Saw this on VHS, the copy I owned was so shitty it didn't even have a box. I loved the movie. Years later I met the director at a film festival in France. The stories he told me about it - specifically the incredible Tim McIntyre - would turn your hair grey. It's a film that's so below the radar it might as well not even exist, but if you have an appetite for heightened pulp - if you like Sam Fuller or Jim Thompson - you'll absolutely love it. Plus, it has Timothy Carey & Susan Tyrell. I mean, what are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?

An HBO favorite of mine back in the day, this gets better, and plays more boldly, with each passing year. James Woods in his prime, Tim McIntire monologuing outstandingly in his last great part, sultry Kay Lenz, vampy Susan Tyrrell, naked M. Emmet Walsh, and all the rest (including Robert Hooks, Timothy Carey, and Sydney Lassick) in a tense, funny, and earthy adaptation of a classic prison novel, terrific.

James Woods is extremely slimy in this one. Tim McIntire with some great monologues

My day is complete. Watched Fast-Walking for the first time. So many terrific performances that you can easily overlook its impeccable direction. Boldly theatrical with its monologues and beautiful characterizations, yet completely cinematic with exciting, elegant and often jarring compositions. Also, it's pretty tough to upstage James Woods, but I think that the late Tim McIntire and the amazing Kay Lenz pull it off here. So, so good. 8.4/10

"Whatever it is, the joint's got it."

Opens on an extreme closeup of James Woods smoking a spliff while driving and shooting the shit with his buddy about their plans to buy up some undervalued land on a ranch and start a commune together before they report for work as prison guards, and only gets more idiosyncratic from there. It's a plot heavy, ultra-pulpy neo-noir trojan horsed inside of a racially divided, family-tied prison film that feels like it came out a decade later than it should've, a combo that takes some adjusting to but ends up working out pretty well all things considered. Come for the first of two great actor-director pairings between Woods and James B. Harris (the other being 1988's Cop) that has another whopper of an ending; stay for the in top form supporting players Tim McIntire, M. Emmet Walsh, and Kay Lenz, who are each the focal point of least one show-stopping "Holy shit!" scene.

This film falls between two stools: not really a noir film, not really a comedy...James Woods, Kay Lenz (here at her most sexy) and especially Tim McIntire are all very good but the direction is very dull and makes the film looks like a "straight-to-video" or a "made-for-tv" picture...

The terrific cast can't save this unengaging prison dramedy. Woods is in fine form and there's some nice character bits from Susan Tyrrell, Kay Lenz, Sydney Lassick, and M. Emmet Walsh (whose bits you see quite literally – I guess I can strike that one off my bucket list). But the story wasn't set up very well and I honestly didn't care what happened to anybody in the movie. I probably won't be revisiting this one.

James Woods is extremely slimy in this one. Tim McIntire with some great monologues

An M. Emmet Walsh cockshot is something one can’t unsee. You’ve been warned if you decide to watch this.

Kay Lenz is a firecracker and almost continues her free spirited persona from Breezy here an takes it to the next level. Slightly surprised the MPAA didn’t force Harris to trim down the visiting room scene.

Woods isn’t full blown crazy here which was rad. Seems like a 70’s picture with its language and tones that haven’t aged well. 

-Rented at Cinefile Video

This was a lot more offbeat than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise. It stars James Woods, Susan Tyrell, Timothy Carey, and a full-frontal M. Emmet Walsh, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised. In James B. Harris's eclectic filmography it falls chronologically between Some Kind of Loving and Cop, and is something of a weird bridge between those quite different movies. It's probably time for me to check out Boiling Point...

James Woods, A prison guard gets himself into a bit of a predicament when he gets involved in two different plots. One is to help free a man, and the other to help kill that very man. Kind of an interesting plot I think, for what it is. A story about the prisoners, and the lives of the guards looking after them. On the inside and on outside of the prison, and how it all became intertwined. James Woods has a cool nickname, Fast-Walking. Timothy Carey is also in it which is always an added bonus. He also has a cool nickname, Bullet. I mean who doesn't love a good nickname. This one kept me entertained.

Grubby prison comedy with good cast, particularly the smokin' hot Lenz.

Not only features some of this era's most unique character actors (Timothy Carey! Susan Tyrrell! Sydney Lassick!), but also a major supporting turn from M. Emmet Walsh's penis, a sight I now have to scrub from memory like Ace Ventura in that scene where he finds out he had sex with a transwoman - a scene that's certainly aged like a fine wine.

Superior sleaze from one of Kubrick's right hand-men, James B. Harris (hence the Carey-casting).

Not sure how this one is primarily forgotten but people need to seek it out asap. Great little prison crime flick with a stellar cast.

Sleezy prison drama bookended by a theme that strikes a very odd tonal shift. It's pretty uneven with some unclear plotting but it holds up ok.

Loose, way too much loose, which doesn't mean it isn't worth a watch, but Harris would score better with Cop in terms of progression and attention-grabbing. Cop corners the viewer over and over again, while this ignores boundaries and doesn't seem to go anywhere in particular, hanging on moments but moving very little in between those. The moments work, though, and Lalo Schifrin's gives to some of them a further lifted-from-nowhere vibe. And let's be frank: would anything like this be remotely possible today?

Utter bonkers and almost pornographic.
I love it!