Next Of Kin (1989) * *

Directed by:  John Irvin

Starring:  Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Helen Hunt, Ben Stiller, Adam Baldwin, Michael J. Pollard, Andreas Katsulas

Despite having a noticable limp, Patrick Swayze became a pretty big action film star in his day.     Fueled by the success of Dirty Dancing, Swayze would star in Road House and then this film, both released in 1989.     Next Of Kin is a slight improvement over Dirty Dancing because, unlike Dirty Dancing, I didn't absolutely hate it.

Next Of Kin is a silly, but occasionally entertaining film about a Chicago cop caught between two worlds:  His Kentucky backwoods upbringing and "civilized" Chicago, where he is married to a concert violinist (Hunt) and lives in a palatial apartment which shows they're doing well money-wise.
Swayze's Truman Gates is a smart detective whose brother is killed by an up-and-coming local mobster (Baldwin) attempting to hijack his truck.    When he arrives in Kentucky for the funeral, Truman is treated coldly by his family, especially his brother Briar (Neeson), with whom he has a long-standing cold war.     Briar wants cold-blooded, violent revenge, while Truman tries to assure his family in vain that the Chicago police will handle it.      Briar doesn't wait around for the ink to dry on the police reports before he treks to Chicago to find the killers.

It doesn't come as much of a surprise that Briar and Truman will reconcile their differences as they track down their brother's killer.    If you're expecting the rest of the Gates clan to sit idly by on the sidelines, then you're watching the wrong movie.    There are a whole bunch of chases, shootouts, and a climactic fight in a dark graveyard which puts Truman's archery skills to good use.     It's also interesting to note that none of the actors who play Italian-American mobsters (other than the stooges who exist only to be targets for Briar and/or Truman) in this film are not Italian-American.  

The film is standard in every atom of its being.    It doesn't deviate from the road even a little to show us some spontaneity or life.    There aren't any flashes of sly humor or goofy fun.     Arnold Schwarzenegger was always at home in action films because he knew not to take them too seriously.    If Swayze starred in Commando, I doubt he would've been able to handle lines like, "I like you Sully, that's why I'm going to kill you last." like Arnold did.     I think he was more comfortable dancing.