Next of Kin

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Cast & Crew

Patrick Swayze
Truman Gates

Liam Neeson
Briar Gates

Adam Baldwin
Joey Rosselini

Helen Hunt
Jessie Gates

Andreas Katsulas
John Isabella

Bill Paxton
Gerald Gates

Ben Stiller
Lawrence Isabella

Michael J. Pollard
Harold

Ted Levine
Willy Simpson

Del Close
Frank

John Irvin
Director

Michael Jenning
Writer

Les Alexander
Producer

Larry DeWaay
Executive Producer

Don Enright
Producer

Jeb Stuart
Associate Producer

Gary Chang
Additional Music

Todd Hayen
Additional Music

Jack Nitzsche
Original Music

Steven Poster
Cinematographer

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Critic Reviews for Next of Kin

Audience Reviews for Next of Kin

• Oct 17, 2009

  This is a vey predictable yet moderately entertaining story of a hillbilly family in a feud against a mob family. It really is as silly and ridiculous as it sounds, but the 80's camp and cheesiness factors and the fact that Liam Neeson is at his scenery chewing best as one of the hillbillies make this an ok movie to watch when nothing else is on.
  Chris W Super Reviewer
• Jul 23, 2009

  This action movie isn't too bad, but it is not particularly action-packed, director John Irvin does provide the expected gunplay and macho confrontations. However, despite a surprisingly distinguished cast (also including Helen Hunt and Michael J. Pollard), little distinguishes the film from numerous other revenge stories with a similar outline. This action film is full of action and has some great fight scenes. Daniel Baldwin is great as the villian and look for a young Ben Stiller before he hit his prime.
  Dean M Super Reviewer
• Jul 18, 2009

  You'd think that with a cast this good, the film might be on the same level, but unfortunately, it follows the path of The Spirit (a terrible film w/ a spectacular cast). This film is absolutely terrible, mostly because of Patrick Swayze's bad acting. Next of Kin is basically an even worse version of Roadhouse, which says it all right there.
  Stephen S Super Reviewer
• Feb 08, 2009

  Director John Irvin must have a real passion for mob movies. He tries his best in both Schwarzenegger's Raw Deal and a few years later with Patrick Swayze's Next of Kin to create a violent, good action film but make it passionate and dramatic and all about crime family vs crime family. However with Next of Kin he must have fine tuned some of the mistakes from the rather slow moving Raw Deal. Next of Kin is a much better film and perhaps a big part of that is the strong cast of future stars Next of Kin carries. Liam Neeson, Helen Hunt, Ben Stiller, Bill Paxton, and even Patrick Swayze who was really at the height of his career in this film...between Dirty Dancing and Ghost. Next of Kin takes a rather liberal view at a group of people not normally dealt with in films...mountain people...or hillbillies if you will. Swayze plays a former country boy who moved to the big city, became a cop, married his love, and is now urbanized himself. His little brother who aims to follow up in his footsteps ends up getting himself murdered by the crime family, Isabella. The rest of his "kin" want Swayze to avenge the death but Swayze is determined to let justice take it's course. Again, much like Raw Deal, Next of Kin is about vengeance and anger and it all bottles up until one big explosion of revenge in the end. The big difference is that Next of Kin stays interesting through the whole movie right up to and including the end and still has some really great action scenes to boot. The cast as previously mentioned is very well done fortunately for Mr. Irvin. Swayze plays a convincing cop and mountain boy and him and Helen Hunt have decent chemistry for their brief on screen moments. Adam Baldwin as the blood thirsty villain does a good job (not as good his later performance in Joss Whedon's Serenity (aka Firefly) as Jayne but he is convincing as the bad guy. Ben Stiller's brief role is also quite good as the smarter villain but he doesn't last long. Overall Next of Kin is a decent entry in the eighties action genre. It has it's moments and is worth checking out for those full of nostalgia.
  David L Super Reviewer

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