Sarah’s favorite movie is FIGHT CLUB and her favorite ice cream is chocolate. That’s enough for Billy. That night, they’re at a motel doing what you do in a motel. A week later, they’re on the run. After waitress Sarah’s (Haley Webb, 2009’s THE FINAL DESTINATION) roommate, Ellen, dies of an overdose, she comes across a letter informing her of an inheritance from Ellen’s late uncle. Billy (Josh Henderson, currently starring as J.R. Ewing III on TNT’s DALLAS) takes one look at Ellen’s driver’s license and says, “You guys could be twins…I got an idea.”
That idea, of course, involves an identity swap and making some easy cash. What could go wrong? For starters, there’s been a string of robberies in the small Texas town of Tremo and its sheriff, Robert Brogden Jr. (Beau Bridges, THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS), is keeping an eye out for anyone who may be up to suspicious activity, like, say, anyone new in town, like, say, Billy and Sarah. There’s also the point that actually claiming the estate is taking longer than usual for the duo. And that it’s Brogden’s brother, Cameron (Aidan Quinn, NINE LIVES), is the lawyer keeping tabs on the inheritance. And that there’s a drug dealer (Crisipian Belfage, who was slightly better as London Hotel Manager #2 in Lifetime’s LIZ & DICK) who feels he’s owed some of the money. There are also illegitimate children and gay porn tapes and misrepresented personalities and curious murders and on and on.
RUSHLIGHTS is written by Antoni Stutz (2001’s YOU’RE KILLING ME…, with Julie Bowen and Traci Lords) and Ashley Scott Meyers (something called DISH DOGS, with Sean Astin and Matthew Lillard), who it seems spent a few nights watching lovers-on-the-run tales like Tony Scott’s TRUE ROMANCE and neo-noir westerns like John Dahl’s RED ROCK WEST, and decided to put only the worst elements of both in their script. And that’s just how it plays out: as a desperate attempt to call to mind those two much better films. Failing that, it expects its many twists and turns to pull us in. But we don’t care about any part of it—who’s playing who or who lives or who dies or who takes a baseball bat to the face or who makes off with the money or where in the world the dealer got that ridiculous accent.
RUSHLIGHTS opens with a quote: “Treading through the dreadful darkness of the land, I dipped the pith of a rush into tallow and soon the rushlights guided me down the somberness, the gloomy flames unveiling this unfamiliar soil.” It might mean something to the plot or it might not. Either way, those words are about as deep as any of it gets.
Video: 2.40:1 in 1080p with MPEG-4 AVC codec. This high-definition transfer captures the locations (from Los Angeles to Texas) with accurate colors and strong details. Although some of the nighttime interior scenes are soft, the majority of them present a mood that’s meant to up the suspense.
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Subtitles in English. The audio transfer creates an atmosphere through sound effects and music that puts the story directly in Texas.
Behind the Scenes: The Making of RUSHLIGHTS (4:11) offers a brief overview of the movie and characters. Interviewees include Josh Henderson, Beau Bridges and Haley Webb.
