Maclean's February 22, 1988 Roughing it in the bush; SHOOT TO KILL; Directed by Roger Spottiswoode By L. O'T.

In the fast, hard-edged Shoot to Kill, Sidney Poitier returns to the screen after a 10-year absence with all his star power intact. His is a face that exudes authority: not a wasted expression crosses it. And his occasional smile in the movie is so unexpected that it breaks like a sunburst. The role of the conscientious, determined FBI agent Warren Stantin seems tailor-made for the statuesque Poitier (To Sir With Love, In the Heat of the Night). Stantin's assignment: to track down a cold-blooded killer (Clancy Brown) who has taken a Washington state trail guide, Sarah (Kirstie Alley), hostage while trekking through the wilderness toward the safety of the Canadian border. Stantin forces Jonathan Knox (Tom Berenger), another trail guide and Sarah's lover, to help him. The pairing is a great movie mis-match -- the no-nonsense outdoorsman and the tenderfoot from the city.

Although expertly directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Under Fire), Shoot to Kill is, basically, crowd-pleasing action fare. One climax follows closely on the heels of another: soon after Knox dangles from a rope over a gorge, he and Stantin have to trudge through a raging snowstorm -- only to shimmy up a rock face a few scenes later. But what gives the movie its kick and raises it above the formulaic script is the absurdity of a black, urban crime fighter's entry into the world of the stereotypical Marlboro Man. It is a joke that runs through the movie, and one in which Poitier seems to revel -- especially in such scenes as his face-to-face encounter with a moose when he opens his cabin door.

But despite the clowning, Poitier manages to inject his character with inner intensity. Stantin is a dogged professional, his conscience weighed down by his part in the death of another hostage early in Shoot to Kill. The other roles, however, give the rest of the cast little to work with. Berenger's terse and testy guide is a cipher, while Alley has a thankless part as the practically wordless Sarah. But hungry Poitier fans will hardly notice. The man is a marvel -- probably the only actor who could shoo away a grizzly by making faces at it and yet somehow manage not to seem like a fool.

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