"Susan Reed" (Ally Sheedy) is having a bad day. First, she gets fried from her job and then when she gets home early she finds her boyfriend with another woman. So she packs her suitcase and heads for New York. Along the way she picks up a female hitchhiker named "Bess" (Jennie Vaughn) who promptly steals her car and the rest of her belongings leaving her stranded in Macon County, Georgia. She immediately heads to a convenience store to make a phone call but the clerk mistakenly thinks she's there to rob him. To make matters even worse they get into a scuffle just as the police happen to arrive and she is subsequently arrested and put in jail over the weekend pending her arraignment Monday morning. If that wasn't bad enough she then gets raped by the deputy that night. Now if any of this plot seems familiar it's because it is almost identical to an earlier film (starring Yvette Mimieux in the lead role) titled "Jackson County Jail" produced in 1976. As far as comparisons go this movie was less intense but on the other hand the acting of Ally Sheedy and David Carradine (as "Coley") seemed a bit more polished in this particular film. Since the similarities were so striking and I enjoyed both movies I have rated this film the same as its predecessor. Slightly above average.

"Jackson County Jail" reigns supreme as one of the all-time great'n'gritty hicksploitation gems from the 70's. This tepid belated entry in the hicksploitation genre starts out awkwardly, but does get slightly better as the story unfolds. Alas, this picture never acquires the powerful harsh edge of the original because of Victoria Muspratt's wildly uneven direction, a pretty sloppy script (the opening scenes that set up the main character's dire predicament are especially clunky and rife with heavy-handed contrivances which strain credibility something fierce), a few ill-advised attempts at goofy humor that don't fit with the generally serious tone, the clumsy use of songs on the soundtrack (the brutal rape in the jail cell would have worked a lot better without a song playing over it), and the fact that the main character's transition from spoiled businesswoman to hardened criminal seems extremely abrupt and hence unconvincing. Fortunately, the action scenes are staged with some competence and the film moves along at a snappy enough pace. Moreover, the three leads do sound and praiseworthy work considering the lackluster material: Ally Sheedy makes for a strong and sympathetic damsel in distress, David Carradine projects a winningly lived-in sense of weary resignation and stoical compassion as a shrewd and resourceful felon who goes on the lam with Sheedy, and always dependable veteran character actor Charles Napier handles the role of a tough no-bull small Southern town sheriff with his customary sturdy professionalism. A strictly so-so flick.

At this point, producer Roger Corman had made a career of recycling props and sets, as well as footage from other movies. So it should come as no surprise that he eventually went to recycling old scripts as well. This is actually the third go-around for this story (the previous two were "Jackson County Jail" and "Outside Chance".) You might think that having a woman screenwriter/director this time around might jazz things up somewhat, but you'd be wrong. This looks even cheaper than JCJ, for one thing. The two leads don't seem to be having any fun in their roles, and their tired spirits really weigh down on the movie. The movie tries to be faster-paced than its predecessors, but after the first half hour it really pads things out when it realizes that it still has an hour of running time to go. There is a slap-dash feeling to the entire movie, from reflections of boom mikes in car windows to the fact that jailed convict Carradine is allowed to wear an earring in his jail cell.Still, that first shot is pretty impressive.

Well, I've thought about trepanation, but never so hard as I did after this movie. While its not the worst movie I've ever seen, watching Ally Sheedy as she's aged not-so-gracefully caused my boyhood fantasies to dry up and burn off, and seeing Carradine here, even as compared to, say, _Death Race 2000_ made my head hurt.Give it a pass, if there's anything there's a /chance/ you'll like better on.