Though it kicks up a lot of dust, this road movie can't obscure the fact that it's going nowhere fast. Paid assassin Mr. Banks (Kiefer Sutherland) is notorious for his unusual modus operandi; he picks up female hitchhikers, entices them with the lure of quick cash and disposes of them when they've served their purpose. To avert suspicion, he and his one-time killers check into hotels together as though they were couples. Immediately after accepting a lift from Banks, trailer-trash cutie Bennie (Melora Walters) starts rubbing him the wrong way; Banks is a control freak, but Bennie has a mind of her own. Bennie aggravates Banks by badgering him with personal questions, but she somehow gets under his skin. That's a problem, since personal involvement is a liability in Banks's ruthless profession. Banks catches someone following them and he confronts the stranger, who claims to be Bennie's abusive husband. Without blinking, Banks shoots the interloper, brushes off Bennie's compunctions and destroys all evidence of the crime — Banks still needs Bennie for his current gig. What Banks doesn't realize is that he's just murdered Bennie's partner; Bennie is a federal agent, not the backwater dimwit that she's been pretending to be. Her supervisor, Scanlan (Jamey Sheridan), tries to pull her off the case before Banks gets wise, and as Banks zeroes in on his target — a Mexican politician — Bennie must stop the hit and apprehend her murderous handler. What she does next surprises both Banks and Scanlan. It's never a good thing when thriller fans figure out how to get from point A to Point B before a film's central character does; unfortunately, that happens all too often here. With no suspense to keep viewers on the edge of their seats the film just chugs along, dragged down by Sutherland's against-casting and an outlandish finale. --Robert Pardi
