As long as you don't compare "Against All Odds" with the original this remake of "Out of the Past" is a perfectly serviceable neo-noir with just enough changes to its tortuous plot to keep our interest for all of its two hour running time. A well-cast Jeff Bridges is now in the Mitchum role while James Woods is a suitably sleazy stand-in for Kirk Douglas. Rachel Ward doesn't quite cut it in the Jane Greer role but in one of those movie homages Greer is now cast as Ward's mother, the kind of rich bitch any daughter would run away from and she may be the best thing in the picture. There's also a nice turn from a then 70 year old Richard Widmark as another villain.
If it has a fault it's that the pace is too languorous for the material nor can director Taylor Hackford resist a pretty picture, resorting every now and then to music video imagery, quite literally in a scene with Kid Creole and the Coconuts. It may be better than its reputation but if you also feel its been undervalued, considering Tourneur's version is a film-noir masterpiece that might be understandable.
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