Two crooks, one half dumb, the other the full package, are interrupted during a shady deal and kidnap a feisty teen almost by accident. As her father owns a bank, she suggests they ransom rather than kill the living witness, so off they all go to the West Coast pursued by a lovesick teenager and the other half of the busted deal.This starts out with the promise of teen romance but ends up as a buddy buddy/coming of age drama. No one is killed but it can't be said that everyone lives happily ever after, including you if you watch it until the end, but the half-decent soundtrack might just about get you through it.

"Rescue Me" was one of Cannon Pictures' last movies to get a theatrical release. It was a small and low key release, and upon seeing the movie it's easy to see why Cannon didn't give it much of a push. To be certain, it's not a complete waste of time. All of the cast, from leads Michael Dudikoff and Stephen Dorff, give appealing and likable performances. And for what had to be a low budget, the movie looks pretty good thanks to some expert cinematography and some well chosen locations. However, the movie all the same is more often than not a somewhat hard slog. Some plot details and character development seem to be missing, whether it was edited out or simply missing from Mike Snyder's screenplay in the first place. And while the movie was made in the 1990s, it has an odd 1980s feel, from the music to the clothing. The biggest problem, however, is that there is very little spark. The movie moves at a sluggish pace throughout, and this slow feeling also extends to the scenes of comedy and action; the comedy (though thankfully not strident and in-your-face) is lame, and the action sequences simply aren't exciting (or well accomplished) at all. It's too bad the movie doesn't work as a whole, because it had a pretty good and original premise. Remake, anyone?

It may be an obvious disclaimer, but don't expect much from this kidnapper caper. There's plenty to make this an unconvincing story, but I'm sure that viewers will mostly be interested in its nostalgic factor, particularly since it's young stars include pre-fame Stephen Dorff and 80s mischief comedy regular, Ami Dolenz. Dorff plays Fraser, a smart, shy teen who is smitten with the untouchable bubbly blonde cheerleader, Ginny Grafton. Of course, he goes to great lengths to play hero when she is kidnapped by two bumbling drug dealers when Ginny and her obnoxious jock boyfriend (Danny Nucci) inadvertently interfere in the deal. A young, rugged looking Michael Dudikoff plays Mac, who was on the receiving end of this failed drug deal and is blackmailed by Fraser, who happened to be hiding in the trees waiting to photograph his dreamgirl skinny dipping at the lake, but instead, caught Mac, the kidnappers, and Ginny on film instead.Fraser blackmails Mac into helping him rescuing Ginny, but the film breaks from the thrills of the chase with incessant father-figure bonding between Fraser and misunderstood Mac as well as Fraser's hopeless quest (a little late in his years) to get a girl to like him. In particular, Ginny - who seems caught up in her own world to even give much care to the fact that she's been held for ransom by Rowdy (Peter Deluise) and Kurt (William Lucking). Fraser's sensitivity seems to overtake much of the film, and aside from a few humorous moments between the dufus kidnapping duo, the rest of the movie becomes irritating, so concentrated on Fraser's desperation.If they had a written a decent story and stuck to the whole caper aspect of the movie, this might've been a pretty decent (though likely still obscure) story.

Michael Dudikoff stars as Mac, a Vietnam vet(Isn't Mikey Dudikoff too young to be a Vietnam vet?) who is blackmailed by a high school nerd(Dorff) to help track down the kidnapped girl of his dreams (Ami Dolenz) in this low budget effort. I remember actually seeing previews for this on late night TV, naturally this didn't do all that well in theaters. I think the problem is that Rescue Me often times feels like a sitcom rather than an action/comedy. There are some moments between Dudikoff and Dorff but mainly any depth is betrayed by the mindless antics here.*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)