Walter Hill's Trespass could raise a pulse in a quiet graveyard, it's so relentless. It's one of those single location, breathless siege thrillers where two unlucky dudes, this time Bill Paxton and William Sadler, are barricaded in some unfortunate building while hordes of inner city criminals try to smoke them out. Billy and Willy are two firemen in the wrongest of places at the wrongest of times, led to a dilapidated St. Louis warehouse in search of a hidden cache of stolen gold. When one of them stumbles into a gangland assassination, the two are immediately branded as witnesses and hinted like dogs by boss King James (a snarling Ice-T), his lieutenant Savon (Ice Cube) and armies of their men. That's pretty much the premise, and simple as it is, action maestro Hill turns it into a ballistic bloodbath that barely slows down for a second once it gets going. Paxton and Sadler are soon at each other's throats in a feverish haze of adrenaline, whilst the two Ices argue amongst themselves about tactical logistics. Yelling, shooting, running, borderline parkour, cat and mouse games, beloved 90's action tropes and fight scenes that almost wind the audience as much as the characters. This is a lean cut of a film, concerned only with thrilling the pants off the viewer, hurtling by at a locomotive's pace without rest until that final shell casing hits the pavement.

Not even the Beatles could write songs everyone liked, and although Walter Hill is no mop-top he's second to none when it comes to thought provoking action movies. The nineties came and social platforms were changing in music and film, the emergence of the Rapper turned movie star was in full swing, the acting took a back seat to each man's overpowering regional accent and transparent acting. This was one of the many ice-t movies i saw as a kid and loved, only to watch them later and cringe. Bill Paxton and William Sadler are firemen with basic lives until a burning building tenant about to go up in flames hands over a map with gold implications. I hand it to Walter for quickly and neatly setting up the main characters and location. But i fault everyone involved for turning out Lame-o performances. Ice-t and cube must have been red hot at this time, and while I've enjoyed both their careers as rappers, in my opinion they fell flat in this movie. I got the feeling that everyone on set was sord of confused and just playing things off the cuff. There are two things i still enjoy about it, one involves a scene with a needle and the other is Sadler's huge 45 pistol. Bottom line this movie is like domino's pizza. Yeah ill eat it if I'm hungry and i don't feel like cooking, But I'm well aware it's not very good.

I enjoyed this movie very much.Bill Paxton does a great job as an ordinary guy suddenly finding himself way out of his depth. It's a role he's played in many movies from 'Aliens' onwards.Here he plays a fireman who has found a treasure map. He and his sceptical buddy set sail in his station-wagon to where X usually marks the spot. However; this particular island is a disused factory set in a run-down inner-city sea. When they arrive, the treasure isn't so easily found, and in the course of their search they come up against another problem. There's a band of real pirates.A local bunch of black gangsters are apparently in the habit of using the place to deal with problems. This time, they're murdering a traitor. It's their territory. Our heroes have trespassed.Caught in the act by our firefighting treasure-hunters, the gangsters don't mean to let them escape. Thus begins a siege of sorts.The movie is a taut, well-acted and equally well-scripted thriller. Set exclusively in a decrepit old building, it is intensely claustrophobic. Things deteriorate rapidly when the gangsters realise that their adversaries have at least one gun, and send for some heavy artillery. one can really feel the sense of dread and isolation of our two misguided prospectors. Because they are not just isolated by geography (it's an unfamiliar, derelict lot across the state line) they are also isolated both culturally and racially. These are just two white basically decent blue-collar schmucks confronted by a black gang who clearly are not decent at all. Their lives, like those of all gangs, are exclusively Darwinian.Their manoeuvring is like a game of chess. The gang is also riven with dissent as an ambitious lieutenant sees an opportunity to oust his leader for being - as he sees it - too soft.It isn't a feelgood movie by any means. I think a lot of its unpopularity is down to the racial subtext. Black youth is depicted as the worst Caucasian stereotype, inherently corrupted and savage. It's easy to read ethnic outrage at such a blatantly white overview, whilst at the same time Klansmen the nation over could nod their heads and mutter 'ain't that the truth'. The politically-correct would almost certainly have you be a racist if you enjoyed this movie today.Moralising aside, it's well worth a look. Ice-Cube and Ice-T were already successful rappers when this movie was made so they were hardly cash-strapped. They could easily have turned their parts down. But their strong personas and excellent delivery convey a powerful, authentic stamp. It's got all the ingredients of an off-beat thriller like 'Deliverence' or 'Southern Comfort', that plays upon cultural preconceptions coming all too horribly true.I'm partial to a little gangsta-rap (though I couldn't subsist exclusively upon it as some who drive by my window appear to do), and there's an excellent mix of suitable tracks to help reinforce the sense of threat. Whether you're ethnically challenged or not; give it a go, it's a real blast.

Two firefighters (played by Bill Paxton and William Sadler) find a map that leads to stolen gold. It's located in a huge abandoned factory. Unfortunately it also happens to be where a band of black drug dealers have their headquarters. Soon it's blacks vs. whites to the death.A dynamite thriller on full throttle--full of non-stop swearing, plenty of gun fights and gruesome killings. The plot doesn't really make a lot of sense but once this movie kicks into gear you won't care. The action is virtually non-stop and there's a loud pounding music score that propels the movie along. There's also some intentionally funny humor in here so it's always clear that this is not to be taken seriously. The acting is mostly just OK--but who watches this for the acting? Paxton is the only one who gives a really good performance. The only debit here is that the movie constantly keeps switching from color to b&w (the POV of a gang member filming all this). It's jarring and unnecessary.This was a bomb at the box office and didn't hit it big on video either. That's really too bad because it's one of director Walter Hills best film. Tough, violent and exciting. An 8 all the way.