Night Moves (1975)

After being almost tragically disappointed when re-watching the critically acclaimed The Conversation, I was a bit hesitant to even give Night Moves a chance, because it sounded like similar territory. But with the magic of Netflix, sometimes it's hard to resist. I mean it was right there, looking at me. So I watched it, and I'd say that I enjoyed it quite a bit better than The Conversation. For starters, at least it feels like this movie actually went somewhere, and it doesn't cheat the audience with a trick twist ending. Although there is a twist.

Anyway, it's about a P.I. (Hackman) who is hired to track down an aging actress' whore of a daughter (played by an underage and almost always naked Melanie Griffith...who sounds almost exactly like Parent Trap-era Haley Mills for some reason). It doesn't take long for him to pin point her location. And while doing so, more things start to unravel, as they tend to do in these things, until eventually he finds himself knee deep in double crosses, murder, artifact smuggling, erect nipples, and boats.

Hackman is very good here. I found this character more appealing than his character in The Conversation. I found the story more appealing than whatever story was supposed to be in The Conversation. And while it lacks the arty flare of The Conversation, it makes up for it by being an entertaining movie. The same of course cannot be said about The Conversation. But everyone remembers The Conversation, I don't think a lot of people remember Night Moves, so I'm probably completely wrong about all of this.

RATING: 3/5