Name: Retro Film Review: Breakaway (1996)
Item: Breakaway
Rating: 15
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

(SPECIAL NOTE: Capsule version of the review is available here.)

Salaries of Hollywood top actors are getting obscenely large these days and many find this to be the main reason for skyrocketing movie budgets. Actors who demand such salaries might be greedy, but in some instances they are quite justified, because many films would never be watched or even made without their participation. Proof for that can be found even in the realm of low-budget movies, and one fine example is Breakaway, 1996 thriller directed by Sean Dash and starring (in)famous figure skater Tonya Harding.

Face of Tonya Harding is most prominently featured on movie's poster, but the main star of the film is Terri Thompson who plays Myra, attractive woman who works as a courier for gangsters. One day she decides to retire, but her employers are anything but enthusiastic about that. Realising that her life suddenly became worthless, Myra starts running for her life, followed by professional assassins.

Terri Thompson being the actual star of the film instead of Tonya Harding becomes quite understandable after the scenes that feature former figure skater. Although Tonya Harding displays convincing martial arts abilities, her acting leaves much to be desired. On the other hand, her disappointing efforts are hardly out of place in the film that lacks originality, believable characters and situations and actually represents anything that gave B-films a bad name. Martin Sheen's brother Joe Estevez, whose character looks like he had entered from another movie set, is the only bright spot of *Breakaway. Unfortunately, he appears in this film too little too late to prevent viewers from realising why Tonya Harding's silver screen debut proved to be her last film.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on September 25th 2001)