the audience applauded

Excellent film with a gripping story!

Dreadfully Boring

Disturbing yet enthralling

The best thing about the movie is the opening scene. The most enjoyable part is watching John Goodman in his first movie. Those two things take a total of about two minutes. There really is no other reason to watch, though it did have some potential. Alert viewers might also spot the not yet ready for prime time J.T. Walsh and Dann Florek.

Eddie Macon (John Schneider of 'Dukes of Hazzard' TV fame) is a basically good man, who's ended up in prison on trumped-up charges. Before the movie begins, he's already attempted one escape, and as it opens, he's pulling off another one. If he gets caught again, he's going back in for life. He takes off on foot for Mexico, to reunite with his wife Chris (Leah Ayres) and son Bobby (Matthew Meece). Relentlessly pursuing him is stubborn, over the hill detective Carl Marzack (Kirk Douglas), who wants to prove to himself that he's still got what it takes to be a cop. At least, that's what he tells a friend.In his first film vehicle, the engaging Schneider does a creditable job, playing a likable enough guy with the odds stacked against him. Among other episodes, Eddie will be threatened by a snake, tormented by redneck ranching family the Potts, and end up in the company of Jilly Buck (lovely Lee Purcell, delivering the movies' most interesting performance), who is willing to provide him assistance for no other reason than that it's a "slow Wednesday". Schneider provides a fair amount of beefcake moments for those that are interested, and also croons two songs on the soundtrack.Competently shot (by James A. Contner), decently paced (director Jeff Kanew, who adapted the novel by James McLendon, was also the editor), and well acted, "Eddie Macon's Run" is not a great chase picture, but it is an adequate one, although there may be viewers that will wish there was more action. (There's actually only ONE car crash in this whole thing.) Douglas may be a little old for his role, but he's fun to watch. The first rate supporting cast features a respectable amount of familiar faces: Lisa Dunsheath, Tom Noonan, and Jay O. Sanders as the aforementioned Potts family, J.C. Quinn, Gil Rogers, Todd Allen, Nesbitt Blaisdell, Matthew Cowles, Vic Polizos, Dann Florek, J.T. Walsh (in his film debut), John Goodman, and Mark Margolis.All in all, "Eddie Macon's Run" is not memorable but it IS entertaining.Seven out of 10.

I remember reading the book on which this film is based a long time ago – before the film was made, that's for sure. Ever since I discovered it had been made into a film I've wanted to watch it, but it seems to be one of those films that is only rarely shown on the box. Now that I have, while I'm not exactly disappointed with what I saw, it's fair to say that so much more could have been made of the source material by a more accomplished writer than journeyman Jeff Kanew. I remember the tone of the book being quite dark, almost noirish, but none of that comes across in the film. For the most part, it has the look of a TV movie and some producer made a monumental mistake when he decided to allow John Schneider to sing his own syrupy songs on the soundtrack. But then, it has to be said that the music matches perfectly those early sickly scenes of domestic bliss between Macon (Schneider), his wife (Leah Ayres) and son Bobby (Matthew Meece).Pretty soon, it's Bobby, not the scenes, that becomes sickly, which is where Eddie's plight begins. It's where Schneider's plight begins too because, every time the script asks him to emote, his TV credentials come right to the fore. The fact that the script is downright awful doesn't help either.Macon's run takes him across a deep south populated by stereotypical rednecks, stereotypical small-town cops, stereotypical floozies, stereotypical bar-room drunks (including an impossibly young J. T. Walsh) and a stereotypical tart with a heart. Despite this, the film manages to remain entertaining, and motors along when it's focusing on the darker aspects of the tale rather than trying to pull at your heartstrings. Hot on Macon's heels is grizzly cop Marzack (Kirk Douglas). Douglas is too old for the part, and his judgment when it came to choosing roles was all shot to hell by the 80s, but he still shows Schneider up in their few scenes together.For all the hardships Macon is forced to endure, you know there will be a happy ending. It turns out that Marzack, like Lee Purcell's tart-with-a-heart, simply envies Macon his picture-perfect family, something he managed to keep well-hidden from us all for all but the last five minutes of the film

I saw this movie when it was released. Its a very good movie (I thought) and, the acting was better then your avg. "B" type Movies. Kurt Douglass while showing his years here, plays the street wise detective hot on the trail and his acting is still top notch. I found the story line original and creative which added to the suspense. I gave it high marks because the events in which Eddie finds himself in trouble could happen to any of us.When Eddie discovers that his job is taking a 25% cut for letting him work there he leaves in a huff. Mad, he drives off at a high rate of speed only to be pulled over by the small town cops that seem to enjoy busting Eddies chops. Already upset, Eddie finds himself in a scrap with the cops who bring him in. Now facing the local town judge, he's given a ridiculous jail term for his infraction. Eddie decides he's got to figure a way out of jail. He comes up with a clever way of not only pulling it off but, he's planned out details of his escape route as well