Freeway (1996)

Director: Matthew Bright

Writer: Matthew Bright

Composer: Danny Elfman

Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Reese Witherspoon, Bokeem Woodbine, Wolfgang Bodison, Dan Hedaya, Kitty Fox, Alanna Ubach, Brooke Shields, Amanda Plummer, Brittany Murphy, Tara Subkoff

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Her life is no fairy tale.

Plot: A twisted take on 'Little Red Riding Hood' with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker traveling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer/pedophile.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Great flick!  It's nothing like I expected and it's (darkly) funny as shit!  Writer/director Matthew Bright just made my radar.  I didn't realize I'd already seen another of his movies, TED BUNDY (2002), and that he wrote the incredibly entertaining FORBIDDEN ZONE () (which explains why Danny Elfman did the score for this picture).  Witherspoon and Sutherland are pitch perfect in their roles but the biggest star is the script.  It takes a lot of twists and turns that get creative as shit and funner than hell!!  I love that Dan Hedaya is in this and Amanda Plummer.  The prison scenes are a riot.  And did you notice the wonderfully long takes when Bob (Sutherland) and Vanessa (Witherspoon) are riding in the car?  Nice!  And Danny Elfman's score is off the charts weird and wild.  I must've blinked during the opening credits or something because I didn't realize he scored it.  Based on what I heard I would have never guessed it was him.  This is a really fun picture.  Now, then, the Lionsgate DVD...I've got the 2007 re-release disc and it's ridiculous.  The film isn't formatted to fit HDTVs (despite the packaging saying that it does), it's got the original old-ass menu that lists the sole extra (besides the fullscreen trailer) as "Directors Narration" (complete with the omission of the apostrophe between the 'r' and 's' and calling it narration instead of commentary - I know, that's nitpicking).  I'm selling my copy and I'll hold out for a proper DVD/Blu-ray release.