Against All Odds (1984 film)
Against All Odds is a 1984 American neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges and James Woods alongside Jane Greer, Alex Karras, Richard Widmark and Dorian Harewood. A remake of Out of the Past (1947), a film in which Greer played the femme fatale, this film's plot is about an aging American football star who is hired by a mobster to find his girlfriend.
Against All Odds
Eric Hughes
- William S. Gilmore
- Taylor Hackford
Columbia-Delphi Productions
- March 2, 1984
121 minutes
United States
English
$13 million
$21.7 million (domestic only)
The film's soundtrack, nominated for a Grammy Award, featured songs from Big Country, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Stevie Nicks and Genesis breakout stars Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins; the last wrote and performed the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award[1] as Best Original Song[2] and for a Golden Globe Award[3] as Best Original Song, as well as winning the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.[4][5]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 14 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10.[7] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 42 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[8]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying it dragged in places due to "a lot of plot", but was redeemed by the subtle use of "social criticism".[9] Janet Maslin of The New York Times highlights the effective contrast of Woods and Bridges.[10]