A
crooked cop and abusive father like Wayne Caraway needs someone like Dale “Hurricane”
Dixon from One False Move to put a
stopper in his bottle. Unfortunately, instead of a showdown between Bill Paxton
characters, we will watch Paxton’s Caraway completely dominate a gawky teenager
who just can’t compete. Still, it is fun to watch another vintage performance
from the late, great Paxton in Nathan Morlando’s Mean Dreams (trailer
here),
which opens tonight in New York.
Sensitive
loner Jonas Ford sure takes notice when Casey Caraway moves to town with her
father, the new sheriff’s deputy. For some reason, she also takes a liking to
him, even though his bipolar Church Lady mother does her best to scare her off.
Of course, it’s nothing compared to what Caraway will do. Not only does he
raise his hand to Casey, he also appears to have an unhealthy need to control
her.
Determined to save his new girlfriend and avoid another beating of his
own, Ford happens to be skulking about when Caraway turns drug deal into a
multiple murder. He rashly decides Wayne’s stash of drug cash will be their
nest egg, so he grabs the girl, the money, and her loyal dog Blaise and heads
off into the Badlands. Naturally, Caraway will follow hot on their trail, like
the devil himself.
Sophie
Nélisse and Josh Wiggins are both duller than dishwater as the teens on the
run. That causes a fundamental imbalance within the film, because Paxton goes
for broke as the flamboyantly evil Caraway and Colm Feore adds further
villainous zest as his partner in crime, the crooked Sheriff. Frankly, the bad
guys have the straight folks thoroughly outclassed. The only exception is Joe
Cobden, who quietly devastates in a handful of pivotal scenes as Ford’s meek
and self-loathing father Elbert.
