Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I of course watched this because I liked Castle and Stana Magic. She is lovely as always, but her usual shtick doesn't play as well against the less charismatic lead, and also he is the straight man not the loveable buffoon. Her characters brother is murdered but she gets over it in about 3 minutes since he is always needing money, so screw that loser. Very implausible plot with lots of eye-rolling. Just not a good movie in my opinion.

So much fun! A real delight, even after multiple viewings. If you haven't seen The Rendezvous yet, do so. Sit down with a bowl of popcorn - or plate of Christmas cookies with the family - and pretend you're in a movie theater back when films swept you into romance and adventure and good humor with over-the-top villains, crazy twists, and charming leads. Stana Katic and Raza Jaffrey have chemistry to spare. The direction, cinematography, and score are all topnotch.

In the opening scene, David Rozman, is chained to the steering wheel, notice that on the other end from the steering wheel at his forearm is leather bindings, as easily cut with the Swiss Army Knife that David Rozman had used to crave the symbols of the two cats into his forearm. Removing the leather padding even if there was chain would provide enough space to slip his forearm and hand out of the bindings.1960s to 1970s Mercedes Benzs were built like tanks, however, you can slide the seat back, and using leverage and the actual strength of the steering wheel start kicking the bottom or top of the steering wheel to break the bolts, or bend the column plate enough so that the steering wheel comes off from the steering column.Unless you ran out of fuel you can continue to drive on the tire rims to reach safety, even with the tires shot.Having been to worse deserts than at the Kingdom of Jordan, there are different kinds of sand, from granular, to fine nearly talcum powder sand, unless you follow known routes you and your vehicle can get swallowed up by "soft sand" that was wind blown and gathered in large holes.Rule Travel by Night, sleep during Day. Walking at Night can keep you warm enough as not to freeze to death, sleeping by Day minimizes water loss (sweat).Pillar of Smoke by Day, Pillar of Light by Night. Get the spare tire, let out the air, get whatever burns even the last drops of fuel from the fuel tank (even if you have to puncture the gas tank using a tire iron), or the rag in the gas tank thing, burning a tire will produce so much thick black smoke somebody will show up, usually Law Enforcement.Modern Border Guards at most "Middle East" Nations are armed and equipped, including Bulletproof vests due to Muslim Terrorists as Smugglers. Usually, there is an "Overwatch" Sniper or a 12.7mm Machinegun providing protection to the Border Guards.Gunshot wound at close range to the abdominal area, not usually survivable, velocity is too high, hydrostatic pressures would have ruptured main organs, bullet will fragment, even cutting spine, bullet fragments do not travel in a straight line and may end up anywhere. Jake Alshadi would have died within minutes of being shot.

'Action and romance', what's not to like about this movie! As a fan of Stana Katic ,I Ithoroughly enjoyed the suspense and surprises as the story played out. 'Chemistry' between the leading characters is evident and the story line moved quickly and kept me on the seat of my chair. Once again, Stana has chosen a 'strong' leading female role. The locations are 'beautiful and inviting'.