Film News: Chicago’s Music Box Theatre Pays Off Roger Ebert Bet, Will Screen ‘Red Rock West’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on April 25, 2012 - 3:43pm

CHICAGO – In Feb. 2012, the Music Box Theatre (on Chicago’s north side) offered a challenge to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert. If he could beat them in predicting the 86th Annual Oscars – as part of his “Outguess Ebert” contest – then the theatre would screen any film chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning legend. Roger Ebert presents “Red Rock West” at the Music Box Theatre on May 1, 2012.

“Red Rock West” is a noir thriller from 1994 starring Nicolas Cage, J.T. Walsh, Laura Flynn Boyle and Dennis Hopper, and directed by John Dahl. Cage portrays Michael Williams, a drifter who is mistaken for a hit man hired to kill the wife (Boyle) of a local bar owner (Walsh). Williams takes the upfront money, and attempts to warn the potential victim of the set-up. Things get a bit complicated when the real hit man, “Lyle from Dallas” (Hopper) finally gets to town. Roger Ebert said in his review, it’s “a diabolical movie that exists sneakily between a western and a thriller, between a film noir and a black comedy.”