I think the theory was good - take a well worn story, which almost always works (siege/home invasion), and add a hot star like Mickey Rourke, some great actors like Mimi Rogers and Anthony Hopkins, and give it to Michael Cimino.
It's got 90s bloat which we saw in a lot of remakes around this time (eg The Getaway). I think Cimino struggles with cramped, indoor stories. His famous films - all of them until here - were basically oudoor stories. Even the indoor sequences felt spectacular eg Russian Roulette in Deer Hunter, the restaurant in Year of the Dragon. The scenes set outdoors here - Kelly Lynch on the opening, for instance, or when David Morse escapes - has a life the indoor stuff doesn't.
Cimino struggles with character interactions. Desperate Hours should be full of them - we keep waiting to see humanity in Rourke towards Hopkins/Rogers/Smith... but don't. Sexual attraction/repulsion, an understanding, people realising stuff about themselves, interesting gang dynamics... none of that is really there. I kept waiting for a psycho convict to do something... no. There's a nice moment where a convict recognises a video game played by Hopkins' son and waited to see that relationship developed... No. Smith is a bratty teen and I waited to see a convict fall for her (or Rogers) - or threaten them. No. Yes, cliches, or tropes, but at least drama. Hopkins acts all tough, which is foolish when people have your family. He has a younger lover he left Rogers for who would be a great person to turn up... instead there's a real estate agent who is killed. Also Smith's boyfriend appears but they don't move there.
It's one of those films where maybe they were too afraid of cliches. So they didn't do the cliches but they didn't replace them with anything.
The movie needed to be directed by, I don't know, John Badham or someone. That's no diss on Badham - I think that director was better with characterisation and more conventional material.
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