Iowan teen Daryl Cage (Anthony Michael Hall) gets sent away from the failing family farm to live with his older brother in Los Angeles. B-movie actress Dizz (Jenny Wright) flirts with him on the plane. His brother grabs the wrong bag which turns out to be full of drugs. Drug dealer Roy Gaddis (Jeff Kober) wants it back.

Anthony Michael Hall's acting is a little inferior at first. There are situations that go too far and not far enough. One expects Roy to have ripped that house apart looking for his drugs. There is no point in staging a murder suicide. He wants the drugs. The motorcycle guy is strangely skilled and helpful despite Daryl shoving a gun in his side. The way that the movie is talking about the street is kind of funny. It's a whole network, you know. The street scenes are some of the better ones in the sense that it's a cinematic representation of a time and place. I actually like the AMH makeover which makes sense but they hit you over the head with the nosy cop. There are just a lot of little things which strike me as silly like the tape outlines which has even the fingers for the hands. How about the fish hook ear ring? That can't be a real thing. The plot is like Frantic. The style is like Something Wild but in the end, it's inferior and stuck in the B-movie territories.

Anthony Michael Hall leaves the farm to visit his brother in Los Angeles; his parents are going through a bust-up. When he gets off the plane, he picks up the wrong bag, one full of drugs. When he wakes in the morning, he finds his brother and sister-in-law dead and im on the run. His only help is Jenny Wright, a woman he met on the plane, and who came on to him.

There are some nice bits of writing here, simple solutions to obvious problems. Why doesn't he call his parents? Because his father is traveling and his mother is visiting in Kansas..... and he wrote down the wrong phone number! But while Hall, who was trying to break out his his 'nerdy teen' phase, is very good in the early scenes as an unsure farmboy, after one day in the city he moves through a punk club with an air of assurance. In addition, there's little to interrupt the increasing level of apprehension throughout. A few breaks, a la Hitchcock, would have been nice.

Miss Wright has a far more nuanced and interesting performance to give that would seem to foretell a longer career. Alas, a dozen years later, she made her last film. It's mildly surprising. She's what makes this movie watchable.

Anthony Michael Hall is way Out of Bounds on a trip to Los Angeles. Fresh off the farm from Iowa, he picks up Jeff Kober's travel bag by mistake. Kober gets Hall's change of wardrobe and Hall gets over a million dollars in heroin.

I don't think Jeff Kober has ever played a good guy in any of the films or television shows I've ever seen him in. He's succeeded Lyle Bettger in playing a lovely variety psychotics and in this case he's one psychotic drug dealer looking for his stash.

Kober murders Hall's brother and his wife who Hall was staying with when he learns where he's staying and to top it all off, LAPD detective Glynn Turman is thinking Hall did the deed. Some trigger happy cops nearly kill Hall and he's off and running looking for the only other person he knows in Los Angeles, a waitress played by Jenny Wright who he met on the plane out from Iowa.

Farm boy Hall is in one hostile environment as he tries desperately to survive and clear himself.

Anthony Michael Hall was still in his brat pack period when he did Out of Bounds. He portrays the resourceful, but vulnerable Iowa kid very well.

But the acting honors of this film go to Jeff Kober. A really unsung and underrated performer, Kober always delivers the goods when he's a bad guy. In fact one day I'd like to see try doing comedy for a change.

Till then Kober will keep you on the edge of your seat when you watch him in Out of Bounds.