Walter Hill is the director behind one of the most suspenseful thrillers of all time – 1981's SOUTHERN COMFORT, in which a group of greenhorn troops are stalked and murdered by unseen Cajuns deep in the American backwoods. Since then, Hill has made a number of movies, some of them appealing, some of them blockbusters, some of them virtually forgotten about today – and TRESPASS is one of the latter. Watching it today, I couldn't help but notice how incredibly dated it is, in that cheap-looking, superficial early '90s way. Far too much of the film is taken up with macho posturing between the likes of Ice-T and Ice Cube as each strives to outdo the other in terms of laughable swearing and huge egos. With the black gangsters fighting, shooting up and bickering throughout the movie, the actual plot gets forgotten about at times.

Which isn't surprising, as it's a weak one at best. In essence, a couple of treasure hunters are trapped in a room with a stash of gold and a murderous gang outside. Where do we go from here? Well, it could be a set-up for some fine claustrophobic heroics recalling the likes of DIE HARD (an obvious inspiration),but instead the film plods along until an (admittedly) fiery climax. Hill's direction is limited, the script is poor and some interesting developments on an artistic level (like having one character taping events with his video camera, around seven years before THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT popularised the technique) get left by the wayside.

The most interesting thing about this little movie is the cast. Bill Paxton is okay as the journeyman hero, but William Sadler is the real delight, cast as a good guy for one of the rare times in his career (in fact, DEMON KNIGHT is the only other time I can recall). Even though he's ostensibly one of the heroes, Sadler still has a ball playing a borderline psychopath who'll stop at nothing – including kidnapping and murder – to get his hands on the grubby loot. Sadler's co-star from DIE HARD 2, Art Evans, also has a great role as a street bum caught up in the violence, while eagle-eyed viewers will note minor roles for Tommy 'Tiny' Lister (THE DARK KNIGHT) as a heavy and De'voreaux White (Bruce's driver in DIE HARD) as a thug.

Arkansas firefighters Vince (Bill Paxton) and Don (William Sadler) find a treasure map to stolen church gold hidden in an abandoned building in east St. Louis. They are surprised by the resident Bradlee (Art Evans) and take him prisoner. Then the local gang with King James (Ice-T) and Savon (Ice Cube) run across the situation. Vince and Don manages to capture King James' brother Lucky and an extended stand off ensues.

These are some stereotypical characters. Walter Hill is making a B-movie but it is kinda fun. Bill Paxton is a bit too whiny. The performances are generally really broad. Ice-T and Ice Cube are doing their best gangster strut. It's got some action but not a terribly deep movie.

I remembered watching this way back on video when it came out. And I remember it fondly. Back then I had no grasp/idea who Walter Hill was, I was young and had not really looked into directors but rather watched movies and just made up my mind if I liked them or not. In hindsight it makes sense that a director like that would made a really good movie out of an idea like that - and as some of the people involved say movies like Free Fire take that blueprint and were inspired by it.

There are a lot of stories worth telling, some of them can be found in the extras - a small kerkuffle between Sadler and Paxton, Samuell L. Jackson being a shoe in for one of the roles and so much more - like the title change (originally this was going to be called Looters) and the pushback on the release date due to the riots/looting after Rodney King riots ... well played by those involved, this never makes race an issue as some might expect. It is just one group of people against another group. Both with good and bad intentions and with their true self being revealed as the movie progresses ... can they be saved?