MOVIE REVIEW : Actors ‘Rescue’ This Long, Uneven Film

“Rescue Me” (citywide), a coming-of-age adventure, has its affecting moments, but they don’t add up to anything special despite strong starring performances by Stephen Dorff and Michael Dudikoff.

Uneven in most aspects, especially in pacing, it’s too improbable too much of the time, overly long and yet another picture that derives its inspiration from other movies rather than from life.

Dorff is well-cast as a bright, small-town Nebraska 17-year-old who winds up joining forces with Dudikoff’s down-on-his luck Vietnam vet in pursuing a pair of kidnapers (William Lucking, Peter DeLuise) who’ve made off with the local teen queen (Ami Dolenz, amusing as a near-fearless but spoiled-rotten type) who Dorff adores from afar.

Writer Mike Snyder deftly propels Dorff and Dudikoff into a father-and-son relationship, which is the film’s key strength; unfortunately, the film keeps cutting to the kidnapers with an increasingly diminishing effect.

The problem here is that the more we see of them the more it defies credibility that Lucking, always a convincing heavy, would team up with the goofy DeLuise, whom director Arthur Allan Seidelman unwisely allows to mug to the max. Sixties’ leading man Ty Hardin has a nice cameo as a none-too-swift Colorado sheriff.

Strictly a minor item, “Rescue Me” (rated PG-13 for language, mild sex, some violence) nonetheless effectively showcases Dorff, who has a more freshly written part to work with than the capable Dudikoff, who makes the most of his stereotypical taciturn loner.

‘Rescue Me’

Michael Dudikoff: Daniel (Mac) McDonald

Stephen Dorff: Fraser Sweeney

Ami Dolenz: Ginny Grafton

Peter DeLuise: Rowdy

William Lucking: Kurt

Dee Wallace-Stone: Sarah Sweeney

A Cannon Pictures presentation in association with Apollo Pictures. Director Arthur Allan Seidelman. Producer Richard Alfieri. Executive producers Jere Henshaw, David A. Smitas. Screenplay Mike Snyder. Cinematographer Hanania Baer. Editor Bert Glatstein. Costumes Lennie Barin. Music Al Kasha, Joel Hirschhorn, David Waters. Production design Elayne Barbara Ceder. Set decorator Gary Moreno. Sound Richard Birnbaum. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13 (for language, mild sex, some violence).