So Bad It’s Good #18 : Kansas

Guilty Pleasures that we enjoyed – even though we don’t quite know why.

Movie Title : Kansas

Released 1988

Starring Andrew McCarthy, Matt Dillon, Leslie Hope, Alan Toy, Brent Jennings, Andy Romano, Kyra Sedgwick

Directed By David Stevens

What is it? : A film I’m actually still a little hesitant to include in this column. Why? Well, I don’t know if it’s as ‘good’ as it is a ‘curiosity’. Andrew McCarthy and Matt Dillon had been starring in hit-after-hit up to this point – the former with “Class”, “St. Elmo’s Fire”, “Pretty in Pink” and “Less than Zero”; the latter with “The Outsiders”, “Tex” and “Rumble Fish” – but “Kansas” signalled a slip down the ladder for both boys. McCarthy’s career would never quite recover. Dillon’s did – but it wasn’t an easy climb back to the top.

“Kansas”, though set in present day, is a bit like a 1950s drama – in fact, everything about it seems a little, er, dated… even stale. But at the same time, you never lose interest… it’s actually enjoyable for the most part. Laughable, yes, but enjoyable all the same.

Set in America’s Heartland, the film sees Drifter McCarthy becoming involved with Dillon in a bank robbery, and while running away from the law hides out on a farm. There he finds romance, but a vengeful Dillon wants the stolen money back.

Aside from Leslie Hope, who went on to have a bit of a TV career, a pre-Kevin Bacon Kyra Sedgwick pops up – for about twelve minutes – to play Dillon’s squeeze…. someone who miraculously turns up in his passenger seat in one scen – without introduction.

What’s wrong with it? Besides the fact that it’s as predictable as a baby near a pencil? And aside from the fact that it was made about thirty years too late? Well, how about the plot? It’s absolutely ludicrous. It sets itself up as a reasonably intriguing caper, but as it progresses, the characters get less interesting – dull, in fact – and the storyline gets even more preposterous. Even then, we learn nothing about these two cats – besides the odd mention of Dillon’s character being a rascal from way back – and they don’t revolve as characters either. But mostly, it’s all a bit melodramatic – like watching the stars of “Days of Our Lives” unite on stage for a reading of an old Tennessee Williams play… or something.

What’s right about it? Besides the beautiful Kansas landscape, there’s something undeniably appealing about 80s cheese like this. We know it’s stupid, we know there’s nothing new in it, and yet it still manages to draw us in. Also, if you’re a fan of either McCarthy or Dillon, or both, you can’t help but like them here. McCarthy is his usual charming, wet-behind-the-ears sad-puppy-dog self, whilst Dillon is extremely bold and unrepressed as the “bad guy”. There’s also a few memorable scenes in the film too – the whole love scene between McCarthy and Leslie Hope (she played Jack Bauer’s wife on “24” years later) in the barn comes out of nowhere, but it’s at least nicely shot. In addition, the sequence involving McCarthy’s character dashing into a river to say a politco’s little girl is just as memorable – though nothing to shout about in terms of how it was shot. All-in-all, it’s just another of these fun 80s guilty pleasures – – a film that’d go straight-to-video today and never be heard of again.

Why is it so bad it’s good? : Because like a lot of the films McCarthy and Dillon did in the late 80s, though it’s somewhat intentionally hokey, and overtly theatrical, “Kansas”’s audacity not to change is laudable… and intriguing. It’s one to watch after “Mannequin”, “Less than Zero”, “Catholic Boys”, “Rumble Fish” and “Tex”.

– CLINT MORRIS