Synopsis
Upon arriving to a small town, a drifter quickly gets into trouble with the local authorities — and the local women — after he robs a bank.
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Cast
- Don JohnsonHarry Madox
- Virginia MadsenDolly Harshaw
- Jennifer ConnellyGloria Harper
- Charles Martin SmithLon Gulick
- William SadlerFrank Sutton
- Jerry HardinGeorge Harshaw
- Barry CorbinSheriff
- Leon RippyDeputy Tate
- Jack NanceJulian Ward
- Virgil FryeDeputy Buck
Recommendations
- 90
Variety
Seeps with atmosphere, unfolds at a deceptively relaxed pace, steadily accumulates noirish grit, then dizzily plunges into a Lynch-like plumbing of the dark passions and nasty secrets at the heart of Main Street, USA. - 80
Washington Post
A crazy, intentionally ludicrous movie that's a lot of film-noir fun. - 75
Chicago Tribune
Pretty silly. The Hot Spot certainly is, and it's occasionally quite entertaining for it, though the picture never really achieves a dimension beyond that of a Playboy Party Joke. [26 Oct 1990, Friday, p.I] - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Only movie lovers who have marinated their imaginations in the great B movies from RKO and Republic will recognize The Hot Spot as a superior work in an old tradition - as a manipulation of story elements as mannered and deliberate, in its way, as variations on a theme for the piano. - 63
USA Today
An overlong guilty pleasure. [12 Oct 1990, Life, 4D] - 50
Los Angeles Times
The pulpiness is less homage than rip-off. There are no tricks up this film's frayed sleeve… Fatalism plus a lot of heavy breathing, and a flash of skin--it's a winning formula, all right. These movies are like Harlequin Romances for slumming highbrows [12 Oct 1990] - 50
Chicago Reader
Pretty enjoyable as a piece of campy sleaze--especially for the first half hour, before the storytelling starts to dawdle. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
Part of the problem is its length; at two hours and ten minutes it meanders rather than building up a head of steam and barreling straight through logic and plausibility on the way to Hell.
