James Woods once again lights up the screen as a cheerful, mildly sleazy prison guard, Frank "Fast-Walking" Miniver. He's sometimes got some kind of hustle going on, but he's not all that bad. Yet, he finds himself drawn into a plot being engineered to assassinate William Galliott (Robert Hooks), a black revolutionary. Ultimately, Fast-Walking has to make a choice. Accept the money being offered to participate in the killing, or accept Galliotts' offer of cash to keep him safe.Although leisurely paced, "Fast-Walking" is a frequently riveting look at corruption in a prison system. It gets a fair amount of juice from a typically electrifying performance by Woods, but even he is outshone by the late Tim McIntire, who's magnetic as an ambitious and crafty convict named Wasco. Woods also has fine scenes with the tantalizingly sexy Kay Lenz, as Wascos' girl "Moke". Moke makes it clear from the moment of her first encounter with Fast-Walking that she's not somebody to be messed with. Lenz does have one extremely memorable sequence where she turns on almost every male present in the visiting room. The rest of the supporting cast is stocked with some excellent actors and actresses: M. Emmet Walsh as Fast-Walkings' superior, Charles Weldon as his co-worker, Susan Tyrrell (looking more glamorous than usual) as Evie, Lance LeGault as Lieutenant Barnes, Sandy Ward as the warden, and Sydney Lassick as an inmate. The great screen psycho Timothy Carey has an amusing role as eccentric kingpin "Bullet"."Fast-Walking" was adapted from the novel by Ernest Brawley by producer & director James B. Harris, who produced some of Kubricks' films when he was younger and who would again work with Woods on the police drama "Cop". The story is entertaining and on location shooting at a real prison aids in the authenticity. Some viewers will be pleased with the amount of full frontal female nudity. (Be warned, however, that we also get full frontal from Mr. Walsh!)Nicely scored by Lalo Schifrin, this is a fairly interesting film worth a look for fans of prison-based cinema and actor Woods.Eight out of 10.

This is a film that any fan of James Woods or good tongue-in-cheek prison movies will greatly enjoy. Woods plays Fast-Walking a corrupt pot smoking prison guard who runs a barnyard brothel for crop picking farm hands in his spare time. This film is filled with in-jokes with the late great Tim McIntire as Wasco one of the boss-inmates stealing every scene that he is in...he plays a huge prissy bad-ass who loves calling the shots behind bars. Kay Lenz is corrupt, deadly and absolutely drop dead naked gorgeous in this fun fast-moving picture. She seduces Woods and messes with his plan to help inmates escape from his jail. M. Emmet Walsh does his usual great character acting as Woods' prison guard boss and adds his usual subtle humor to his character. This film has some clever plot twists near the end and some violence but will still leave you smiling when the picture is over. Fast Walking is a wild ride and I highly recommend it, as it was released in 1982 I will confidently state that it is one of the 25 best films of the entire 1980s. Fast Walking can be a difficult film to locate but it is definitely worth the search...find this movie, watch it and enjoy it...asap.

James Woods plays his familiar time tested smarmy character as a cocky prison guard who is always playing the angles. Unfortunately this time he is being played. "Fast Walking" is a prison movie that revolves around two plots, one to spring a "Black" activist, and another to kill him. When Woods tries playing both ends against the middle, things don't turn out exactly as planned. The acting in "Fast Walking", especially by Woods is totally acceptable. M. Emmet Walsh is kind of wasted as another corrupt guard, while Kay Lenz is featured,constantly getting undressed. The plot is fine but the movie drags in places, and seems overlong at 115 minutes. - MERK

I will freely admit that my initial interest in this movie came from not from reading the book (there was a book?) but from the prospect of seeing the unbelievably attractive Kay Lenz frequently nude. How has she developed since 1973 and "Breezy"? (Very very well!) Nevertheless, the movie offered much more than that.James Wood is a prison guard and a hustler looking for money where he can make it, and he isn't fussy about how. So when he finds a way to score 50K by springing a (nice guy) black activist, he wants in. But..there is also a plot to kill the black activist and he finds himself involved in that too. Meanwhile, he gets involved with Kay Lenz,the gorgeous wife of his cousin, the con who is the brains behind the plot to kill the activist. This flick has twists,turns, and a surprising ending that you will NOT figure out 'till the last few minutes.Darn good movie. And Kay Lenz looks terrific! Why didn't Playboy grab her for a 10-page pictorial?