Route 9 (TV 1998)

Two cops steal 1.5 million from a crime scene and try to cover their tracks.

Director:

David Mackay

Writers:

Brendan Broderick, Rob Kerchner

Stars:

Kyle MacLachlan, Peter Coyote, Amy Locane

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kyle MacLachlan	...	Booth Parker
Peter Coyote	...	Sheriff Dwayne Hogan
Amy Locane	...	Sally Hogan
Wade Williams	...	Earl Whitney (as Wade Andrew Williams)
Miguel Sandoval	...	Jesse Segundo
Roma Maffia	...	Agent Ellen Marks
Joseph D. Reitman	...	Cliff
Scott Coffey	...	Nate
Silas Weir Mitchell	...	Agent Paul Danning
Christopher Murray	...	Cowboy
Ernest M. Garcia	...	Henchman
Teddy Lane	...	Henchman
Gary Carlos Cervantes	...	Gunman in Bronco (as Carlos Cervantes)
Robert Peters	...	Booker
Aviva Huston	...	Trudy

Storyline

When two small-town deputy sheriffs stumble onto a crime scene where a drug buy had gone bad and everyone was shot dead, they discover a suitcase full of cash - $1.5 million. They decide to take the cash and cover-up the theft by burning the car the cash was in. However, things take a turn for the worse when they discover that one of the men is still alive and he has overheard their plans. They then have to suffocate him to stop him from revealing their plans. Things get even worse though when the DEA shows up and tell them that the man was one of their agents and he was wired. And then things take another bad turn when the coroner, who first received the body, discovers the tape first, switches it and wants a 50% cut.

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Plot Keywords:

cash | sheriff | coroner | deputy | drugs | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 November 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

A kísértés útján

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Capital Arts Entertainment, Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA), PFG Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

US Route 9 runs from Laurel, Delaware (US Route 13) to Champlain, NY near the USA-Canada border and includes a ferry connection between Lewes, Delaware, and Cape May, New Jersey.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Nate: [to Cliff] You gonna shake his hand? You should shake his hand, man. At least give him a little nod or a wink or something. You know?
Nate: [to Danning] What do you think?
Agent Paul Danning: I think we're late and I gotta take a leak.

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Connections

Features The Lesser Evil (1998)

User Reviews

Seen it all before and better

In a small town, deputy's Booth Parker and Earl Whitney are looking for a missing dog when they come across a drug deal which has gone wrong. They find over a million dollars in one of the cars and, with everyone of the criminals dead, they decide to keep it. One criminal is still alive and Earl kills him to cover their tracks. However the next day Agent Ellen Marks arrives in the town to investigate further as one of the `criminals' was an undercover DEA agent who had not only told his superiors about the money in the car, but was also wearing a tape recorder on the job. As they try to cover their tracks, Booth and Earl's simple plan gets more and more out of control.

The plot will be familiar to anyone who has seen more than a few movies in their life! The most recent comparison will the Rami's A Simple Plan, but there are plenty of films where the plot is, in essence the same as this. However this is not a problem if it is done well, the aforementioned film was very enjoyable and delivered well. However Route 9 feels tired and old before it even really gets started. The basic plot is OK but it is never really as tense as it could have been, at some points the twists that are introduced to keep the main characters in a state of flux are a little too much and the web becomes more tangled rather than ensnaring.

The film doesn't really develop the characters beyond what we expect from them. Instead of them being real people they are simply the type of characters one would expect to find in this type of film – this takes away from the film as it never got me on that level. The cast do average work though despite this. MacLachlan is pretty good in the lead and does have to carry the film's moral centre, Williams has it easy as the reckless side. Support from names such as Coyote, Maffia, Sandoval etc is all OK but no one really manages to rise above the material.

Overall it is not a bad film in itself. However the problem is that it doesn't seem to want to distinguish itself in any way. It takes a familiar story line, fills it with characters who will be known to everyone as they are so thinly developed so as to be types rather than people and lets the action go just where you knew it would. Passable but this has been done much better than this.