Trespass (1992)

Two Arkansas firefighters get handed a map from a dude in a burning building.  The guy goes up in flames before explaining anything but the firemen discover that it leads to gold hidden in some warehouse in St. Louis.  They decide to go after it but while they’re searching the building a local gang shows up.  Oh shit, looks like they’re in quite a pickle.

The whole thing turns into a Panic Room type situation where the firemen trap themselves in a section of the building (along with one of the gang members that they as a hostage) and have to figure a way out.  This is better than Panic Room though.  The characters are enjoyable to be with and things change just enough and often enough to keep you interested.   

The white firemen cast consists of Bill Paxton (Predator 2, Apollo 13) and William Sadler (Die Hard 2, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey).  The black cast is made up of Ice-T (Johnny Mnemonic, Ricochet), Ice Cube (Anaconda, Ghosts of Mars), Art Evans (Die Hard 2, Metro), De’voreaux White (Argyle from Die Hard), Bruce A. Young (Basic Instinct), Glenn Plummer (Speed, Showgirls) and some other lesser knowns.  This is a pretty ridiculous cast including three people that were in Die Hard movies and no women at all.  Plus you got Walter Hill (Last Man Standing, The Driver, The Warriors) directing. 

But what’s really weird about this picture is that it was written and produced by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale.  I guess Zemeckis passed on this to do Death Becomes Her.  The thing is you would never know this was written by the same guy that did the Back to the Futures and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  There isn’t anything I can pinpoint in the film that has a Zemeckis fingerprint on it.

Overall I liked it.  This is much better than the 2011 Trespass (which has nothing to do with this movie by the way).  It’s not really great but certainly entertaining and fun enough for a one time watch.