JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT IN HARD COUNTRY

year: 1981 rating: ***

One of those blue collar beer guzzlin' factory worker films where if you're not one of the endearingly-flawed good guys, you're a shady, sinister rich jerk... with no in-betweens.

Plot centers on a disgruntled factory worker, played by Jan-Michael Vincent, who loves drinkin' and lovin' his girlfriend – in that order – and his better half, a young Kim Basinger, who wants to move to California for a better life: one that doesn't include drunken cowboys and bar fights.

This movie can't get any more predictable but the two leads carry things decently enough till the end, which you'll see coming for miles. Michael Parks is Vincent's real estate mogul brother who, once he spouts a racial epitaph out loud, you know he'll eventually fall by the wayside. Tanya Tucker is Kim Basinger's famous country singin' older sis who plants the seed that Texas is a place to get out of while the gettin' out is good. Daryl Hannah is Kim's younger sister who digs Texas fine enough – just as long as there's another car to fix. And character-actor Gailard Sartain, usually cast as an uptight stuffed-shirt, plays Vincent's fat slob party animal buddy i.e. the comic relief.

Jan-Michael provides his usual slow-burn cool, and, donning a Bronson-tough mustache, is as great to watch as ever – as long as you don't mind simplistic, predictable fare.