Proximity (2001 TV Movie) User Reviews

A fair movie of non-Hollywood movie!!!

[kevin_blaze · 6/10 · 7 January 2002]

Proximity is the low-budget sister of The Fugitive, involving a man on the run from the law to see that justice is served, an endless marathon through back streets to avoid being seen, bad guys who always aim the gun at the good guy's feet - these are just a few of the sorry clichés Proximity uses to construct a story. The dialogue is a bad combination of three-line sentences and meaningless diatribes. We've seen and heard all this before, except this time an unknown director puts a moderately pleasing thumbprint on it.

Proximity challenges our notions of justice. William Conroy (Rob Lowe) certainly is OK. The former lawyer threw back a few too many drinks, grabbed the car keys, and his beautiful mistress was dead before the sun rose. Conroy walked away from the crash, but was sent to jail for six months, convicted of vehicular manslaughter. For whatever reason, he's in jail with the worst of them: murderers, drug dealers, career thugs. Conroy is no threat to commit another crime because he's the hero of a relatively well-constructed film that suffers from a nowhere script.

As far as questioning justice, Proximity shows that not all the bad guys are really that bad, while the ones who are supposed to be good can sometimes have an ugly side to them. This is true of the movie as well, as this bunch of clichés should have been bad. Those involved probably knew it too. Stil l, a relatively unknown director has at least deflected some of the flaws with commendable camera constraint and a good dose of always-dependable eye candy.

As the conclusion that this movie is a fair movie. As you know this out-of-Hollywood movie is an action, but an Ok action. I mean the action is actually a bit low. So more cool action might improve the score of this movie. So only if you're bored you might get lighted with this action.

Two movies for the price of one

[dieter-verhofstadt · 5/10 · 13 September 2010]

I saw this alleged B-level movie on a sleepless night. Although these conditions hardly qualify to say that a movie caught your attention because it was so good, I must admit I found it very intriguing, not because of its quality, but because of half its quality. I'll explain.

The strange thing about this movie is that it appears to be made in two stages, clearly distinct in cinematography, script and acting. I'm not saying it was, but it would explain why these two parts are so different.

In the "background part", the mechanics of the Justice For Victims movement are displayed, with victims and relatives lamenting the abstracted judicial system which is too lenient on perpetrators and does not care about the victims' justice. The movement's chief sets up an alternative circuit, where perpetrators are killed or "sentenced to death" so to speak, paying the killers with money financed by the victims, while some of it sticks to the hands of the movement's chief and the corrupt prison manager. This whole idea of restoring the old "eye for an eye" has been crafted very well, with sublime acting by the victims in an almost documentary fashion, and the intense characterization of the chief, whose motives are revenge, money, power and some true sense of justice altogether. It installs a double bind with the viewer, who sympathizes with the victims but struggles with the morals of revenge outside law.

The "foreground part" however, starring Rob Lowe, is your way below average stupid "escape, run and get shot at" B-movie, with only a handful of villain guards and a mole inmate running and shooting about, complete with a romantic happy end, pulling the movie away from reality entirely.

I could not help but feel that this movie was initially based on a sublime script, when half way some box office oriented but lame producer entered the scene, replaced the story writers with cheap off-shore scenarists and added a bunch of stars to turn it into an easy going action movie. It must have gone like that. How else to explain the discrepancy between the two parts?

Even bad for Lowe

[ikanboy · 4/10 · 30 June 2008]

This thrown together piece of fecal matter adds together so many ludicrous scenarios that in the end it's a laugh riot of absolute hilarity. Too bad as the premise is promising (as it so often is in Duhllywood), but in the hands of this scriptwriter it segues off into la la land.

Lowe is in Prison serving time for a DUI that killed off his mistress. We get to see him having nightmares just so that we know he feels real BAD about this. Then his cell mate neighbor hangs himself. Or does he? Lowe has some suspicions but drops them quickly. His suspicions are so weak that the bad guys have nothing to worry about. So why do they then set him up to be killed? Ah, that's where this story could get interesting. That's where it falls off the rails, and once off the rails it decides it can get away with insulting the viewers attention for the next numbing hour.

****************SPOILERS****************************

I won't bore with an endless recounting of the irrationality of what follows, but contemplate this ending. Lowe has been trapped by the bad guys on a train. They want a tape he has, because that tape will screw their boss, and them. So on to the train come 3 cops, guns drawn, ready to rescue Lowe. The bad guys kill the cops, in front of half the passengers and then....continue chasing Lowe to get the tape. HELLO!!!! killing 3 cops in public will get you into deep doodo, to hell with the tape. Yet off they go through a mall shooting up the place, as if the public did not exist as witnesses, and in the end Lowe is grabbed and the bad guy still wants the tape!!!

