neat idea that doesn't come off as threatening or 'cool', which is what it looks like they were trying to do. I did like his performances though, just the little things that the character does is annoying.I didn't care for any of the characters, except for one. Now, this is where the film really drops the ball and is my main problem with it. I thought Jeff Daniels had the most interesting character out of the entire batch, but his story is never resolved or revisited. They literally drop him out of the picture half way through and this saddens me because I didn't give a crap about anyone else.I give the film props for the Teri Hatcher VS Charlize Theron cat fight. Even if it was just for the sake of having these two cuties get the guys all riled up. Their stories needed more attention I thought and others just didn't gel well with the rest of the script. A lot of the comedy was off and didn't flow with the rest of the film either.