As cut to formula as they come, this Patrick Swayze popcorn action yarn casts him as a hillbilly cop in Chicago, then kills off his brother to set up an offbeat revenge plot.

When it becomes apparent towards the end that he needs some help, his country cousins come storming in from the wilds of Kentucky, armed with snakes and bows-and-arrows, to take on the local branch of the Mafia.

Guess who wins? Director John Irvin is hard put to stop the audience giggling at all this, and settles for a bunch of vaguely comic crooks, one of whom, when thrown through plate glass, remarks: 'That hurt! '

The acting is, to say the least, rudimentary, although twitchy Michael J Pollard overacts most enjoyably as the shabby-motel owner who surveys the arsenal imported by Swayze's brother (Liam Neeson) with amusing calm.

The dialogue is sometimes difficult to catch: but then it's the kind of film where the hero mutters: 'If Ahm not back b'mornin', call m'keen' and it takes you a few seconds to work out he's not talking about his boss.

Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, later the stars of Twister, are together again in this one.