Worth a look.

[jtur88 · 17 April 2001]

I missed the first half hour of this, while watching something else on cable. Nobody has yet reported on it, so here's what I can contribute. The film was certainly better than average for its genre, which is pretty top-heavy with trash. The story-line is definitely imaginative, escaping quite well from the same-old-same-old. It should come as no surprise to anyone that James Coburn did not become a better actor during his absence from the screen, but he was not badly cast in his role. In general, a watchable film. With 20-odd choices on my digital cable, anything I watch is at least in the 95th percentile, which makes it about *** out of five.

City of Cleveland stars

[dallas4488 · 2/10 · 19 April 2008]

That is the only thing I can positive to say about this movie. Cleveland is the star, I've been there and never saw the city look this good. Beautiful river and cityscapes.

This movie moves ahead at such a pace they hope you won't notice the lack of real world relevance. People running around and shooting guns without any consequence. For example, there is a shoot out at Rob Lowe's character's house- two cars are stolen, and yet the cops don't show up there till much later in the movie. Murder for hire never looked so implausible.

Whoever wrote this movie should be on the receiving end of one the movies countless stray bullets. Many of the actors in this movie are so much better than this. I check the date of the movie just to make sure it wasn't written during the writers strike but alas this was not the case. This movie is currently in rotation on Universal's HD channel- unless you want to drool of over Lowe there is no reason to watch it.

Ordinary, forgettable flotsam

[=G= · 4/10 · 15 April 2001]

"Proximity" tells of a convict (Lowe) who thinks the prison staff is out to kill him. This very ordinary film is an action/drama with a weak plot; stereotypical, poorly developed characters; and a one dimensional performance by Lowe. A forgettable film not worthy of further commentary.

Free and looking for answers

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 13 June 2019]

Prisoner Rob Lowe in the Ohio State prison system for a vehicular manslaughter charge overhears a murder plot being hatched by a pair of prison guards. Little does he realize he's next on the list and the prison warden has a nice side business in getting rid of prisoners that should have gotten capital punishment.

Lowe was a professor carrying on with one of his teenage students some years back and he was intoxicated and killed her in the crash. When his wife left him after that and he went to jail he got a chance to take a good look at himself.

Still some wanted him dead and guards Jonathan Banks and Terrence Carson and fellow inmate David Flynn are ready to do the deed. But a freak mishap leaves Lowe free and looking for answers.

In this minor thriller Lowe does a good job as an almost Hitchcock like protagonist with forces arrayed against him whom he does not know and their reasons. Joe Santos is the malevolent warden and James Coburn plays a victim's rights advocate to whom this all traces back.

A decent enough if not outstanding thriller.

Not What I Expected

[Theo Robertson · 3/10 · 23 June 2003]

Former brat pack actor and all round pretty boy Rob Lowe stars in a film set in a high security American prison . I had a gut feeling his character was going to be popular for all the wrong reasons like Tobias in the first series of OZ , but PROXIMITY isn`t that kind of film , it`s more like a " Man on the run " film like THE FUGITIVE . It also makes a nod to the themes of punishment and justice with James Coburn putting in a cameo as the spokesman for a justice for victims pressure group but any intelligent discussion on how society should treat criminals is completely ignored as the film degenerates into tired old cliches of shoot outs and car chases

One very good reason to watch...

[Trout-6 · 8/10 · 4 May 2002]

There are a variety of reasons to watch this interesting and visually off-kilter piece. As a story, it leaves a little to be desired, and Rob Lowe's performance doesn't do a lot for me. But the supporting actors are a real joy, and the real reason to watch. James Coburn is as good as ever; Joe Santos is always fun, and Jonathan Banks is superb as the bad guy who might not be as bad as he seems.

Only if you want to see the bad guy get away.

[trippinvideo · 10 October 2002]

This movie was unbelievable... not because of the acting so much as the unbelievable circumstances. I guess what bothered me most was the story. It's about time that people formed a vigilante group to kill the bad element. The "Justice System", and I use that term very loosely, makes no attempt to seek justice for the victims. They're only concerned with the law, and all the rules they can bend or break. It was very disappointing to see the system fail again, and make the good guys out as the bad guys. Where can I join up?

Wow, this is a major Hollywood production?

[vontrier · 12 June 2001]

I'm sorry but who put this thing together? This is a very sad example of something. Um, could it be nepotism? I dunno. It's difficult to imagine anyone putting money behind a production of such low, stunningly inept calibur. I simply feel shocked that this film was made. "Proximity" is an incredibly empty attempt, in every filmic aspect. Very sad. Give me the money and stop wiping your bums with it, LOL! Was this written solely by the computer program Dramatica?