Desperate Hours

Desperate Hours is a psychological crime thriller about Michael Bosworth, a violent fugitive who escapes from a courthouse with help from Nancy Breyers, the lawyer devoted to him. He joins his younger brother and another accomplice, and the three of them force their way into the home of Tim and Nora Cornell, a well-off couple in a Salt Lake City suburb, while Bosworth waits for Nancy to help the group cross into Mexico. What begins as a hiding place turns into a siege, and the family's attempts to resist push Bosworth toward open violence. The film is a remake of William Wyler's 1955 movie and draws on the novel by Joseph Hayes, previously staged on Broadway.

Michael Cimino directed, working from a screenplay by Joseph Hayes with Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner; Cimino also produced alongside Dino De Laurentiis. It was Cimino's sixth feature, arriving between The Sicilian and The Sunchaser. Mickey Rourke plays Bosworth opposite Anthony Hopkins as Tim Cornell, with Mimi Rogers as Nora, Kelly Lynch as Nancy, Lindsay Crouse and Elias Koteas among the credited cast of twenty-eight.

The production had a budget of about 18 million dollars and returned roughly 3 million worldwide, a poor result. On IMDb it holds 5.4 out of 10 from around 9,200 votes, and on TMDB 5.4 from 232 votes. A critics' rating of 4.5 from 14 reviews sits close to those audience scores, indicating a generally negative reception across the board.