In one of the more misleading movie posters of the year, Midnight In The Switchgrass features Bruce Willis front and centre, when in reality he only appears in the sum total of 8 minutes of the film, dropping in and out when some exposition is required for Megan Fox. Unfortunately its Emile Hirsch and Lukas Haas who suffer the most from the demotion as they play much larger roles in proceedings.
While in Florida working on a sting operation to catch a predator who has been targeting sex workers, FBI agents Helter (Willis) and Lombardo (Fox) cross paths with state cop Crawford (Hirsch), who’s investigating a separate string of female murders that appear to be related. Lombardo and Crawford team up to set a trap for the killer, with Lombardo putting her life on the line to act as the bait. When the off-the-books operation goes horribly wrong, Lombardo is plunged into grave danger and Crawford finds himself pitted against a serial killer in a twisted game of cat and mouse.
The overall feel of Midnight In The Switchgrass is one of the Alex Cross movies of the late 90’s with Morgan Freeman laced with Buffalo Bill from Silence Of The Lambs. A grimy crime thriller ostensibly based on Houston’s Robert Benjamin Rhoades, a.k.a. “The Truck Stop Killer,” who was suspected of torturing, raping, and killing more than fifty women while working as a long-haul trucker throughout the seventies and eighties.
Midnight In The Switchgrass, has admirable intentions, however it ends up becoming entirely generic by the finale with Megan Fox’s strong willed, super focused uncover police investigator, a simpering mess by the end requiring saving from the villain of the piece (A rather creepy Haas) by our white knight (Hirsch). That aside, it works for the most part, with a great but brief debut from Sistine Stallone (Yes that Stallone and yes it’s his daughter). Fox works really hard to make the material she has work and her and Hirsch work well together. Bruce is simply there for signposting while phoning in yet another performance that requires him to squint a lot and either be yelling, speaking in gruff tones or pointing a gun at someone.
Midnight In The Switchgrass would have been a decent option for the big screen and probably a minor hit, however it didn’t focus on the character upon which it’s based, but more a by the numbers thriller for Megan Fox with Willis on the poster to ensure a few extra ticket sales.
