The VOD circuit is awash with identikit crime thrillers that fail to bring anything new to a table that’s being set and re-set in perpetuity, but there was genuine hope that Paradise Highway might buck the trend based on the strength of its intriguingly eclectic cast alone.
In a rare Hollywood outing, Juliette Binoche – an Academy Award winner lauded as one of her generation’s finest talents – took top billing that saw her co-star with a pair of incredibly unlikely alumni in fellow living legend Morgan Freeman and prolific ass-kicker Frank Grillo in the hard-boiled tale.
Binoche’s Sally is a truck driver who agrees to smuggle illegal cargo on the conditions that it’ll help save the life of her incarcerated brother, only to discover that the contraband in question is a girl named Leila. Heading across state lines with the authorities breathing down their respective necks, a dogged FBI agent sets out to track them down, to both end the human cargo trade and ensure the safety of its unwilling participants.
In the end, all Paradise Highway had to show for its efforts was a critical drubbing. An 18 percent Rotten Tomatoes score greatly belies the quality of the ensemble gathered together to tell the story, while the 115-minute running time felt like an eternity after any shred of genuine tension or atmosphere was sacrificed in favor of overwrought melodrama.
That being said, Hulu subscribers have taken Paradise Highway to their hearts in a much bigger way than anyone could have anticipated per FlixPatrol, with the star-studded film having risen right to the top of the streaming service’s most-watched charts to secure the number one spot for itself.
Published: Mar 2, 2023 02:24 am