Reach the Rock

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Reach the Rock
Poster of the movie Reach the Rock.jpg
VHS cover
Directed byWilliam Ryan
Written by John Hughes
Produced byJohn Hughes
Starring
CinematographyJohn J. Campbell
Edited by Gerald B. Greenberg
Music by John McEntire
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • October 16, 1998 (1998-10-16)(United States)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$4,960

Reach the Rock is a 1998 American comedy drama film directed by William Ryan and starring William Sadler and Alessandro Nivola. It was the last film to be written and produced by John Hughes before his death in 2009.

Contents

Premise

A small-town troublemaker (Alessandro Nivola), directionless and alienated, ends up spending a night in a jail cell, where he and the police chief (William Sadler) engage in a battle of wills and wit.

Cast

Production

Writer/producer John Hughes originally offered the Reach the Rock script to director Chris Columbus at the same time he offered him Home Alone . Columbus opted to direct the latter. [4]

The soundtrack featured a compilation of Chicago-based post-rock artists, among them Tortoise and associated acts Bundy K. Brown, The Sea and Cake and John McEntire. It was released on Hefty Records, a label owned and operated by Hughes's son, John Hughes III. The film gets its title from a song by the band Havana 3am.

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 38% based on reviews from 8 critics, with an average rating of 4.5/10. [5] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 1 out of 4 stars. He compared it negatively to Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles , and complained that the movie was "very sad" and felt like it was playing "in slow motion." [6]

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References

  1. "William Sadler". IMDb. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  2. "Alessandro Nivola". IMDb. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  3. "Brooke Langton". IMDb. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  4. Wilkinson, Amy (November 6, 2015). "'Home Alone' turns 25: A deep dive with director Chris Columbus". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 11, 2021.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. "Reach the Rock". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 2023-09-11.
  6. Ebert, Roger (1998-10-16). "Reach the Rock movie review & film summary (1998)". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved 2023-09-11.