Review of Next of Kin

It's Kain-tuck hillbillies versus the Chicago mob in a typical John Irvin bad classic, NEXT OF KIN. A wooden but beautiful Patrick Swayze stars as a Chi-town cop originally from Kain-tuck whose brother (a young Bill Paxton) is murdered by a psychotic mobster (FIREFLY's Adam Baldwin). Another brother, straight out of the Kain-tuck hills (a bearded Liam Neeson doing a perfectly dreadful hillbilly accent) shows up to avenge Paxton's death, and all hell breaks loose. It's the Hatfields versus McCoys, downtown style. A young, somewhat awkward Ben Stiller plays the son of the mob boss. The final showdown is a comedy classic, as an army of hillbillies who come to the rescue, armed with bows and arrows among other things, takes on the gun-slinging mob in a graveyard. NEXT OF KIN is no ROAD HOUSE, although Swayze races around a lot in an old Camaro. And he wears a funny hat. Plus he has a mullet, which he sometimes twists into a fetching ponytail. In fact, depending on the scene, his hair out-acts him. I sometimes wonder how John Irvin kept getting jobs, but I suspect the studios loved him for his "one-take and let's move on" attitude.