Go with Me

'Go with Me' (aka 'Blackway') is a dismal waste-of-time, frittering away the talents of a decent cast on a routine revenge tale. Its story is as threadbare as an old dishrag, the direction dull, the dialog lifeless, the performances wooden and the cinematography colorless. Apart from a paycheck, it's hard to imagine what drew any of the participants to this mundane material, with no sign the actors and director were doing anything more than going through the motions. The plot of this contemporary Western is pitifully weak. The villain is revealed as a would-be rapist and killer of domestic cats within the first five minutes, and the rest of the film depicts three misfits searching for this bully-boy crime baron among the local lumberjack community. There's minimal character development as the oddball posse pursues their prey around the overcast mountain landscape in a rusting pick-up. From time to time their inquiries result in tired scuffles, until the film eventually sputters up to a night-time showdown at the bad guy's forest hideaway. After the adversaries go through their ho-hum appointment with destiny, another dank day dawns.

The movie didn't hold onto me.One of the most boring movie that I have watched. More could have been done to the plot of the movie. The starting is interesting but after a while the the plot became too predictable. No surprise elements are there. Anthony Hopkins's acting & portray of his character was good. Julia Stiles played the character of a woman who is in distress & in need of help. I didn't find her acting worth watching. Alexander Ludwig did justice to his role. A thriller is much more than what has been showed in the movie. There is no such twist or suspense. Just plain & simple story telling. Much hype has been created about the character "blackway" in the first half of the movie but couldn't justified it in the later half. According to me the movie is not worth watching. 2/10

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Lillian (Julia Stiles), a young woman in a small town coming to terms with the death of her mother (or her cat, anyway) finds herself being stalked by weird corrupt cop turned crime lord Blackway (Ray Liotta-who killed the cat, in case you were wondering. Just 'cos he's an arsehole, I guess.) With the local police proving pretty useless, she turns to old tree logger Lester (Anthony Hopkins), who's struggling with the death of his daughter, for help. The little old man, with his assistant Nate (Alexander Ludwig), proves more resourceful than expected, leading to a dramatic final confrontation with Blackway. At what's now a very late stage in his career, one time Hannibal Lecter himself Anthony Hopkins is now surfacing in these disposable thriller type of films, this latest of which has turned up straight on DVD, and with good reason. With its made for TV production values pretty low budget, this is a dismal, deadly dull affair that fails to come together and work. It feels like all the right ingredients were there, but it just failed to have any effect. The screen is drained of any light, leaving a grey, dinghy look over it all, and all that's in its place is a boring thriller where you fail to care about the story or any of the characters at all. Such a competent cast should have seen things work out better, with the likes of Hopkins and fellow veteran actor Hol Holbrook on hand, as well as Liotta who actually works well as a really nasty piece of work who gets off on making people feel uncomfortable. It's no less a failure, though, and one to be missed. *

Released in 2015, "Blackway" is a crime drama/thriller starring Anthony Hopkins as a retired logger who comes to the aid of a harassed woman (Julia Stiles) in Pinterville, Oregon, after the yella sheriff refuses to help. Alexander Ludwig plays the young stuttering redneck who tags along while Ray Liotta appears as the titular heavy. Hal Holbrook has a small role. This is a grim backwoods drama/thriller with elements of "The Edge" (1997), "First Blood" (1982), "Cry of the Owl" (2009) and "Walking Tall" (2004). It's not great like the first two, not even close, but it's almost on par with "Cry of the Owl" and slightly superior to "Walking Tall." Yet it never cops an unrealistic tone like "Walking Tall" does with its overblown final act. It's a low-key slow burn focusing on life in the logging communities in the Great Northwest. Speaking of which, one of the best thing about "Blackway" is the mysterious forest cinematography. There are also some small gems to mine, if you watch closely, like the fact that "man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward." Trouble just comes in different packages, as Hopkin's character laments before the showdown. "Blackway" is essentially a Western taking place in the modern day, substituting pickup trucks and bikes for horses. The movie's simple and straight-forward, which turns some people off. But since 'twist' films are so commonplace now playing it straight almost comes off fresh. I shouldn't close without pointing out that Stiles has better womanly curves now that she's older; and looks great in tight jeans. The film runs 91 minutes and was shot in British Columbia (Enderby, Vernon, West Kelowna, Lumby, Armstrong & Vancouver). It was directed by Daniel Alfredson from Castle Freeman Jr.'s novel. GRADE: B-

