People are voting emotionally.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Film-Noir Scholars (and that includes the evolutionary sub-genre Neo-Noir) seem to Love this Jim Thompson Adaptation Directed by James Foley. The Director is at Home with this Type of Thing, but here He delivers a rather Weak and Unstylish Film.Style is Essential to Film-Noir. It's Best when Wrapped up in Surreal Flourishes that give the Sense of a World Off Its Axis, Out of its Orbit, and destined for Oblivion. Cynical Characters and Snappy Patter also work to Make the Noir World Accessible to Outsiders Peeking in on the Doomed Characters.None of that is Evident Here Except On Occasion and in Spurts. One of the Weakest Elements is the Miscasting of Rachel Ward. She looks Anemic and Awful and Hardly the Sex Magnet She is Playing. After the initial Scene in the Bar, She Loses Her Edge and Vacillates wildly in Attitude and Behavior. Jason Patric Fares much Better and Bruce Dern is Expectedly Eccentric and Scary.But the Plot is Muddled, the Kidnapping Never is Convincing and the follow-up Third-Act is All Over the Place. It's an Awkward Movie that is Never as Compelling as its Pretensions, starting with a Title that is Nonsensical. Overall, Hardly One of the Best Neo-Noirs and is about to Below Average, although as Stated above some Credentialed Critics Disagree.You Might want to Check This One Out, it's Not Awful, and Make Up Your Own Mind about its Value as a Top-Notch Neo-Noir and as an Entertainment.

Never mind the retro '40s pulp fiction title: this oddly haphazard adaptation of yet another Jim Thompson crime potboiler is Film Noir without the noir. There aren't any shadows in the Southern California desert setting, or in any of the (count 'em) three principal characters, least of all the ersatz anti-hero: a punch drunk ex-fighter (Jason Patric) with an unfocused but attractive 50 yard stare and a bruised attitude not unlike young Marlon Brando's circa 'On The Waterfront'. After drifting into suburban Palm Springs he becomes the pawn in a kidnap scheme which, naturally, goes wrong, but how or why and with what consequences is never really clear: the motivations in the final scenes are muddled, to say the least. Patric does his best to give the role an appropriate smoldering intensity, but for all his posturing it's obvious he's a white-hatted good guy from the concern he shows for the diabetic young kidnap victim. Elsewhere Bruce Dern projects his trademark sleazy congeniality, and Rachel Ward is totally miscast as a dangerous Femme-Fatale: it's unlikely she could drive a man around the corner of lukewarm distraction, much less over the edge of sexual obsession.

After Dark, My Sweet is a film with a classic noir set-up: a desperate man teams up with a violent drifter and an alcoholic widow to kidnap a rich child. Director James Foley takes this plot and makes the best film that could possibly have been made with an already good premise. It helps that this is based on a short novel by Jim Thompson, a writer whose pulpy crime plots-which focus more on twisted characters than plot details-seem to work especially well on the screen.The main character here is ex-boxer Kid Collins, a drifter who is troubled by an incident from his past. He's so troubled that he seems strange to everyone he encounters; this inspires extreme reactions so that people he has just met are equally as likely to try physical violence on him as they are to try to take him home. His skewed perspective is especially well represented by scenes that suddenly end with jarring transitions that seem to strike like lightning. Troubled as he is, he usually seems to have the best interests of others at heart. Given a chance to escape the plot he's about to be pulled into, he refuses it because he sees a chance for a real connection with the widow.So, this film has all the best elements of noir: a troubled anti-hero, a desperate criminal plot, and a sense of weary inevitability in the way the plot unfolds. The visuals, editing, direction, and acting are all top notch and this has one of those great endings that gives the viewer a new way to look at everything that has happened before. This compares well with the best noir and neo-noir films ever made; in fact, I'm shocked by its obscurity.

Three losers, a dirty ex-cop (Bruce Dern), an alcoholic seductress (Rachel Ward), and a punchy boxer (Jason Patric) become entwined in a botched kidnapping caper. Believe no one, trust no one, especially your partners in the crime. The story unfolds entirely from the viewpoint of the three kidnappers. "After Dark My Sweet" is slow, but never boring or predictable. I can't say I was totally satisfied with the outcome, and some plot threads dangle uncomfortably. Nevertheless, a better than average noir film, with competent character development and acting, nice photography, and interesting musical score. Marginally recommended. - MERK