I gave it a four because of the cast. If they weren't in it I would have given it a one. I found it when looking for movies with Julia Stiles and was excited to watch it. I had forgotten that Anthony Hopkins and Ray Liotta were co-starring, so when the credits came up my hopes went way up too. The only positive thing I can say is that at least it wasn't a very long movie. However, I am now wishing for a time machine, not to profit, but to get back the 90 minutes I wasted of my life. I truly don't understand how people of the Hopkins caliber take these roles. Are they that much in need of income? I also don't understand who agrees to product a film this bad. It truly amazes me. Awful. Just awful.

If you want to watch something as a drinking game, and you want to get really drunk...take a swig for every time they say "Blackway"... Apparently another review counted 66...and I was shocked, as only halfway through (when I gave up and stopped watching), it seemed like it had to be much more. Weak, lazy dialog and script with wholly unoriginal story. It's great if you want to exert zero attention and like the way the name Blackway sounds

"Sure would be better for everyone involved if she just left town." Lillian (Stiles) has just returned to her hometown after years away. Once she becomes the target of a stalker she asks for help but only Lester (Hopkins) is willing to offer it. Now the two of them must not only find out who the mysterious Blackway is but stop him before things get too far. This is a movie that is first and foremost tense and a good mystery story. On the other hand the movie is a little generic and cliché and would be a really good TV movie if not for the cast. The cast in this really raises the movie above that. Hopkins is good and Stiles plays her part well, but there were a few plot points that were added and either forgotten about or didn't seem to fit with the rest of the movie. All that said, the movie isn't bad and is a decent watch for what it is. Overall, a really good TV movie that became more due to the casting alone. I give this a B-.

I read the synopsis: Anthony Hopkins plays a man who helps a woman, played by Julia Styles who is being harassed by Ray Liotta and the cops won't do anything to stop him. Now I assumed because Anthony Hopkins was the lead that this would have more drama. Well if it's trying for that, it failed. What I was seeing was a slow and quiet action film. That may seem odd with Hopkins as the lead but the movie possibly would have been far more better if Vin Diesel or Jason Statham was at the helm. In fact Statham did a movie called Homefront, which at it's core base is a lot like this one. Of course, Hopkins is too...seasoned in years to do what Statham can do so they had to slow down the pace of the action and have Alexander Ludwig take the hits as Hopkins sidekick It's an odd movie because of that and I think what really throws you off is the choice of Hopkins when aged action stars like Schwarzenegger or Stallone would have made a better fit. Even Di Niro would have made a better choice. I think this thriller could have been something more watchable if they got an actor that could have made the role more vibrant

This was a movie that started well and really set me up for a suspenseful movie but unfortunately it never really quite delivered. I thought that both Julia Stiles and Alexander Ludwig were pretty good and of course Anthony Hopkins, but lets be honest this was a okay script but maybe the director wasn't to good? disappointing especially since I've read the book. The scenes of British Columbia is beautiful and makes me want to visit but also gives the movie a cold feeling about it as if you were there. Ray Liotta never really struck me as a great bad guy. But he did okay here, I think this movie didn't quite hit it's potential.

You have to give Anthony Hopkins a lot of credit for making Blackway a movie better than it really was. I see reviews saying that Hopkins is too old to play the part as vigilante. This movie would have have bombed if there would have been a more classic vigilante hero as the lead character. The whole story revolved around the payback that Hopkin's character needed to serve up against Blackway for being an A-hole on the traffic stop when Blackway was a cop. Les (Hopkins) knew that he couldn't take Blackway alone so he enlisted the help of Nate right outta the gate. The addition of Hal Holbrook as Whizzer was well cast and added a nice touch to the story. The ending seemed a bit rushed but still had an impact that left you satisfied with the results. Overall, this was a movie that I enjoyed watching and that is all you can ask from a movie in the end.